SeeAbility employs Eye Care Champions to raise awareness of the high level of sight loss – both avoidable and unavoidable – experienced by people with learning disabilities and to change that. All our Eye Care Champions receive training to be eye care advocates, making more people ‘Eye Care Aware’ and they all have lived experience of learning disability or autism.

People with learning disabilities are 10 times more likely to have a serious problem with their eyes and yet we know they often don’t get access to the eye care they need. People with learning disabilities are often experiencing avoidable sight loss because they haven’t had an eye test and so have missed out on the glasses or the eye treatment that they need.

Our Eye Care Champions are working to change that by raising awareness with professionals across eye care, healthcare and social care, as well as with people with learning disabilities and autism and the people that support them. They are calling for specialist Easy Eye Care pathways to be set up across the country so that people with learning disabilities and autism can access a specialist eye test and support with their eye care. Our Eye Care Champions help to develop and promote our easy read eye care resources.

We currently employ eye care champions in local communities in London and the North West of England. We have big plans to roll out the programme to other areas in the UK.

Get in touch

If you’d like to speak to our Eye Care Champions about how they can support you or your team, please email Steve Kill at s.kill@seeability.org.