Anyone around 40 years old and in a restaurant with dim lighting trying to read a small, printed menu knows what I mean. When a friend lends you their “cheater glasses” that are magnifiers, you can suddenly read the whole menu and be aware of these changes.

Most older people experience regular changes in their eyes associated with aging. They may need increased light calls. For example, a more senior person requires four times lighter than a younger person in the same setting.

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hough we might need brighter light, sensitivity to glare can also limit your ability to see clearly. Familiar sources of glare include highly polished floors and shielded lightbulbs’ reflection of light on all shiny surfaces.

Accuracy of vision reduces modestly after age 60. He can make it hard to see curbs or steps and challenging to differentiate between a puddle or a hole on a sidewalk. This can lead to increased fall risk.

Aging eyes can have difficulty adapting to light and dark such as walking into the bathroom at night and turning on the light. Contrast sensitivity is reduced, making your ability to see textures and patterns.

Reduced depth perception can make it difficult to determine how close or far away an object is to you. Depth Perception results from poor vision or loss of vision in one eye. This can make the detection of the height of a curb difficult. It can also make ramps and slope angles challenging to discern, leading to loss of footing and possible falls. Not all ramps have slow graded grades, as ADA recommends, and these steeper slopes can create higher risk. 

Macular degeneration can cause spots in the central vision that give empty holes in ones viewing of what they are walking on; this can make it difficult to walk across the parking lots or cross streets safely.

Ways to reduce the risk of falls due to vision changes. 

Get an annual eye exam to correct refraction problems with glasses, or get new glasses. Discuss with your doctor the pros and cons of progressive lenses or bifocals. Many seniors have trouble adjusting to progressives and have a clear vision with bifocals. Going down the steps or looking down with progressive lenses is a problem and increases the risk of falls.

If you have more than one pair of glasses, make sure you label them to quickly see which is for distance and which is for reading. This is important when you’re trying to go down the steps with a set of glasses for reading, making it challenging to navigate the steps safely.

Optimized lighting would include higher wattage lightbulbs, more direct light on reading materials, and reduced glare. Installing night lights to navigate the bathroom or the kitchen in the dark is essential. There are Motion sensors with night lights that automatically light up your path as you move toward them. These don’t create too bright of light to shock your eyes.

Improve contrast by using color contrast fluorescent tape to signal each step’s edge, the bottom of a stairwell, or at the top of the handrail. This can also be used to see floor height changes by using tape or contrasting board rugs at the threshold changes.