Need help using the Sight Loss Data Tool? This guide will take you step by step through creating an account, selecting data, choosing areas, and saving reports.
On this page
- Creating an account
- Account management
- Selecting data
- Selecting a geographical area
- Comparing areas
- Saving reports
- Checking data sources
- Finding out more about SLDT
- Contact us
Creating an account
Users need to create an account to access the Sight Loss Data Tool. This should be quick and easy to do, and it helps us to understand how the data tool is being used.
When you create an account, you’ll be asked a few questions. These include your name, sector, purpose for using the data tool and an email and password that will act as your login details. We’ll also ask for your marketing preferences.
These questions help us understand which audiences are using the Sight Loss Data Tool and provide insights that help us grow and improve the data tool in the future.
Finally, you’ll need to verify your email address. You may need to check your junk or spam folders for the email, which will be from “RNIB SLDT”. This extra step is to help ensure the website remains secure.
Account management
In the “My account” section, you can update all the information you provided during sign-up, including marketing preferences. You can also review saved searches and report a problem with the data tool.
Selecting data
The data is organised into categories and sub-categories to help you get to what you need more quickly.
On the “Start a data search” page, all the categories are displayed:
- Sight loss – people living with sight loss, both current and projected. Includes breakdown by age and severity.
- Registration – people who are registered blind or partially sighted.
- Certification of Vision Impairment - people who have received a Certification of Vision Impairment in the last 12 months.
- Economic impact – direct health care and wider economic impact of sight loss.
- Eye conditions – sight threatening eye conditions like cataract and glaucoma.
- Children and young people – vision impairment amongst people aged 0-25 years.
- Other health conditions – health conditions that can increase the risk of sight loss, such as learning disability and dementia.
- Area profile – population data by age and ethnicity, and risk factors like deprivation that can increase the risk of sight loss.
- Health and social care – activity data for health and social care, such as sight tests, waiting lists and hospital activity.
Once you select a data category, you can adjust the specific metrics displayed on the report page by updating the filters. By default, all the data within a category is displayed, so you only need to make adjustments if some information is not relevant.
Selecting a geographical area
When starting a data search, you can select geographical areas in two main ways.
The simplest option is to enter a postcode, which will generate a list of potential reports. This list will include all relevant local authorities (upper and lower tier), health board, region and country.
Alternatively, you can begin by selecting your nation (England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland). This will take you to a summary report for that nation, which includes dropdown lists for all relevant local authorities and health boards. In England, you can also select a region.
Comparing areas
You can display up to three geographical areas at once. This can be achieved by selecting “Compare” from the report page.
There are no options to amend the data selection in the comparison view, so it’s best to apply the required metrics in the report before generating a comparison.
At present, the comparison view presents areas side by side, and the data tool doesn’t have the functionally to sum the values. This is something we may develop in the future, depending on user feedback.
Saving reports
You can save particular selections of data and geography. To do this, first select “Save search”, then choose a name for your search and add it to a collection.
Both single-location reports and comparison reports can be saved.
Saving your searches means you won’t need to re-select everything each time you log into the data tool, which will be especially useful if you are only interested in a particular area.
Checking data sources
You can find more information about the Data Sources and research used in the Sight Loss Data Tool in the “About” section. This includes full citations for all the publications used in the data tool, as well as information about the definitions or any limitations in the data.
Contact us
Your feedback is extremely important to us. It helps to prioritise the future development of the data tool.
If you have any questions or feedback about the Sight Loss Data Tool, you can use the "Contact us" form in your account page. Alternatively, you can email research@rnib.org.uk.