Adventure in Advocacy / AAPOS 2018

Good morning fellow families of wonderful children who happen to have Cortical Visual Impairment,

I’m sitting in the Cabinet room which is technically a conference hall of the Washington Hilton Hotel.  I am the responsible adult for the Pediatric CVI Society’s very first exhibit table.

How fitting that this event should occur at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.  

Pediatric Ophthalmologists!  Maybe there’s a Pediatric Neuro-Ophthalmologist thrown in here somewhere.  I’ll have to ask.

This is important because it remains difficult for families of children newly identified with Cortical Visual Impairment to receive an actual diagnosis of CVI.

This is important because even if a doctor does diagnose CVI, she or he may not realize that CVI can improve with the appropriate interventions.   She or he may not realize that education – for children, parents, caregivers, therapists, and teachers – is the key to improving a child’s functional vision.

They can’t fix CVI.  So, many of them don’t address it.   They are not SEEING CVI.  (That one’s for you, Brenda Biernat. I’m wearing the shirt!)

---

This is the year, the PCVI Society begins to change the landscape of CVI in the medical community.

We have actual conference materials.

Image;  An exhibit table covered by a black tablecloth and white drape with PCVI in large letters.  Other exhibit materials promoting the PCVI Society.

Image:  A low lit ceiling which may also be the inside of a alien ship.  I just report ’em like I see ’em.

I have to mention that when CVI Mom Rachel and I were setting up yesterday, it was weirdly dark in here. There’s an alien/cave vibe happening. I thought for sure they’d turn up the lights for the actual conference. Not yet.  We may take off any moment now for the general cosmos.

We have swag – Diagnosis cards and hard candy. (If that wasn’t the name of a punk band in the late 70’s, it should have been.) 

Image:  A gift box with candy spilling out on to a table covered by a black tablecloth.

 

We will see how I do here after 3 days.  Maybe the low lighting is a deliberate move to calm the well documented frantic energy of pediatric ophthalmologists.

Carol Kinlan of the Perkins School for the Blind just came over to say hi.

Will keep you posted.