What's Inside - A practical home assessment and intervention planning guide that adds a vision lens to your existing OT assessment process.
 
Standard falls-focused home safety assessments (HOME FAST, Westmead) catch loose mats and trip hazards, but they under-detect the hazards that matter most in low vision: inadequate task lighting, glare, poor contrast, and adaptation problems at light transitions. This guide fills that gap. It complements your comprehensive OT assessment, giving you the practical prompts, structured scanning framework, and evidence-informed intervention picklist to assess and address vision-related function with confidence.
 
What you get
Part 1 — Home Environment Assessment
A "before the visit" kit list - the practical items worth bringing (contrast samples, portable task lamp, torch, lux meter) to demonstrate and quantify issues live in the home
The right questions to ask - including the conversation starters and key client statements to listen for ("I walk there every day, so I don't understand how I fell")
The Four Lenses framework - run every space through Light, Glare, Contrast, and Clutter & Consistency, with practical working targets (including indicative lux levels for circulation, task areas, and reading) and the principle-based fixes that clients and families can keep applying after you leave
A room-by-room scan table - entry, hallways/stairs, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living area, and laundry/outdoors, each with specific "look for" prompts and quick wins
Considerations by vision loss type - same house, different hazards: how your assessment priorities shift for central loss (AMD), peripheral loss (glaucoma, RP), contrast loss (diabetic retinopathy, cataract), and glare sensitivity
Guidance on complementary structured tools - including where HOME FAST and the Home Environment Lighting Assessment (HELA) fit alongside this guide
 
Part 2 — Low Vision Intervention Picklist
A comprehensive, tick-box intervention menu organised across 12 categories to support clinical reasoning and documentation:
Education & self-management
Lighting optimisation
Glare reduction
Contrast enhancement
Environmental modification
Labelling & organisation
Low vision assistive technology (optical, electronic, and daily living aids)
ADL retraining strategies
Mobility & falls prevention
Occupation-specific adaptations (cooking, medication, leisure, communication)
Referral pathways
Monitoring & follow-up
 
Plus: a clinical documentation note showing how to document the why, not just the what — with worked example phrases that link each intervention to occupational performance, safety, and independence, strengthening your clinical records and funding justifications.
Who it's for
Occupational therapists working with older adults in community, home care, and aged care settings,  particularly those conducting home assessments under Support at Home, Home Care Packages, NDIS, or DVA who want to systematically capture vision-related function without needing specialist low vision training.
 
Format
Print-ready PDF · 15 pages · Referenced against current evidence including the AJOT systematic review literature and the AT-HM List · Person–environment–occupation (PEO) aligned