Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Conference 2026

Many people who have had a hemispherectomy, or other surgeries which remove or disconnect an occipital lobe, live with homonymous hemianopia. One of the biggest questions families ask as kids become teens and young adults is: Can they ever drive safely and legally? In this session, vision researcher Alex Bowers, PhD will share what we currently know about driving with homonymous hemianopia and what factors matter most for real-world safety.

Dr. Bowers collected study data with our community at the 2024 Boston conference, where teens and young adults completed vision and driving-related testing. She will return to the conference to report back to families, explain what the testing measured, and share what the results suggest about driving readiness, compensatory strategies, and where the research is headed.

Families will leave with a clearer understanding of how driving is evaluated for people with visual field loss, what questions to ask your eye care team and state licensing agency, and practical strategies that can help with everyday mobility and independence, whether or not driving is the right goal.

Session times are placeholders for now. Final times will be set once we confirm clinician schedules.