How do we diagnose Vision Stress symptoms

Written by

Andrew Keyes

Optometrist & Practice Owner

Katherine Batey

Visual Stress Practitioner

Visual stress, also known as Meares-Irlen Syndrome, refers to discomfort or difficulty when reading text or viewing patterns, often linked to light sensitivity or specific visual processing issues. Diagnosing visual stress involves a structured process:

Recognise Symptoms

Use our Symptoms Tracker to identify signs such as headaches, eye strain, difficulty focusing, blurred vision, or letters appearing to move or distort while reading. Observing avoidance behaviours, like reluctance to read or write, is also crucial.

Evaluate the Environment

Assess lighting conditions, screen brightness, font size, and contrast levels in the person's daily environment. Poor lighting or high-contrast text can exacerbate symptoms. Use our accessibility tools in the bottom-left corner of the screen to adjust the appearance of our website to your needs.

Conduct an Eye Examination

Rule out underlying vision issues such as refractive errors, astigmatism, or other ocular conditions by consulting a visual stress expert. Make an appointment with Vision Through Colour today.

Administer a Reading Test

Provide text with different formats, contrasts, and spacing to observe if visual distortions occur. Symptoms may include letters appearing to "swim," vibrate, or cluster together. Have a look at how text looks to people with visual stress symptoms.

Explore Coloured Overlays or Filters

Introduce coloured overlays or tinted glasses during reading tasks. Use our colour demonstrator to compare different colours to find out whether you have visual stress symptoms. If symptoms improve significantly, this may indicate visual stress related to colour sensitivity.

Perform a Visual Stress Assessment

Specialists use tools like the symptoms tracker, colour demonstrator, Wilkins Rate of Reading Test or the Irlen Method Screening to evaluate reading speed, accuracy, and visual comfort with and without colour aids.

Observe Behavioural Changes

Monitor for changes in performance, focus, or comfort when using aids like overlays, different lighting, or font adjustments. Improved focus or reduced headaches can confirm visual stress involvement. Use our symptom tracker to help you with the process.

Consult a Specialist

If symptoms persist despite basic interventions, contact Vision Through Colour at 0191 284 7361 or make an appointment. Our team of visual stress experts can provide a detailed assessment and recommend specific interventions, such as custom-tinted lenses or therapy.

By following these steps, visual stress can be identified and managed effectively, improving reading comfort and overall quality of life.

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Sharon

I can not recommend Vision Through Colour hight enough! We were given their details from the Dr who completed a Neurodevelopmental assesment on our Daughter. As well as being diagnosed with ADHD and ASD the Dr also suspected she may be suffering with Visiual Stress.

I made an appointment with Vision Through Colour, The process was very straightforward and the communication was excellent with no long waiting time for an appointmnet.

The assesment itself was extremely professional, they were very accommodating to my daughters needs taking things at her pace allowing breaks when needed, even allowing her to hold a stuffed toy that they have I the office. My daughter and myself were fully infomormed at every step of the assesment as to what was happening and why. My daughter was diagnosed with visual stress and it was recommended, following the assesment that a coloured tint be added to my daughters regular glasses prescription to help her with her symptoms.

My daughter has now been wearing her new coloured prescription lenses for approximately 6 weeks and both my daughter and myself have been delighted with the results. My daughter informs me that she no longer sees coloured outlines around images and words and is able to read for longer period of time without her eyes hurting. She also say that lights are not painful to her and everything feels much calmer. Her school teachers have also reported that she is more focused in lessons and not as distracted.

My daughter loves her coloured lenses and wears them constantly and has not asked for her old glasses since she recived her new ones. If you or your child are feeling g symptoms of visual stress I would 100% recommend a vosit to Vision Through Colour for an assesmen.

Rated 5/5 from over 14+ reviews

Richard

The staff are absolutely fantastic and they provide a fantastic service, would highly recommend them!

