Effect of amblyopia on employment prospects
- Strabismus and Paediatric Service
- Moorfields Eye Hospital, London
- Department of Optometry
- Moorfields Eye Hospital, London
- Strabismus and Paediatric Service
- Moorfields Eye Hospital, London
- Department of Optometry
- Moorfields Eye Hospital, London
- G G W Adams.
Editor,—There has been much debate recently on the effectiveness of preschool vision screening.1 One conclusion of the recent NHS review report on this subject was that there was inadequate understanding of the disability attributable to the three target conditions: amblyopia, refractive errors, and squints. This has aroused much controversy in the field of paediatric ophthalmology.
We felt it would be useful to collate the visual standards required to enter certain occupations. These data were obtained from the 1997Book of Vision,2 the 1997Optometrists’ Handbook,3and the Office of the Rail Regulator.4
We found a job applicant with defective vision in just one eye would be excluded from a large range of occupations.
COMMENT
Patients with amblyopia are debarred from a wide range of jobs, which increases with the severity of the amblyopia. Amblyopia is therefore a handicap when seeking employment. Therefore, every effort must be made to achieve the best possible acuity in young patients with amblyopia so as to allow them the widest choice of occupation in adult life, unfettered by visual disability.
