Vision Australia has released a new series of videos depicting what life is like for Australians living with low vision. ‘The Pupil Project’ video series depicts three Aussies with lived experience of vision impairment in an attempt to dispel misconceptions and promote understanding.

The videos show the trio engaging in everyday scenarios – such as looking for a product use-by date, difficulty reading a menu and sensitivity to sunlight – to highlight how low vision can make simple daily tasks challenging. Instead of explaining verbally, the videos depict what low vision actually looks like by switching perspectives between the actors on screen, from full vision to low vision. This cleverly helps to dispel misunderstandings and show exactly what life is like for those living with vision disabilities.

The series came about after research conducted by Vision Australia revealed two in three Australians do not know how to help someone with low vision, and may even have trouble identifying a person with vision impairment. The most common causes of low vision (some of which are explored in the videos) include cataracts, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration.  

Vision Australia national brand and marketing manager Kristy Richards said people living with low vision commonly face misconceptions by others as their condition isn’t always visible.

“Low vision is a clinical term for permanent vision loss that can’t be corrected by glasses. However, unlike someone who is blind, people with low vision won’t typically carry a white cane or have a Seeing Eye Dog. They appear to be just like you and I,” Richards said.

“Our research highlighted that more than half of Aussies believe they’ve never interacted with someone who has low vision, despite there being almost half a million people living with this vision disability in the country.” 

Bringing low vision into the light

While understanding of low vision is inadequate in Australia, Vision Australia’s research suggested that 72 percent of ‘sighted’ Australians are willing to learn how to best help those around them. 

“Knowing that there is an appetite from people to learn how they can help is fantastic,” Richards said. “It assured us that this is something that people wanted to hear about and wouldn’t be easily ignored.

“With the help of ethical advertising agency, The Open Arms, we were careful in the way we delivered our advocacy messaging. Like other brands, we’re aware that consumers are becoming increasingly compassion fatigued, so we wanted the tone of our videos to be witty, fun and upbeat, while inviting viewers to educate themselves on the topic.” 

In the campaign, Vision Australia (in collaboration with The Open Arms and Array Productions) worked carefully to avoid ‘finger pointing’ and instead focussed on ‘positive education’ to raise awareness and show sighted Australians clear examples of what life with low vision was like. The Pupil Project campaign has launched across Vision Australia’s social media channels, digital and earned media, with the intention to roll out OOH later this year.

Photography attributed to Vision Australia.