Although my daughter is not vision impaired, we use this abacus. She likes to do math with her "rubies and pearls" and can literally feel the difference between 5 and 5 plus another number, which is great for my hands-on learner. I think it's prettier than the standard AL Abacus, but the beads don't slide quite as freely. This is, so far, the only drawback I have found to it, and I feel the wooden frame is superior to the plastic of the standard version.