Reducing Glare

So what can be done to reduce glare from so many sources????
The 2 most important pieces of anti-glare kit for my kids are HAT & TINTED LENSES

This was probably THE most effective change we made, it revolutionised our son's life. Within days of returning from an Albinism Fellowship conference we had his glasses tinted and insisted he wore his baseball cap more, oh and we now know to check the colour of the underside of the peak to minimise reflected glare, the white legionnaires hat was thrown away! His visual acuity improved immediately.

GLASSES- Why tint?
Not everyone with albinism has tinted glasses, it is personal choice. Once we discovered our son found it more comfortable to read with a coloured overlay to reduce the glare from white paper I decided to have his glasses tinted.

What colour tint?
Initially he chose a blue tint, mainly because he is a boy! At the time he wore 2 pairs of glasses, reading & distance so we had the reading glasses tinted much darker than his distance glasses. The difference was amazing, his comfort improved which meant longer concentration when reading and writing, these skills also accelerated as he could look at the page for longer without looking away. He wore blue tints successfully for about 10 years.

My daughter automatically went into blue tints when she started wearing glasses until a couple of years ago. The dispensing optometrist wondered why she had blue tints- the answer, because her brother finds them helpful. Apparently grey/ brown is far better for vision, something to do with blue tints interfering with blue light so we trialed grey- my daughter loves them, she finds them so much more comfortable and they allow her better vision.

Sunglasses
Both of mine wear prescription sunglasses. When my daughter was very little I would use plastic sunglasses when she was in her pram as she regularly tossed them away LOL You can get high SPF plastic sunglasses easily and they are much cheaper to replace. I always put her prescription sunnies on to walk around. I wish baby banz were aailable back then, these glasses are fab www.babybanz.com









Boots do their own for under £10.Of course I have debated photochromatic lenses for a long time and have been advised against them by the professionals because they take too long to fade back indoors and could be dangerous / they cannot have a base tint / they do not work in the car. Yes you guessed it, we still trialed them anyway! We (my daughter and I) have mixed feelings about them: the lack of base tint can be a problem especially at school; they are pretty useless in the car; they do not always darken under her hat but they do darken immediately when she runs outside without changing into sunnies, change of glasses is often overlooked by her teachers in the winter and the UK winter sun is low and blinding. Whilst in the US we purchased kid's polarised clip-ons, in very bright conditions with lots of reflected glare bouncing up from the ground the clip-ons are great on sunglasses. We looked at cocoons fitovers but even the kids sizes seemed too big, they are worth a look at though to see what you think.



Tinted contact lenses
My son started wearing tinted contact lenses when he was 14 or so. For him this was a practical decision not cosmetic. As the contact lens sits on the eye it reduces glare more than glasses. He was bothered by glare 'sneaking' in around the sides and top of his glasses and didn't want to wear glasses with side shields. It was decided to try out with navy soft lenses which have proved very successful. I have suggested trying another colour but he wants to stick navy and as he is now a young adult it is no longer my decision to make. He has always been resistant to change when it comes to his visual needs, it takes ages to convince him to try a new strategy but once it works, that's it for good. I know that others have hand painted contacts in colours that have been proven more beneficial to vision,you never know he may change his mind. The little one has not taken to contacts so well, I was hoping to help her photaphobia by using them. As her prescription is very strong she will probably still need glasses over the contacts. She was very enthusiastic until the moment a finger went towards her eye, she is practising touching the white of the eye and we will work on it as she gets older, I am certainly not going to push her before she is ready. One thing I have learnt is that my children are very territorial about their eyes.

Hat

Luckily I have always been paranoid about sun care, so all my children wore hats outdoors during the summer which meant I was helping my son a little pre-diagnosis. Before you think I am superwoman I did make mistakes, using a brilliant white cap being one of them, it must have been so uncomfortable for him. A decent hat is very important for vision because it reduces the amount of light entering the eye. Baseball caps are brilliant as they can be pulled down so that the peak is close to the eyes, look for one with a wide peak with a dark underside. They do not provide skin protection in the summer, you will need to protect delicate ears and necks with a wide brimmed or legionnaire's style hat for warm weather. We found this fantastic hat on our last trip to the states, it was about $15-20 in the Sportsman Warehouse. The hat is made by http://www.sundayafternoons.com/

Whilst tints and hat are essential in reducing glare they do not eliminate it and strategies are needed to help reduce the problems. The arrival of our daughter who has severe photophobia resulted in a far more aggressive approach to glare reduction.

