Vision voice: An exploration of diabetes and vision loss in New York City's most affected neighborhoods

“Vision Voice” is an educational video created by community members in East Harlem and the South Bronx, New York in collaboration with the Communities IMPACT Diabetes Center, a community-academic coalition focused on addressing diabetes-related disparities, and the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center. The project seeks to raise awareness among residents, health care providers and community leaders about the importance of vision health in a community with a high incidence of diabetes and other chronic conditions that affect eyesight.

Participants, all of whom have pre-diabetes/diabetes and varying degrees of vision impairment, took part in a photovoice project, a process intended to empower participants to identify, represent, and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique. A sub-set of these participants went on to take part in the documentary video, which depicts how diabetes and vision loss affects their daily lives. Participants provided their ideas on structure and content for the video, with regular meetings during the filming and editing process with the project team.