When children and adults apply for disability benefits and claim that a visual impairment has limited their ability to function, the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) is required to determine their eligibility. To ensure that these determinations are made fairly and consistently, SSA has developed criteria for eligibility and a process for assessing each claimant against the criteria. Visual Impairments: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits examines SSA's methods of determining disability for people with visual impairments, recommends changes that could be made now to improve the process and the outcomes, and identifies research needed to develop improved methods for the future. The report assesses tests of visual function, including visual acuity and visual fields whether visual impairments could be measured directly through visual task performance or other means of assessing disability. These other means include job analysis databases, which include information on the importance of vision to job tasks or skills, and measures of health-related quality of life, which take a person-centered approach to assessing visual function testing of infants and children, which differs in important ways from standard adult tests.

The ability to see deeply affects how human beings perceive and interpret the world around them. For most people, eyesight is part of everyday communication, social activities, educational and professional pursuits, the care of others, and the maintenance of personal health, independence, and mobility. Functioning eyes and vision system can reduce an adult's risk of chronic health conditions, death, falls and injuries, social isolation, depression, and other psychological problems. In children, properly maintained eye and vision health contributes to a child's social development, academic achievement, and better health across the lifespan. The public generally recognizes its reliance on sight and fears its loss, but emphasis on eye and vision health, in general, has not been integrated into daily life to the same extent as other health promotion activities, such as teeth brushing; hand washing; physical and mental exercise; and various injury prevention behaviors. A larger population health approach is needed to engage a wide range of stakeholders in coordinated efforts that can sustain the scope of behavior change. The shaping of socioeconomic environments can eventually lead to new social norms that promote eye and vision health. Making Eye Health a Population Health Imperative: Vision for Tomorrow proposes a new population-centered framework to guide action and coordination among various, and sometimes competing, stakeholders in pursuit of improved eye and vision health and health equity in the United States. Building on the momentum of previous public health efforts, this report also introduces a model for action that highlights different levels of prevention activities across a range of stakeholders and provides specific examples of how population health strategies can be translated into cohesive areas for action at federal, state, and local levels.

The 5th International Visual Field Symposium of the International Peri metric Society was held on October 20-23, 1982, in Sacramento, California, before the joint meeting of the International Congress of Ophthalmology and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. A majority of the members of the International Perimetric Society took part in the meeting together with many guests. The topics of the symposium were: glaucoma: correlation between the visual field and the optic disc; the visual field in low-tension glaucoma; neuro-ophthalmology and ergo-perimetry. Apart from this there were many papers on automated perimetry and general topics. The papers concerning the correlation of optic disc and visual field dealt with several aspects: peripapillary atrophy, defects in the retinal nerve fiber layer, fluorescein angiography and the characteristics of the glaucomatous excavation itself. New and interesting findings were presented showing that the careful, detailed observation of the disc and peripapillary area is re warding. The visual fields in low-tension glaucoma were studied extensively by four groups. Various approaches to the problem have led to some differences in results, which were extensively discussed. In the general glaucoma session the visual fatigue phenomenon was dis cussed extensively; apparently conflicting results were demonstrated re garding the stability of contrast threshold measurements during one and the same test session in glaucoma. The relationship between the visual field and the performance at the working place was considered in the session on ergo-perimetry.

Visual Fields: Examination and Interpretation, 3rd edition contains revisions and updates of earlier material as well as a discussion of newer techniques for assessing visual field disorders. The book begins with a short history of the field of perimetry and goes on to present basic clinical aspects of examination and diagnosis of visual field defects in the optic nerve, optic disc, chorioretina, optic chiasm, optic tract, lateral geniculate field bodies, and the calcarine complex. Additional aspects of visual field examination are explored including those of monocular, binocular, and junctional field defects, congruity vs. incongruity, macular sparing vs. macular splitting, density, wedge-shaped homonymous field loss, and monocular temporal crescent. Various new techniques of automated perimetry are also considered including SITA, FASTPAC, and SWAP. This volume provides a very useful overview of the techniques of visual field examination in a number of eye disorders and will be of interest to all ophthalmologists, neuro-opthalmologists, retina specialists, and optometrists.

Recent vision research has led to the emergence of new techniques that offer exciting potential for a more complete assessment of vision in clinical, industrial, and military settings. Emergent Techniques for Assessment of Visual Performance examines four areas of vision testing that offer potential for improved assessment of visual capability including: contrast sensitivity function, dark-focus of accommodation, dynamic visual acuity and dynamic depth tracking, and ambient and focal vision. In contrast to studies of accepted practices, this report focuses on emerging techniques that could help determine whether people have the vision necessary to do their jobs. In addition to examining some of these emerging techniques, the report identifies their usefulness in predicting performance on other visual and visual-motor tasks, and makes recommendations for future research. Emergent Techniques for Assessment of Visual Performance provides summary recommendations for research that will have significant value and policy implications for the next 5 to 10 years. The content and conclusions of this report can serve as a useful resource for those responsible for screening industrial and military visual function.

Held at Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy, May 27-31,1984

This outstanding text gives students a solid grounding in clinical and experimental neuropsychology. The author is a leading authority whose engaging writing style and thorough yet concise coverage of brain localization, anatomy, and their links to cognitive function make the book ideal for undergraduate or graduate use. It is illustrated with more than 60 figures, including six color plates.

The 4th International Visual Field Symposium of the International Perimetric Society, was held on the 13-16 April 1980 in Bristol, England,at the occasion of the 6th Congress of the European Society of Ophthalmology. The main themes of the symposium were comparison of classical perimetry with visual evoked response, comparison of classical perimetry with special psychophysi cal methods, and optic nerve pathology. Understandably many papers dealt with computer assisted perimetry. This rapidly developing subgroup of peri metry may radically change the future of our method of examination. New instruments were introduced, new and exciting software was proposed and the results of comparative investigations reported. There have been many confusing statements in the literature on the relative value of perimetry and the registration of visual evoked responses. Several reports attempted to bring some clarity in this issue. There is reason for further comparative research. A number of papers dealt with special psychophysical methods, i.e. methods not using the simply monocular differential threshold. The old critical fusion frequency received new attention. Fundusperimetry was used for testing spatial summation. Acuity perimetry, binocular perimetry etc. showed that there exist many possibilities for examining visual function. At present it is not clear to us what exactly the place of these methods is in our diagnostic armament. However it is quite clear that some of them are promising and may lead to a further differentiation of perimetric methods.