Out and About

First problem faced- the car, I dreaded going out in the car, she screamed so much it would end up in a choking or vomiting episode. Of course we already had the stick on sunshades but they didn't really help much. I bought a car seat sunshade similar to this one which can be found at http://www.protect-a-bubusa.com/carseatsunshade.shtml , I was able to leave it in situ on the first stage car seat when carrying it from A to B, it gave great shade.

This helped a bit so the next thing was to tint the car windows, we went for limo black and the effect was instant, since then we have always tinted our car windows. Even my son who said that he was always OK in the car with the factory light tint says it is much more comfortable with privacy glass tinting. Last time round I had my car tinted pre delivery but the tint is not dark enough and it was much more expensive that way- grrrr. I will have the next car tinted locally next time as we have more control over the depth of black. I am so frustrated that the UK law changed and now prohibits tints to front door windows, the car is much darker when the front door windows are also tinted, there are no exceptions on medical grounds- I phoned the DVLA.

Luckily my pushchair had a huge hood that offered fantastic protection and I used a clip on navy parasol to block reflected glare entering the hood from a lower level. When I bought a lightweight stroller the hood was, well a little pathetic so I made a navy sunshade, with bridal dress hooping for rigidity, using the rainhood as a template. I was very proud of my invention and my little lady loved it and guess what it is really similiar to this one at http://protect-a-bubusa.com/compactstrollersunshade.shtml and another at http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4631112 Just to rub it in, this is like the stroller I made the sun shade for!! You guys with babies are so lucky, manufacturers have really started thinking about sun protection.

Indoors
I have wooden venetian blinds to reduce the glare coming in as the sun floods into our lounge which has always been problematic, especially in the winter. Now with the blinds, the kids can sit in the bay window!! Another bonus is that the room is shaded but not dark, rather than closing the curtains and losing light the blinds can be slanted upwards. Previously I had light filtering blinds from Littlewoods which are a cheaper, good but not so effective option.

The school windows have anti glare film and blinds on the windows.

I have had somebody say to me 'no white walls in your house then'
Actually I have white walls in north facing rooms where there is no glare from the window and it doesn't bother the kids at all.

We have some bright lighting in the kitchen- downlights but they were planned on 2 switches so that some can be turned off. We also have under cabinet lighting which is much softer without losing task lighting.

Dimmer switches mean that lighting suits all of our needs.

The garden posed a bit more challenging. A white wall in the garden had to be painted out when we learnt about glare and to be honest we all found it more comfortable. Providing shade can be difficult. We have got through a few gazebos and parasols as they are in constant use. Ikea sell good shades in the summertime similar to this one in walmart.

I have used sheets draped from fence posts and branches before, it is effective shade from glare, but it is just that shade- I doubt if there was much sun protection. The advantage is that when sheets get wet they do not collect water and collapse in a heap, my neighbours probably thought I was mad but my kiddies were happy underneath.

Paper

This has easily been our biggest challenge in the fight against glare. Nearly everything is printed on white paper. I spent years printing black lines onto plain yellow paper, then sticking it into schoolbooks so that my son had the same books as his friends. Thankfully, although late in the day I found out about the partially sighted society. Exercise books for school can be ordered from them, they have a choice of paper colour and the lines are thicker and darker than standard exercise books.

The Partially Sighted Society, Queen's Road, Doncaster, South Yorkshire,DN1 2NXTel: 01302 323132 / 01302 368998

Any colour is more comfortable than white and yellow offers good contrast but any colour would do. Cheap colouring books tend to be printed on off white paper, avoid brilliant white, especially glossy paper. The same with reading books, second hand books have often discoloured and become more comfortable to look at. Staples sell yellow lined and squared paper in the UK, these pads are readily available in the USA. if you have that access.

Reading books are a major stumbling block because of paper colourand font size (more about that later). A coloured overlay helps reduce glare from the paper and enhances contrast of th written word against the background. You can buy purpose made overlays but I often cut up non reflective coloured plastic folders to various sizes, cheap and effective as they soon become tatty. Talking about non-reflective, if laminating use matt laminating pouches.

The computer background is not as much an issue as paper as it can be changed in an instant and eventually I will post about adapting computers easily for kids but remember that Iam not a computer whizz!

Please bear with me - I'm still working on this post!