![](https://blogs.iu.edu/thehassanlab/files/2022/07/20180322_ShirinHassan_006-300x200.jpg)
Indiana University School of Optometry
800 Atwater. Ave
Bloomington, IN, 47405
USA
Phone: (812) 855 9405 (office)
Email: shhassan@indiana.edu
Dr. Shirin Hassan is a qualified and experienced optometrist and researcher specializing in low vision and mobility. For more than 15 years, her research has been on street crossing decision-making performance, driving, balance control and mobility among normally-sighted, visually impaired and blind people. In 2005, she was awarded a NIH/NEI RO3 grant to develop and validate a novel method to measure how pedestrians use visual and auditory information to make street-crossing decisions. In August 2012, she received a NIH/NEI R01 grant on street crossing decision making in low vision.
Dr. Hassan’s low vision research is clinically applied. It addresses problems faced daily by visually impaired people such as crossing streets safely and general mobility. Her street crossing research provides knowledge into “how” and “why” people with low vision make “safe” or “unsafe” street crossing decisions. Dr. Hassan’s earlier mobility research identified those visual functions that best predicted the mobility performance of people with central or peripheral visual field loss. her current mobility and gait research is assessing how visually impaired people survey their environment and how they use that information when choosing a mobility path or route. Ultimately, Dr. Hassan’s research findings will assist low vision optometrists and visual rehabilitation specialists to identify patients who are at risk for making unsafe street crossing decisions or having poor mobility and path planning, and to know when to refer these patients for rehabilitation training.