The Ultimate Blindness & Sight Impairment Resource Guide

A visually impaired person is one who has difficulty seeing. There are different levels of visual impairment including low vision, legal blindness and total blindness. Visually impaired individuals are entitled to the same human rights as anyone else. To assist them in living lives as efficiently as people with no visual impairments, there have been many breakthroughs in technology. Blind people can be of any age and can descend from any race, color or culture of people. Therefore, it is important to understand the disability, the ways is can be caused and the measures that are being taken to assist those affected. Blindness & Sight Impairment Statistics It is estimated that 39 million people in the world have vision impairments that render them either legally or totally blind. 1.3 million of these individuals live in the United States and a large percentage are over the age of 65. Additionally, another 246 million people have low vision. Accommodating blind individuals costs the government $4 billion each year. Globally speaking, the vast majority of people with visual impairments live in developing countries. Between 75 and 80% of these cases could have been avoided or can be cured. One-third of all vision impairments are caused by cataracts. 43% are caused by uncorrected refractive errors such as astigmatism, myopia or hyperopia. These conditions are easily treated. Blindness & Sight Impairment Classifications Perfect vision is said to be 20/20, which means that an individual can read a certain size of letter at a distance of 20 feet away. Someone who has 20/70 vision or worse is said to have low vision. The letters are more than three times larger than those labeled 20/20 on the eye chart, yet an individual still struggles to see them properly. Standard glasses and magnification cannot correct this level of blindness and if the condition is bad enough, the individual cannot legally drive. More impairing than low vision is legal blindness. A person who is legally blind must have vision that is 20/200 or worse. Someone who cannot see at all is considered totally blind. Other Types of Blindness The types of blindness previously discussed are general levels of visual impairment. However, there are more specific types of blindness that affect many Americans and other people around the world. The most common include the following. Diabetic Retinopathy: Damage to the eye caused by diabetes. Specifically, the blood vessels of the retina are blocked, of abnormal sizes or are hemorrhaging. Snow Blindness: The wintertime is often brighter than any other time of the year. This is due to the highly reflective nature of snow. Exposure to this light in excess can actually burn the retinas and cause a condition known as snow blindness. Retinitis Pigmentosa & Macular Degeneration: Retinitis Pigmentosa is a disease that decreases a person’s field of vision as it persists. It is unknown how the disease develops. Macular Degeneration is a different disease that affects the macula, which is located on the middle of the back of the eye. People with Macular Degeneration may see a large black spot wherever they look. Glaucoma: Glaucoma is the result of fluids building up within the eye, causing pressure and damaging important nerves. Night Blindness: The inability to see well in low levels of light is considered night blindness. Of course it is always more difficult to see in the dark, but the healthy human eye should be able to adjust to different levels of light and make it easier to see. Color Blindness: Color blindness is different from the other types of visual impairments in that it doesn’t affect the focus of an image, just the physical appearance through depiction of color. Most people who are color blind are not actually blind to color; the cones in their eyes just have trouble distinguishing between certain colors.  Common Causes of Blindness. Vision can be lost or damaged in a number of ways. One of the most basic is accidents. Proper precautions should be taken when working with sharp objects or chemicals. Another cause for blindness or visual impairment is cataracts, which are cloudy lenses within the eye.  Assistive Technology for Blindness One way that visually impaired individuals are accommodated is that the United States Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from turning them down based on their ability to see. Blindness can be overcome in the workplace with “reasonable accommodation,” and there are several technologies that have been developed to serve just this purpose. The most common is the white cane, which has become a symbolic image for the visually impaired. Improvements to the standard white can are still being developed. Braille, a system of reading and writing based on raised bumps or dots arranged in a pattern was designed in 1825. Additionally, there are technologies that aid the visually impaired in reading computer screens. Braille keyboards allow individuals to type without having to see the keys. Screen magnification software allows for the information displayed to be viewed at up to twenty times its normal size. Screen readers are software programs that will read the text found on a screen including documents, web pages and even menus. Digital book readers are among the newer developments. These playback systems store mass quantities of audio books from files or CDs. There are also less technological options. Guide dogs are professionally trained to lead blind people around while avoiding obstacles and other dangers. All businesses are required to allow service animals as per the Americans with Disabilities Act. To receive the appropriate accommodation in the workplace, there are certain steps that need to be taken as proof of the impairment. The first step, as always, is diagnosis. 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