Title: The estimated prevalence of visual impairment among people with learning disabilities in the UK.
Authors: Eric Emerson and Janet Robertson; Publisher: RNIB and SeeAbility Learning Disabilities Observatory; Year of publication: 2011
Although there is considerable research evidence that visual impairments are more common among people with learning disabilities, there is no robust epidemiological data on the prevalence of visual impairments in people with learning disabilities in the UK. Consequently there has been no overall estimate of the number of people with learning disabilities in the UK with seeing difficulties. Researchers from the Centre for Disability Research (CeDR) at Lancaster University used prevalence rates from a major study of adults with learning disabilities in the Netherlands, and a study of children carried out in Denmark, to answer the following questions:
The findings suggest that:
RNIB and SeeAbility have produced four key public health messages from the research to raise awareness about sight difficulties in the population of people with learning disabilities. RNIB is currently involved in further projects relating to sight difficulties in children with learning disabilities and it is hoped that the findings will be available by the end of 2011.