Every hour, someone in Scotland starts to live with sight loss which changes their life.
Losing your sight — whether gradually or suddenly — affects everything: your ability to get around safely, to manage your home, to stay in work, to maintain the relationships and hobbies that give life meaning.
Vision rehabilitation is the specialist support that empowers people adapt, rebuild confidence and live independently after sight loss. It includes practical skills like learning to use a long cane, adapting how you cook or manage your home, getting to grips with assistive technology, and adjusting emotionally to a new way of seeing the world. It is skilled, practical and genuinely life-changing.
And yet in Scotland right now, far too many people either can't access it, or are waiting far too long. With the Scottish Parliament election on 7th May 2026, Vision Collaborative Scotland is calling on all parties to commit to fixing that.
The scale of the problem
Over 193,000 people in Scotland live with sight loss — a figure projected to double by 2050 as the population ages and conditions like diabetes become more common. Unlike stroke rehabilitation, which is delivered through the NHS with national standards and consistent funding, vision rehabilitation is largely the responsibility of local authorities and the third sector. The result is a postcode lottery: the support you receive depends heavily on where you happen to live.
Why we need quality standards
At the moment, there are no Scottish national standards setting out what vision rehabilitation should look like, how quickly it should be provided, or what qualifications the person delivering it should hold. That means two people with exactly the same diagnosis and the same needs can have completely different experiences depending on their local authority area — which is neither fair nor acceptable.
Scottish National quality standards would change that. They would set a consistent baseline for what good rehabilitation looks like across Scotland, give local authorities and health and social care partnerships a clear framework to work to, and give people with sight loss the confidence that they can expect a certain level of support wherever they are. A model has already been developed as a UK National Occupational Standard for sensory services which we can learn from in Scotland and build something that works for our communities here.
Why the workforce matters
Scotland's vision rehabilitation workforce is ageing, with a significant proportion of specialists approaching retirement and no clear pipeline to replace them. Until January 2026, there was no professional training available in Scotland at all. A new course at the University of Strathclyde is an important step forward, but without sustained investment it cannot reach the scale Scotland needs.
There is also currently no route to professional recognition or regulation for rehabilitation workers. That makes it harder to attract people into the profession, harder to retain them, and harder to guarantee consistent quality of practice across the country. Without action, the workforce crisis will deepen — and the people who depend on these services will pay the price.
What we're asking for
Vision Collaborative Scotland is calling on the next Scottish Government to take three specific steps.
- National quality standards — adopting national quality standards for vision rehabilitation across Scotland, so that the support someone receives does not depend on where they happen to live. A model has already been developed as a National Occupational Standard for sensory services, which provides a strong starting point.
- Investment in training — encouraging more people to train as vision rehabilitation specialists by increasing access to Vision Rehabilitation courses at Scottish Universities. This would complement existing investment from local authorities and the third sector, create a sustainable workforce pipeline, and reflects the kind of invest-to-save approach that prevents far greater costs further down the line.
- Workforce review and professional recognition — commissioning a comprehensive national workforce review to understand future demand, and identifying a clear route to professional recognition and regulation. This would be developed in partnership with Health and Social Care Partnerships, professional bodies and the third sector, and result in a national Workforce Plan for Vision Rehabilitation in Scotland.
How you can help
The election campaign is a real opportunity to put vision rehabilitation on the political agenda — but we need your help to do it. Whether you've experienced vision rehabilitation yourself, work in the sector, or simply believe that everyone deserves support after sight loss, your voice matters.
Get in touch with us to find out more about this campaign using the form below.
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