The present invention discloses a hand-held autonomous visual acuity measurement apparatus and a visual acuity measuring method. The invention comprises a corneal curvature measurement module comprising a first light source for emitting a first light beam and a first image collector for collecting an image formed from the first light beam after it has been reflected by cornea, the first image collector being movably provided in the corneal curvature measurement optical path of the corneal curvature measurement module, and the corneal curvature measurement module further comprises a first motor for driving the first image collector to move along the corneal curvature measurement optical path so that the first image collector moves to the imaging position. Employing the first motor to drive the first image collector to automatically focus, requires no assistance from a second person to adjust the focus, and the subject may complete the vision measurement by oneself, the present invention has capability of being operated by one subject, and convenient visual acuity measurement, and can effectively achieve miniaturization and portablity of optometry systems.
