ADVOCATING FOR AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN LIVING WITH VISION IMPAIRMENT
Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register

With
Dr Susan Silveira
Chief Investigator
Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register, NextSense &
Program Director
Master of Disability Studies (Macquarie University), NextSense

AUSTRALIAN HEALTH JOURNAL SEGMENT
Filmed in Sydney | June 2025

The Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register (ACVIR), the first of its kind in Australia, captures uniquely Australian data which is used to improve services for children with vision impairment. The data is also available to researchers who work in the area of eye disease and disorders of vision.

Currently in Australia, we don’t know how many Australian children have vision impairment.

This makes it hard to plan for the services these children need, or to argue for research into preventing conditions which cause vision impairment.

NextSense Institute, in partnership with key Australian service providers, corporate donors, government departments and health professionals, has undertaken a major research project to develop and maintain an Australia-wide record of children with vision impairment.

This project is called the Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register.

Australian Health Journal spoke with Dr Susan Silveira, Chief Investigator of the Register.

The Register collects accurate information on children who have been diagnosed by an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) with vision impairment.. This information is used to establish the number of children with vision impairment, the causes and level of vision impairment and any additional disabilities and health conditions these children have.

The Parent or guardian of a child, aged 0-18 years, who has been diagnosed by an ophthalmologist with vision impairment, are invited to join the Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register.

The Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register (ACVIR) is sponsored by NextSense with support from Guide Dogs, Vision Australia, low vision service providers and families of children with vision loss.

Source: Written by AUDIENCED sourced from NextSense website