While low vision or legal blindness can be limiting, there are many resources and tools to help you live your life with the utmost independence. Depending on the cause of your vision loss, you may be able to benefit from eye exercises and strategies to participate in daily activities. You may also find it helpful to use a stick, talking calculator, special computer software, and other products to help people who are legally blind. Total blindness describes a complete lack of light and perception of form. In other words, completely blind people cannot see the light and cannot see the shape of anything in front of them. Total blindness is rare – 85% of people with eye diseases have some vision, meaning that only about 15% of people with eye disease go completely blind. People who are legally blind are not always completely blind, so they may be able to read. However, reading can be difficult depending on the degree of impairment. An eSight tool can help blind people perform everyday tasks such as reading. The terms may also be used by health insurers to determine benefits and as part of the vision screening tests required by state departments of motor vehicles (DMV) when determining driver`s license eligibility. For safety reasons, people who are legally blind or visually impaired are generally not entitled to a driver`s licence. Assistive technologies can help improve the remaining vision of legally blind people. Through the use of advanced technologies, users benefit from significantly improved visual acuity, which supports activities of daily living.
eSight is specially designed for visually impaired people, including the blind, to improve their eyesight and lead normal lives. It has helped improve vision in people with more than 20 different eye conditions, including macular degeneration, Stargardt disease, diabetic retinopathy and more. There are many conditions that can cause legal blindness, but the most common are age-related eye diseases. Age-related eye diseases, which are the main causes of low vision and blindness, include: Did you know: The largest letter on the map (an E on most Snellen diagrams) is equivalent to 20/200 vision. If someone cannot distinguish this letter with his prescribed glasses, he is considered blind within the meaning of the law. You can only drive legally if you can read a license plate from a distance of 20 meters (65 feet) and an eye test shows that your visual acuity is at least 6/12. You can wear glasses or contact lenses when reading the chart of plates or letters. An ophthalmologist will measure visual acuity and visual field to determine if a person is legally blind. If you or someone you know learns that they are legally blind, organizations like the American Foundation for the Blind can help. They enable programs that help people cope with the physical and emotional effects of vision loss. There are assistive technologies available to improve the vision of people who are legally blind. For example, eSight is an eyeglass device that can greatly improve vision and improve quality of life.
Legal blindness does not mean that someone cannot see anything at all. In fact, most people who are legally blind retain some eyesight. You can see objects directly in front of you, but not on the sides (tunnel vision). Or they have good peripheral vision but have difficulty seeing objects directly in front of them (loss of central vision). In most cases, people who are legally blind have their field of vision so narrow or blurred that daily activities are made more difficult. Some people also have blind spots that can`t be corrected with glasses or contact lenses. Glaucoma accounts for 9-12% of all cases of blindness and is characterized by high pressure in the eyeball. Constantly high intraocular pressure can damage the optic nerve and lead to visual disturbances.
If you are blind or visually impaired, you may be referred to a low vision clinic, which is often located in a hospital. Clinic staff can help you understand your condition and cope with your diagnosis. A common test for visual acuity is Snellen`s eye chart. Someone who is legally blind could simply read the top row of the chart, a capital E, while wearing corrective lenses. The line under the capital E is the line for 20/100. There are also tests that can measure between 20/200 and 20/100. Someone who can`t see the line for 20/100 but sees somewhere between 20/100 and 20/200 would still meet the government`s standard of legal blindness, which is why they are listed as “20/200 or less.” For people with legal blindness, different treatment options are available depending on the cause of their visual impairment. However, in some cases, such as retinal degeneration disorders, the symptoms can be treated, but there is no cure. The legal definition of blindness varies slightly from country to country. In the United States, Canada and most European countries, this is defined as follows: – Better corrected visual acuity of 20/200 (6/60) or worse in the best eye – Field of view of 20 degrees or less In these communities, people share their daily life experiences, including moving out of an apartment, ordering skin care products from Amazon, and everything else. Here`s a link to YouTube influencer Molly Burke`s experience traveling alone as a blind person: The general guideline for classifying as legally blind is a vision of 20/200 or less.
This means that what a person with normal vision can see from 200 feet away, you can only see from 20 feet away. Visual impairment, on the other hand, is defined as 20/70 vision in the best eye with glasses or contact lenses. Although poor vision can interfere with daily activities, vision loss is not as profound as legal blindness. “Legally blind” is the definition of blindness used by the United States Social Security Administration (SSA) to determine whether a person is eligible for disability benefits, tax exemptions, and training for the visually impaired. While the terms “poor eyesight,” “legal blindness,” and “total blindness” may sound similar, they describe different things. Opticians and government agencies generally define legal blindness as a person who has 20/200 vision in the best eye, even with glasses or contact lenses, indicating a significant vision deficit. Note: The criteria for facial acuity and visual field for driving are different from the criteria for registration as blind under the law. In the United States and Australia, the quality of your driving depends on the driver`s license laws of different states.