Special Visual Assessment
We provide specialized eye care for patients of all ages with special needs, including children with congenital or developmental conditions, with a focus on compassionate, personalized care.
About Us
The Special Visual Assessment Clinic (SVAC) specializes in providing comprehensive eye care for patients of all ages with special needs. Our optometrists use specialized equipment and techniques to evaluate eye health and visual abilities, helping address each patient’s unique vision needs.
Our Services
Visual assessments tailored to each individual
This clinic offers a wide range of eye care services and provides intensive assessment of these patients’ visual abilities. The quality of their lives are often improved with better corrected vision and understanding of their visual potential.
Our clinic serves infants, children, and adults with multiple disabilities including cognitive, motor, and hearing impairments that accompany their visual impairment or blindness. Referrals to SVAC result from the Early Childhood Blind and Low Vision Specialists with LightHouse Little Learners, the California School for the Blind, Regional Centers, school districts, residential facilities, pediatricians, optometrists, and by word of mouth from parents of the children SVAC serves.
Did You Know?
Special Needs that Affect Vision Include:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Preterm Birth or Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy
- Down Syndrome
- Cerebral Palsy
- Other complex congenital syndromes
Our History
The Special Visual Assessment Clinic was created in 1984 when Amanda Hall, Ph.D. (the low vision rehab specialist) and Deborah Orel-Bixler (a graduate student in Physiological Optics) recruited the Berkeley Optometry Low Vision resident Lori Sakamoto, O.D. to examine children with special needs. Their clinical goal was to answer the parent’s question of “what can my baby/child see?” in this population of non-verbal, visually impaired young patients. Measures of vision were obtained using preferential looking and VEP techniques, glasses were prescribed (most often for the first time despite high refractive errors) and detailed reports, including educational recommendations, were provided to the families.
SVAC Clinic Facts
Our doctors specialize in examining individuals with motor impairments and those who are non-verbal.
Optometric equipment that was developed here at UC Berkeley is used to specifically examine and treat those with special needs.
Contact Us
Appointments can be made in person or by telephone.
Special Visual Assessments
School of Optometry & Vision Science
Emeryville Eye Center
3840 San Pablo Avenue
Emeryville, CA 94608
Phone: (510) 664-5726
FAX: (510) 664-4234
Clinic Chief
Anne Tasaki, OD, FAAO
Associate Clinical Professor