Geordie

Having Irlens Syndrome recently diagnosed I didn’t know what to do as most opticians don’t have the specialised equipment to prescribe the correct type of tinted lenses I needed to correct my issue.However after a little bit of research I discovered the amazing Andrew Keyes and his practice and they have been absolutely amazing supporting me and prescribing- as well as follow up with a genuinely caring and friendly service from start to finish. I have a whole new lease of life now I wear the correct lenses for my Irlens Syndrome eyes! Thank you SO much Andrew and Olivia and all the fantastic team

Jon

The support and service that we have received from Andrew and Katherine has been excellent. They took the time to understand our needs and the experience has been nothing other than positive and have made a real life-changing difference. We can highly recommend Vision Through Colour for any visual stress difficulties associated with Autism and ADHD.

Jacquie

An extremely professional service and very knowledgeable about visual stress and the impact it has. From our first visit with Katherine, we were made to feel welcome and valued. Our concerns regarding visual stress were acknowledged and discussed throughout the consultation visits. My son enjoyed the examination and was put at ease immediately by the team. We look forward to continuing the relationship in the years to come.

Dee

Fantastic service which I highly recommend. Very friendly and understanding of my needs as a Neurodivergent person. I found it very interesting to see the comparison in my reading prior to wearing the glasses to afterwards as it gave me a better understanding of the struggles I had been experiencing with dyslexia. The glasses prescribed with tinted lenses are extremely helpful for managing my tired eyes and headaches while increasing my ability to read without draining myself and I am less overwhelmed/drained by bright lights therefore reducing my previously constant eye strain etc.

Addrea

Staff are Friendly and helpful. The service was indepth and thorough. Would recommend.

TheGoldenMagpie

They were very kind and professional and really helped me out, my quality of life has improved a lot from my new glasses

Angie

Having coloured lenses, unique to me, to filter out all of my trigger colours has transformed my life. As a long term migraine sufferer, I used to lose days of my life, even though I had prescribed medication I regularly lost 3 days a week to migraines. Having these coloured lenses plus my medication means I can function normally. I have only lost 2 working days to migraines in the past 5 years, thanks to Keyes eye cares miraculous glasses.
Cannot recommend highly enough.

Ellen

An absolutely outstanding optician/optometrist and the highest quality service and professional standards.I am absolutely delighted by the assessments and tests I received for my visual stress issues - one of a very few specialists in the area of these issues. Such lovely welcoming staff in every part of the process.

Victoria

From the moment I arrived all the Staff were very friendly and it was a very calm environment. As an autistic adult I suffer from visual stress so I got precision tinted lenses which have made a huge difference to my work and every day life. They have even helped with travel sickness and the lights are less bright and the ground doesn't move when out walking. I wouldn't go anywhere else for my eyecare thanks to you.

Dr Jake Hutchinson

As a neuropsychologist, I always identified visual stress difficulties in myself. These difficulties have been with me since childhood and have burdened me greatly over the years, impacting every aspect of my life. As an example, having to avoid certain rooms with complex stripes and being unable to read on some days due to letters moving on the page.

While I visited numerous professionals as a teenager, nobody was able to identify an appropriate intervention that would improve my daily functioning. However, following a thorough assessment, including colorimetry, I found the Keyes team full of expert knowledge and advice. They were able to find a colour to put into a pair of frames to ease my everyday difficulties. The results have been transformative; I couldn't possibly be without my precision-tinted lenses, they have significantly transformed my life.

I cannot recommend Andrew, Katherine and the team at Vision Through Colour highly enough.

Anonymous

Fantastic service for both my children - welcoming staff that put them at ease. My son has visual stress alongside his ADHD and Autism and the whole process of getting his vision through colour glasses was stress-free- the team have so much patience and understanding of how to make neurodiverse individuals comfortable. Honestly can not recommend them enough!

Tristan

I suffer from a complex and extremely difficult-to-manage visual disability and cannot thank Andrew Keyes enough for his patience, understanding, and technical knowledge in helping me... My visual stress is extremely severe and to get the correct lenses takes a lot of time and patience, he was great (nobody else knew what the problem was or how to solve it... my GP said there was nothing they could do, the hospital examined me for tumours and gave up... Andrew knew straight away!)

James

They were more than happy to go the extra mile to ensure I was happy with the results. I'm an indecisive person but did not feel rushed at all, and with my sensory issues (related to ASD and ADHD), I was happily surprised when the lights in the test room were adjusted for my comfort, which aided me in making the correct choices, etc.