Photo: Part 5 Optometry student James Hwang measuring peripheral visual fields on Camille Guy.
Each year new Part V students participate in a range of specialist workshops which have been spread out through the first semester. In 2023 for the first time these specialist sessions were brought together and held as a block teaching week at the end of the summer semester, before the beginning of regular semester one teaching.
The week included orientation lectures for the three Part V courses, Low Vision Day, a Binocular Vision workshop, and a Contact Lens workshop, as well as an off-site visit to Essilor and an Ocular Health lecture online. A tour of the Vision Bus Aotearoa had to be postponed due to an unexpected need for the bus to be off-site.
The highlight of the Low Vision Day was interaction with the volunteers with matarehu (low vision/visual impairments). The students learnt about the new techniques and visual aids the volunteers use to complete everyday tasks and got to perform some vision tests with these volunteers.
Ngā mihi nui (thank you so much) to Retina NZ and the volunteers who came from as far away as Whangaparaoa and Hamilton.
Photo: Students George Zhou and Toffer Espinosa performing central visual field testing on Denise Preston.