Dr Ahalya Subramanian graduated from the Elite School of Optometry in Chennai, India. During her undergraduate degree she was awarded several subject medals including the best optometry student three years in a row. Following graduation Ahalya worked at Sankara Nethralaya, a well-known ophthalmic institution in India and the Elite School of Optometry before coming to the United Kingdom to commence a PhD in visual impairment at UMIST (now the University of Manchester) funded by the Guide Dogs for Blind Association.
Following completion of her doctoral studies Ahalya took up a post-doctoral position at Anglia Ruskin University before starting her career as an Optometry lecturer at the Department of Optometry and Visual Sciences at City, University of London where she is currently an associate professor. Since joining City Ahalya has held several senior management positions including Programme -Director for the Foundation Degree in Ophthalmic dispensing and Undergraduate Optometry programme and more recently (2016-2019) Head of Department.
Ahalya also holds several external positions and is currently a Trustee for Vision Action. Ahalya’s main research interests lie in the field of Visual Impairment. Her early research was mainly quantitative investigating spatial localisation, reaching and grasping and reading. More recently she has become interested in qualitative research and the use of technology. For example, the use of mobile electronic devices such as smart phones for visually impaired people and the development of a virtual assistant to provide timely support to individuals with visual impairment.
She is also interested in the impact that COVID-19 has had on visually impaired people and how low vision services have been altered as a result including remote low vision services. Ahalya has presented her work at national and international conferences and has a growing number of publications in peer reviewed journals. Details are available on her ORCID page. Her research has been funded by the College of Optometrists, Macular Society, RNIB, Royal Society, Eleanor Peel Trust, Fight for Sight, and the Institutional Global Challenges Research Fund.
Apart from researching in the area, Ahalya also lectures on visual impairment to foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate optometry students and continues to work once a month in a hospital low vision clinic.