Marshall Flax, MS, CLVT, COMS

Marshall Flax is a certified low vision therapist and certified orientation and mobility specialist with over 25 years of experience in the field of vision rehabilitation. He is Director of Vision Rehabilitation at the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired and owner of Fork in the Road Vision Rehabilitation Services. Marshall has authored and co-authored books, chapters, and articles on various topics in low vision rehabilitation, including Compensation for Visual Impairment in Reading and Writing in Low Vision: Occupational Therapy Intervention With the Older Adult (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2000).

Marshall has been president of the Low Vision Division 7 of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals (ACVREP).  He is also the co-chair of the ACVREP Low Vision Therapy Certification Committee.

Marshall  earned his Master of Science degree at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Behavioral Disabilities, and received his initial training in low vision rehabilitation at the William F. Feinbloom Vision Rehabilitation Center at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. 

Aside from manufacturing low vision simulators, he is a regular speaker to classes in the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Marshall has also lectured to occupational therapy students and has supervised interns in the clerkship program. As a volunteer faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, he instructs residents and medical students in vision rehabilitation.

“What I enjoy most about vision rehabilitation is when the consumer realizes that he or she has regained function and independence and starts to move out into the world. It’s really great when people don’t need me anymore."

Marshall says that his career has been guided by a quote from Helen Keller: "A person who is severely impaired never knows his hidden source of strength until he is treated like a normal human being and encouraged to shape his own life."