Amblyopia realities and hope – through the eyes of a graphic designer

When experienced graphics designer, Rebecca Sherry accepted the task from VisionHelp to create an infographic that would describe the visual problem known as Amblyopia (Lazy eye), little did she know that this would be such a difficult assignment.

The difficulty for her was not only the important task of representing the visual problem in an artistic and informative manner. Instead it was the difficulty of what she learned that surprised and saddened her, particularly about so many children who must endure the side-effects of conventional occlusion Amblyopia treatment approaches even when there are advanced treatments available. The fact that so many children are diagnosed with this condition; nearly 1 in 30 and the majority are handed an eye patch to wear on their normally seeing eye, often for several hours a day with little or no regard to their emotional consequences, social stigma and often bullying when forced to wear an eye patch in public. Or the fact that many parents of children are wrongly advised that nothing can be done to treat amblyopia after a certain age even when there is research to the contrary that proves amblyopia is treatable even into adult years. What’s more, how do you describe the essence of what those “patched” amblyopic patients have missed in the quality of their visual experience by seeing the world only as a “flat land”; that is not experiencing true depth perception? What does all of this mean to a child with amblyopia and how can you put it in a picture?

In response to her VisionHelp challenge here is the Amblyopia Infographic created by Rebecca Sherry.

VisionHelp would like to request your support in our mission to bring about better public awareness of helping those suffering with Amblyopia. Our request is simple and will only take a moment of your time. Simply share this post! That’s it! Yes, you may copy and use the infographic. Share it with family, friends, parents, doctors and all who work with children. While Amblyopia is truly preventable in most individuals with infant eye examinations (click here for more information), for those who suffer from this condition, occlusion therapy alone without office-based optometric binocular vision therapy is truly antiquated care for a serious vision problem.

For all the facts on Amblyopia, best practices in advanced treatment including the latest research click here.

Dan L. Fortenbacher, O.D.,FCOVD