Eligibility Requirements
SVRC determines student eligibility for our services and for the Department of Education’s Visiting Teacher Service.
In government schools, reports from SVRC are used to determine eligibility for the Department’s Accessible Buildings Program and to support applications for Disability Inclusion funding.
Non-government schools may use reports from SVRC to determine access to a variety of specialised supports. Teachers often refer to functional vision reports, as they provide personalised evidence-based advice regarding teaching and learning strategies to support their student/s.
How Student Eligibility is Determined
The determination of a student’s eligibility is based on a recent clinical assessment by an ophthalmologist which is followed by a functional vision assessment conducted at the student’s school.
As a general guide, students will be eligible for additional support due to vision impairment if their vision is sufficiently low to be regarded as:
partially sighted – distance vision with glasses, if needed, worse than 6/18 and/or a visual field no greater than 20 degrees in radius around a central fixation or
legally blind – distance vision with glasses, if needed, worse than 6/60 and/or a visual field no greater than 10 degrees in radius around a central fixation.
These measures are related to vision tested with both eyes open.
Levels of vision impairment
The World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is the international standard health care classification system. The ICD 11th Edition (2019) outlines six categories of vision impairment based on level of visual acuity after correction.
As well as the visual acuities listed below, the ICD states that individuals with a visual field of the better eye no greater than 10 degrees in radius around central fixation should be counted in categories 4-6.
1 - Mild vision impairment - - - - - - - -
2 - Moderate vision impairment - - -
3 - Severe vision impairment - - - - - -
4 - Blindness - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5 - Blindness - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 - Blindness - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Less than 6/12
Less than 6/18
Less than 6/60
Less than 3/60
Less than 1/60
No light perception
Blindness
In Australia the criteria for legal blindness is defined in Section 95 of the Commonwealth Social Security Act 1991, as a visual acuity after correction with suitable lenses of less than 6/60, or a visual field loss to within 10 degrees of fixation.
It is generally accepted that given the visual demands of education, the definition of legal blindness as visual acuity less than 6/60 is more appropriate than the more stringent ICD definition of 3/60. We use this well-established and widely used benchmark.
Low Vision
For partially sighted students, there is no consistent state or national benchmark, such as that which is defined by the Commonwealth Social Security Act for legal blindness. There is also no commonly agreed definition of vision impairment, partial sightedness or low vision. Different organisations vary in their measures.
The Victorian Department of Education benchmark for eligibility for both visual acuity and visual field reduction are broadly in line with the majority of other Australian state and territory education authorities. This is a distance vision with glasses, if needed, worse than 6/18 and/or a visual field no greater than 20 degrees in radius around a central fixation.