Phase 3: CVI-SIM Extended

Continuing our partnership with the charity CVI Scotland, we are working towards creating a publicly available programme to simulate multiple different cerebral visual impairments using virtual reality. 

We are very excited about new developments.  We plan to extend the virtual reality world beyond classrooms, to create a small community, including an online museum. We are also making the programme simpler to use, with the aim of making CVI-SIM available to use both professionally and personally. Multiple settings mean the CVI experience can be easily tailored to the individual.

We look forward to sharing updates.  Please check here or follow us on social media for the latest information about CVI-SIM.

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