What is CVI?

Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is an umbrella term for several different vision impairments that are caused by the brain as opposed to the eyes. A child with CVI can be affected by one of these impairments, or many.
Two hands holding an illustration of a brain on top of a light blue background

People with CVI experience the world differently

This ten minute video shows what the world is like for people with CVI. It is narrated by leading international CVI expert Professor Gordon Dutton. 

Children with CVI can have visual perception difficulties and issues, which means they experience the world differently to people without CVI. 

A child with CVI might:

  • look like they are not paying attention
  • struggle to stay focused
  • appear easily distracted
  • be overly sensitive and startle often
  • struggle with friendships and be socially withdrawn. 

A child with undiagnosed CVI will often have the following challenges:

  • only see one thing at a time
  • struggle to move their gaze
  • find their vision gets stuck on one thing
  • find their gaze darts about, not finding anything to see
  • struggle to find what they are looking for visually
  • have difficulty with reading and writing
  • find sports and play times sometimes stressful and even frightening
  • quickly become overwhelmed, or feel stressed
  • become visually very tired, affecting their eyes
  • struggle to look and listen at the same time. 

The child is not aware of any of the above happening, as these difficulties are all unconscious brain processes. Their world is an endless exhausting battle against an invisible unconscious enemy. 

The child, unaware of any good reason to explain the difficulties, inevitably blames themselves. We have heard this over and over. 

The Austin Assessment is a screening tool designed to identify these children, to get them the support that we know transforms lives.

Schoo class with a girl raising her hand to participate and another girl in the front of the class holding a big paper doing a show and tell

Learn more about CVI

Technical CVI explanation and references

Significant scientific research has been published on cerebral visual impairment, and some of this research is behind the development of the Austin Assessment. 

Read the technical explanation of CVI, and see the research references.
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Further reading and resources 

The Austin McDowell Foundation works in close collaboration with CVI Scotland, leading CVI experts. There is a wealth of information and resources about CVI that you can access on the CVI Scotland website.