What is CVI?
Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) is a neurological condition where the eyes themselves are perfectly healthy, but the brain's visual pathways are disrupted. Essentially, the eyes can see, but the brain struggles to process and make sense of the images.
It is far more common than most realize. A landmark study by the CVI Prevalence Study Group revealed that CVI affects up to 1 in 30 children (roughly 3.4%) in mainstream classrooms. Most of these children have higher-order processing challenges that go completely unrecognized. In fact, research by the Perkins School for the Blind and McKinsey & Company shows that fewer than 20% of children with CVI receive a timely diagnosis. Some wait up to a decade just to get answers.
My family lived these statistics. Even with glasses, my wife and I knew our son was struggling to navigate his world. We spent three agonizing years visiting seven different doctors, watching our son face challenges no one could explain. When we finally received the diagnosis of CVI, it felt like a door opened. Suddenly, everything we had been observing made sense. Getting that right diagnosis changed everything, giving us the roadmap we desperately needed to finally provide him with the right help.
Reading with a Purpose
We believe in lifting up the community. A portion of the proceeds from every CVI-Friendly book sold in our collection is donated directly to institutions that support, educate, and empower children living with CVI and their families.
CVI-Friendly Books
Because we believe books should be accessible to all children, we proudly offer CVI-Friendly editions for young readers with visual impairment. Our CVI-Friendly edition feature:
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Enhanced Readability: Large, clean font (32pt Calibri) with intentional extra spacing between letters and lines to prevent visual crowding.
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Mindful Layouts: Uncluttered, simplified backgrounds that eliminate visual noise and distraction.
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Strategic Visual Anchors: Focused use of high-visibility, singular colors like red, yellow, and orange to help children track characters and objects
See the difference:
Traditional Edition
CVI-Friendly Edition
To Learn More and Support:
The CVI Center at Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins is a global leader in the visual impairment space and is aggressively confronting the CVI diagnostic and educational crisis. They provide direct services to kids and adults, groundbreaking teacher training, and run CVI Now—a massive hub for families.
Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment Society (PCVIS)
PCVIS specifically focuses on children and youth with CVI. Their mission is to ensure every child with CVI has appropriate medical care, early intervention, and targeted visual accommodations.
CVI @ The Bridge School
The Bridge School is highly regarded for its specialized work with children who have both complex communication needs and severe physical impairments alongside CVI. They have partnered with experts to develop specific augmentative communication frameworks tailored for CVI visual pathways.
Center for the Visually Impaired (CVI)
While this organization serves a broad spectrum of individuals experiencing vision loss, they provide crucial localized support, daily living therapies, and early childhood intervention programs for kids dealing with neurological and cortical visual disorders.