Stephanie Montgomery thought it was normal for her vision to be a little blurry and to not be able to see detail—until her first pair of glasses changed her whole world.

“I was seeing trees but not seeing individual leaves—I just thought that’s how it was,” she said. She was amazed at how such a simple thing could make such a difference.

Her corrected vision changed her life and she realized this was something she wanted to do for other people as well. So, Montgomery, 27, became an optometrist. She works part-time at Eastern Shore Eye Care, but she didn’t stop at just helping people with regular vision problems.

She also works part-time for Community Services for Vision Rehabilitation, a non-profit medical clinic offering treatment for those with low vision, which is vision that cannot be corrected by regular glasses and interferes with day to day activities.

“It’s an underserved population,” she said, and she moved to Fairhope in May of 2011 to provide more care for them.

Before the clinic opened, there wasn’t much help for low vision except around Birmingham. She said other optometrists may dabble in low vision, but they don’t offer the level of care that CSVR offers.

Now, CSVR provides this service with locations in Mobile, Daphne, Montgomery and Gulfport, Miss., and offers comprehensive care, including a specially-trained occupational therapist.

According to Montgomery, the clinic provides low-vision evaluations and works with the person’s regular eye doctor to take care of their condition. Strong glasses, magnifiers, or telescope systems are often used and sometimes they are taught how to do things, such as reading, a different way.

“We take whatever vision they have and help them use it effectively,” she said.

The clinic does offer this treatment as a service whether or not patients are able to pay for the evaluations and low-vision devices. Montgomery said these can be expensive and many people with low vision are not able to work. They do not provide eye exams for those with normal vision problems at CSVR.

For those with low vision, the clinic improves quality of life, according to Montgomery. She said she hears over and over how a person’s doctor told them there was nothing they could do for their condition. At CSVR, she is able to tell them that there is something they can do, and then they work to fix the problem.

“There are a lot of different options for people with low vision; you’ve got to try them out,” she said.

Montgomery is a member of a state and national low-vision rehabilitation group, and the clinic was founded by a physician medical director, Dr. Joe Fontenot.

He said the clinic helps patients and that Montgomery is a great asset to the clinic.

“She knows how to make them be able to continue to function and helps them do things despite their low vision,” he said. “She’s a very caring person, she’s very empathetic and she understands their problems.”

“She’s very professional and all the patients love her. We’re extremely happy that Stephanie has joined us.”

For more information on the services provided, visit csvrlowvision.org.