Social Adaptation in Older Visually Impaired Adults: Some Comments

In this paper, we review the impact of visual impairment on social adaptation of older visually impaired adults. The review begins with statistics documenting increased visual problems among the elderly, concomitant with enhanced longevity. The next section provides a summary of assessment and treatment of the social adaptation of younger and middle-aged adults suffering from visual loss. The following section is a survey of extant literature on assessment and treatment of social functioning of older visually impaired individuals. The last section of the paper delineates further research needs, detailing a controlled outcome study that would place the field on a firmer empirical base than is available at present.