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The congressional legislation that created the National Eye Institute (NEI) mandates research on amelioration of the impact of impaired vision and blindness on health and well- being. The current NEI research program on visual impairment and its rehabilitation can be divided into six areas. Laboratory research is a fundamental yet often underappreciated pillar of research on visual impairment and blindness. A major goal of this area is to develop a scientific basis for understanding normal visual functioning that can be extended to explain the disabilities experienced by people with low vision, blindness, and other visual processing deficits.

As part of the federal government's National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Eye Institute's mission is to "conduct and support research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight, and the special health problems and requirements of the blind."