Everyone needs one of these. An illuminated handheld magnifier is an incredibly useful tool. This particular one is my absolute favourite — an Eschenbach Mobilux LED 3.5x (model 1511-3).

Why does everyone need one? It’s a nice size, not too heavy, with the power and lens size giving a really useful balance between magnification and field of view, with really decent illumination. It’s compact enough to carry in a jacket pocket or purse, and comes with a lens cover to protect the lens.

If your vision impairment is relatively mild, this should be a strong enough magnifier for most of your general purpose needs.

But even if your vision impairment is more serious, so that you need a much stronger magnifier to be able to read normal print, there’s still a good argument for having one in this power as well. Consider a carpenter: they won’t have just one screwdriver, they’ll have a big one for big screws, and a small one for small screws, and maybe even more — different screw, different tool. If you have a strong magnifier for seeing normal print, sure, you can use it for larger print as well — but the field of view will be very restrictive, and any tremor can be annoying. Larger print and larger details are more comfortably viewed with a lower power magnifier. It’s about using the right tool for the job.

Essentially, no matter what your level of vision impairment, this magnifier will help you with anything that you can almost see, but can’t quite. A good quality lower-powered magnifier with good illumination will bring most of those things from ‘I can’t see it’ to ‘I can see it.’

Side note: this is a good example of a magnifier with a ‘funny’ magnification rating — by the more standard magnification formula it should be rated as 2.5x, rather than 3.5x. This is actually pretty normal for lower powered magnifiers.

If you do need the big screwdriver as well — sorry, I mean, if you need a stronger magnifier as well — then the Mobilux LED 5x is exactly twice as powerful as the 3.5x, and powers go up to a massive 12.5x.

And here’s a lovely little bonus. You can get a matching stand for every Mobilux LED model which turns it into a two-position stand. This is wonderful if you have a hand tremor, since you can use it as a stand magnifier for a steadier image. It’s also great for tasks that need two hands, like threading a needle (make sure you have a background that contrasts with the colour of the thread!).

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Everyone needs one of these too. In fact, this is the single most-prescribed device when I’m working in the Low Vision Clinic.

In case I haven’t said it enough, extra illumination is your friend. Getting a lamp that can concentrate a decent amount of extra light on whatever you’re looking at is a significant help for almost every person with a vision impairment. You might find that the extra light alone is enough, but (just like with the handheld illuminated magnifiers I discussed above) that combination of illumination with wide-field magnification is particularly useful, no matter what your level of vision impairment, so I recommend a magnifier lamp rather than a task lamp, even if you mostly use it as just a lamp.

These are great to sit next to your favourite armchair, next to your bed, or wherever you like. If you’re at a desk, table, kitchen bench or work bench you might prefer to have a desk-mounted version. In fact, the magnifier lamp I prescribe is one that can be converted into a desk-version. It’s a really nice unit for a work bench or a craft table.

…and a torch (flashlight) or two, or three.

Carry a mini-torch in your pocket/purse, or use the flashlight function on your smartphone. The obvious use is to improve visibility at night, or on stairwells and other badly lit areas. But for some people it’s even more useful than a magnifier for looking at supermarket price tags, food packaging, etc — hold the torch close to the tag and it makes a beautifully bright spot, very helpful. Top tip: keep a torch in the pantry, so it can help you find what you’re looking for instead of having to pull everything out.

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I make no secret of my love for video magnifiers. A large-screen CCTV video magnifier is the cream of the crop, the most powerful magnifier out there. These things do it all — magnifying from low to extremely high magnification levels, bright image, high contrast (and even reversed contrast) — and all with a wide field of view as well. Basically, if anything can help you, it’s this.

My current favourite is the Clearview C 24 Wideview by Optelec, which is shown in the second picture above. Lovely ergonomics, really large screen, and easy to use. It also comes in a version which can scan the page and read it out to you, which can be a game-changer for some people.

So if you have a more significant vision impairment, this is the thing you most want for your birthday. The downside is the cost — there’s no getting around the fact that they are expensive. But for some people with more advanced vision loss, having one of these can be what’s needed to do important things like being able to read expiry dates on food, medication instructions, etc — the sorts of things that allow you to keep safely living in your own home, rather than having to move into a nursing home or other supported accommodation.

Desktop CCTVs aren’t just for people with advanced vision impairment. Even at lower levels of magnification, their enormous field of view is wonderful for working with longer documents (working through bank statements, meeting records or letters, for instance), browsing through magazines and photo albums, and even for reading books (although that aspect is more for a later discussion).

And even during the earlier stages of vision impairment, there’s an argument for investing in a desktop CCTV. You might not need its higher magnification settings right now, but if/when your vision gets worse you’ll be thankful that you’ve already become accustomed to using it well. After all, if you’re going to need it eventually, why not get it now and enjoy the convenience?

…and maybe a portable one as well

Desktop CCTVs are amazing, but you can’t exactly cart them from room to room. There are smaller versions as well though, which can be very handy. The field of view is much smaller, but their convenience is high.

My current favourite is the Explore 8 by Humanware, shown in the main picture above. It’s a beautifully designed device, very simple and easy to use, lightweight, and with buttons very conveniently located. It has an eight-inch (20cm) screen, about the size of a paperback book, so it’s easy to carry around. There’s also its big sibling the Explore 12, (30cm screen second picture above) which is more like the size of a magazine. It’s a bit more cumbersome, but the nice thing is it comes with a stand so you can write underneath it. And there’s a little sibling too, the Explore 5 (12.5cm screen), which is truly pocket-sized.

The third picture above is a smartphone using the Visor Magnifier app, which is a really nice option if you carry a smartphone (and it suits the budget too — free!).

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For a magnified view of things that are far away, many people nowadays just use their phone to take a photo and zoom the image up. And that’s a perfectly good option, especially if your phone’s camera has good resolution.

But if you’re in a situation where you need a live magnified image (such as looking for the number on a bus that’s coming towards you) then a telescopic system is what will do the job, and the one I like best is a compact pair of low-magnification binoculars.

Why low magnification? Because of field of view. Normal binoculars, the sort you get in an outdoors shop, tend to be 8x or 10x magnification, but for many people with low vision it can be a real challenge to get them pointing exactly at the target object, and the very narrow field of view can make it hard to see how to correct. A wider field of view makes it more likely that your target will be in view straight away. Sure, you need enough power for the task, but you don’t want any more than that.

The ones I favour are the Vision binoculars by Eschenbach (pictured above). They come in 4x and 6x powers (models 4248-428 and 4248-618 respectively), which means a lovely wide field of view. In terms of magnification, think of it this way: if you can normally read the number at ten metres away (30 feet), the 4x would let you read it at forty metres away, and the 6x would let you read it at sixty metres away. If it’s an approaching bus, even forty metres is much better than ten, giving you a good chance to signal the driver to stop.

Bonus: these binoculars also focus quite close, which makes them suitable for viewing things like the Departures board at the airport, or the floor directory next to lifts (elevators).

Another nice thing is that nobody thinks too much about people having a pair of binoculars. Even people with completely normal vision use binoculars.

An alternative is to use a monocular (also pictured above). Monoculars are more compact, because of course they only have the one side. That seems like the obvious answer if you only have vision in one eye, and some of them are very compact and can be largely concealed in your hand, if you want to be discreet. But if you have vision in both eyes, a monocular means you lose the benefit of using them together, and many people find binoculars easier to hold steady and point accurately.

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