The VA recognizes more than two dozen eye conditions for disability compensation, ranging from glaucoma and cataracts to retinal detachment and chronic conjunctivitis. Your rating depends not just on the diagnosis but on how much the condition affects your vision, measured through visual acuity, visual field loss, or how frequently you need treatment. Ratings for eye disabilities range from 0% to 100%.
Eye Conditions the VA Rates
The VA’s rating schedule includes specific diagnostic codes for each qualifying eye condition. The major categories cover diseases of the eye itself, structural problems with the eyelids and surrounding tissue, and impairment of eye muscle function. Here are the recognized conditions:
- Diseases of the eye: choroidopathy (including uveitis, iritis, cyclitis, and choroiditis), keratopathy, scleritis, retinopathy or maculopathy, intraocular hemorrhage, retinal detachment, unhealed eye injury (including orbital trauma and penetrating or non-penetrating injuries), tuberculosis of the eye, retinal scars or atrophy, angle-closure glaucoma, open-angle glaucoma, optic neuropathy, cataracts, and diabetic retinopathy
- Tumors: malignant and benign neoplasms of the eye, orbit, and surrounding structures
- Eyelid and structural conditions: ptosis (drooping eyelid), ectropion (outward-turning eyelid), entropion (inward-turning eyelid), lagophthalmos (inability to fully close the eyelid), complete loss of eyebrows, complete loss of eyelashes, and disorders of the tear duct system
- Other conditions: central nystagmus (involuntary eye movement), trachomatous conjunctivitis, chronic conjunctivitis, and diplopia (double vision)
If your specific condition isn’t listed, the VA can still rate it under an analogous code. For example, vision problems caused by a traumatic brain injury might be rated under optic neuropathy or visual field loss codes depending on how the condition manifests.
How the VA Calculates Your Rating
Most eye conditions are rated one of two ways: based on how much they impair your vision, or based on how many treatment visits they require. The VA uses whichever method gives you the higher rating.
For the treatment-based approach, the VA counts “incapacitating episodes,” meaning clinic visits specifically for treatment of your eye condition over the past 12 months. The scale works like this: 1 to 2 visits gets a 10% rating, 3 to 4 visits gets 20%, 5 to 6 visits gets 40%, and 7 or more visits gets 60%. Treatments that count include injections into or around the eye, laser procedures, surgical interventions, and certain medications.
For the vision-based approach, the VA measures three things: visual acuity (sharpness), visual field (peripheral vision), and muscle function (alignment and movement). Each has its own rating table.
Visual Acuity Ratings
Visual acuity is measured using a Snellen chart, the standard letter chart you’ve read at every eye exam. The VA rates based on your best corrected distance vision, meaning the sharpest you can see with glasses or contacts. Your rating depends on the acuity in both eyes considered together. Worse vision in both eyes means a higher combined rating, while impairment in only one eye with normal vision in the other results in a lower percentage.
As a general benchmark, if one eye has 20/200 vision (legal blindness) and the other is normal at 20/40, you’d receive a 20% rating. If both eyes are at 20/200, the rating jumps to 70%. Total blindness in both eyes is rated at 100%.
Visual Field Loss Ratings
Loss of peripheral vision is rated separately from acuity. The VA measures your remaining visual field at eight points around each eye, averages them, and assigns a rating based on how much field you’ve lost. The ratings for concentric contraction (tunnel vision) are substantial:
- Remaining field of 5 degrees or less: 100% bilateral, 30% unilateral
- Remaining field of 6 to 15 degrees: 70% bilateral, 20% unilateral
- Remaining field of 16 to 30 degrees: 50% bilateral, 10% unilateral
- Remaining field of 31 to 45 degrees: 30% bilateral, 10% unilateral
- Remaining field of 46 to 60 degrees: 10% bilateral, 10% unilateral
Specific patterns of field loss also have set ratings. Losing the lower half of your visual field in both eyes rates at 30%, while losing the upper half in both eyes rates at 10%. This reflects the practical reality that lower field loss interferes more with daily tasks like walking and reading. If you have both reduced acuity and visual field loss in the same eye, the VA rates each separately and then combines them.
Double Vision Ratings
Diplopia is rated based on where in your field of vision the doubling occurs. Double vision in your central 20 degrees of sight is treated as equivalent to 5/200 acuity, which is near-total vision loss in that eye. Double vision further out toward the periphery gets progressively lower equivalent ratings. If your double vision is occasional or correctable with glasses, it’s rated at 0%.
Secondary Eye Conditions
You don’t have to have injured your eyes during service to qualify. Eye problems caused by another service-connected condition are eligible as “secondary” disabilities. The two most common sources are diabetes and traumatic brain injury.
Diabetic retinopathy has its own diagnostic code and is rated using the same general formula as other eye diseases, based on either visual impairment or treatment frequency. If you have service-connected diabetes and develop retinopathy, the connection is well-established medically, but you still need retinal imaging and documentation of your diabetic history to support the claim. Vision problems from TBI, such as blurred vision, light sensitivity, or difficulty focusing, typically require neurological testing to document the link between the brain injury and the visual impairment.
The Paired Organ Rule for Eyes
The VA has a special rule for paired organs that can significantly affect your compensation. If you have service-connected vision loss in one eye and non-service-connected vision loss in the other, the VA may compensate you as though both eyes are service-connected. This applies when both eyes have visual acuity of 20/200 or worse, or when both eyes have a peripheral field of 20 degrees or less. The non-service-connected loss cannot be the result of your own willful misconduct. This rule exists because the combined effect of losing useful vision in both eyes is far more disabling than losing it in one.
Special Monthly Compensation for Blindness
Veterans with severe vision loss may qualify for Special Monthly Compensation on top of their standard disability rating. SMC-K can be added to any disability rating from 0% to 100% for anatomical loss of one eye. SMC-L applies to blindness in both eyes. Higher SMC levels cover situations like blindness combined with only light perception remaining, or total loss of both eyes. These payments are separate from and in addition to your regular compensation.
What Happens at the Eye Exam
Your Compensation and Pension exam for an eye claim involves specific tests the VA requires. Visual acuity is measured on a Snellen chart with your best corrective lenses. If the examiner finds a difference of two or more lines between your distance and near vision (with near being worse), that’s noted separately.
Visual field testing must be done using Goldmann kinetic perimetry or an approved automated perimeter that simulates Goldmann testing. The results are recorded on a standardized chart showing at least 16 measurement points for each eye. If you have double vision, the areas of diplopia are mapped on a Goldmann perimeter chart divided into four quadrants plus the central field. These specific testing requirements matter because results from non-approved methods may not be accepted for rating purposes.
How Medication Affects Your Rating
A 2026 VA rule clarified how treatment factors into your rating. If medication or treatment lowers your level of disability, your rating is based on that improved level of function. The VA examiner will not speculate about how much better your condition might be with treatment you aren’t receiving, but will evaluate your actual functional ability under your current treatment. This means your rating reflects how your eyes actually perform day to day, including whatever benefit you’re getting from current prescriptions, eye drops, or procedures.