Special assessment

Our Special Assessment Clinic provides eye care for patients who cannot communicate in the usual way.

This includes infants and young children, children with special needs and adults with intellectual disability. We work closely with the educational services to provide guidance on visual abilities and needs for children with any form of visual impairment, and also with the Low Vision Clinic to advise on or supply magnification aids when appropriate.

We are highly experienced in providing eye care for children and adults with all levels of ability. You do not need to be able to read or to communicate well to have a full eye examination.

We also operate as a teaching clinic for student optometrists.

We carry out research to develop further ways of assessing vision in special needs patients, and to study the aetiology and effects of vision defects in people with disabilities.

Our emphasis is always on communication, by written and verbal reports, so that parents, careers and educators are made fully aware of the patient's visual abilities and difficulties, and the ways in which their particular problems can be addressed.