Low Vision Service

The Low Vision Service at the George and Judy Woo Centre for Sight Enhancement can help you if your vision cannot be fully corrected through glasses, contact lenses or surgery and you are struggling with tasks such as reading, writing and using the computer. Using vision assessments, vision aids, counselling and a customized approach, we can help you maximize your remaining vision, improve your quality of life and live as independently as possible.

Depending on your needs and goals, we can:

• Assess your vision and explain your condition in understandable terms.
• Help you decide what forms of treatment are right for you.
• Train you to use devices that can help you make the most of your vision.
• Provide counselling for you and your family to help you adapt to vision loss.
• Help you connect with government programs and other resources.
• Provide vision testing for the Ministry of Transport Vision Waiver Program.
• Prescribe, fit and train you to use bioptic telescopes for driving if appropriate.
• Work with your doctors and other health-care providers, including at our other services such as Ocular Disease, to ensure you receive seamless care.

The Low Vision Service provides comprehensive low vision rehabilitation services to approximately 600 patients each year. Our patients:

• Are aged three and over – no one is too old.
• Are from Ontario, other provinces and even outside Canada.
• May have multiple disabilities (motor, sensory, cognitive).
• May have congenital or acquired eye conditions, including age-related macular degeneration, albinism, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, sight loss due to acquired or traumatic brain injuries, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts and Stargardt's disease.

You don’t need a referral to visit the Low Vision Service. Just call 519-888-4708 to speak to us. We will ask you some questions to learn more about you and your vision goals. You may need more than one appointment, so the information you provide will ensure the appointments fit your needs. 

We also need a report from your regular eye doctor (optometrist or ophthalmologist) outlining your condition and eye health.

If you'd prefer to answer the questions in writing rather than on the phone, we can mail you a paper form or email you an electronic form.

Once you have completed the forms, please return them to us:

• by email to LVclinic@uwaterloo.ca
• by fax to 519-888-4708, or
• by mail to Low Vision Service, Waterloo Eye Institute, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W., Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1. (Yes, this is still our mailing address, though our services are at a different nearby location while the Waterloo Eye Institute is under construction.)

In addition to self-referrals, clients are referred to us from optometrists, ophthalmologists, school boards, augmentative communication clinics, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), etc.

After completing the intake process, you will go through one or more assessments.

• Living with low vision - but without fear: Ida Fisher was one of the earliest clients of the University of Waterloo’s Low Vision Service, which was launched in 1974.
• Driving toward the future: Waterloo Eye Institute Low Vision Service helps Syrian refugee get special glasses that will allow him to drive.