LOW VISION

Change Agent

A new low vision research institute aims to break new ground

“We believe people with vision loss deserve an advocate and a champion who sees ability where others see disability.”

This, in a sentence, is what Envision is all about.

Based in Wichita, KS, Envision is an 80-year-old, not-for-profit outfit that offers everything from adaptive aids and rehabilitative services to a vision-integrated preschool for visually impaired children. It is also the largest employer in the country of blind and visually impaired people.

The group’s newest addition is the forward-thinking Envision Research Institute (ERI). To find out more about this groundbreaking endeavor, EB caught up with ERI executive director Laura Walker, Ph.D., who joined Envision in 2014.

“Envision has been providing employment [to visually impaired people] since the 1930s and has developed a number of different services, like Vision University, a childhood center, etc.,” explains Dr. Walker. “We conducted a capital campaign last year and raised a little over $3 million to create a new research institute, which now takes up the third floor of our headquarters.”

Answering Questions

What is ERI’s role in low vision? “There’s been a void in answering questions like: ‘Where is the evidence that we should be doing it this way or that way? What is the right treatment? Where is the forward progress?’ We’ve had 101 questions,” says Dr. Walker, “but there was no obvious research addressing them.”

Dr. Walker understands this because she was on the other side as a researcher. “I was looking at eye movements in individuals with macular degeneration and had questions like whether this could be applied in a rehab model, but I wasn’t connected to a clinic,” she says.

That’s where ERI comes into play. “There’s a big gap between what researchers are doing and understanding what the big problems are that need to be solved,” says Dr. Walker. “ERI is in the middle. It connects scientists to give them access to the front-line questions and tries to help drive the direction they take in research.”

Key Fellowships

“In our fellowship program,” explains Dr. Walker, “we’re taking Ph.D.s and putting them in this environment so they get access to the questions.” These fellows also work with external scientists—including innovators at Wichita State University—so they still get training in a particular discipline.

“We have students doing projects with us,” adds Dr. Walker, “and planting the seed of what computer science has to do with visual impairment, and how psychology and other human factors can really be applied. We’re starting to create that access, that link to bridge the gap.”

In the end, Dr. Walker believes that there is so much ERI can do—and accomplish. “ERI is very much an applied-research institute,” she notes. “We want to look at the real problems and allow people to see them from all aspects. We want to be an organization that begins to change the conversation about low vision and what can be done.”

—Grace Hewlett