Phase 3: CVI-SIM Extended
Continuing our partnership with the charity CVI Scotland, Phase 3 focused on extending and refining the existing CVI-SIM programme through supervised student and research activity.
During this phase, a postgraduate computer science student developed a virtual reality museum environment designed to demonstrate cerebral visual impairment within unfamiliar and complex settings, extending CVI-SIM beyond classroom-based simulations. A second student project focused on improving interfaces and programme usability, with the aim of making the simulations more accessible and easier to use. Phase 3 also introduced a new simulation component to model impaired motion processing, reflecting an important and underrepresented aspect of CVI.
Phase 3 additionally marked an expansion of CVI-SIM beyond computer science–led development. Through a Laidlaw Scholarship, a medical student undertook a two-year project beginning with a research study on CVI awareness in schools (the CLASS, Cerebral visual impairment Learning and Awareness for School Staff study, see publications under research), followed by field-based work in Sri Lanka testing CVI learning activities with a wide range of users. In parallel, Phase 3 included supervision of a postdoctoral fellowship project delivered in collaboration with Dundee Science Centre, exploring public engagement and informal learning approaches related to cerebral visual impairment.
Together, this work reflects CVI-SIM’s shift towards interdisciplinary research, education, and public engagement, grounded in supervised delivery.
September 2023 – CVI-SIM Video for Teachers
This 3-minute video was made, using CVI-SIM, for a research project. It briefly explains some of the difficulties children affected by CVI can have in their classrooms.
Credit University of St Andrews
October 2023 – CVI-SIM Quick Tours
The video below gives a quick-tour of the updated CVI-SIM programme including how to use it on a computer or virtual reality headset. The multiple CVI settings, meaning you can adjust CVI-SIM to simulate the cerebral visual impairment of an individual, maybe someone you support, are all explained. These include the many simulations we have developed around visual perception difficulties, as repeatedly described by people with CVI. All simulated through our beautiful village, set in open countryside, currently with a school and museum. The programme is currently being tested, and the instructions on the websites referred to in the video are not available yet. When they are, we will link to them here. For more information on CVI-SIM please email [email protected].
Narrated by Andrew Blaikie
Click here to watch CVI-SIM Quick Tour with subtitles.
January 2024
One major study found a form of CVI in 3.4% of children in a mainstream school, or one child in every class of thirty. 80% of the children identified had difficulties in school. This video is our attempt to both explain and show through virtual reality simulation the type of CVI the majority have. The term ‘mild visual perception difficulties due to CVI’ is sometimes used. It may be that the visual impairment is measurably mild, but what we show here is that the difficulties it causes are far from mild.
Narrated by Andrew Blaikie