The whole of February is Low Vision Awareness month and because of this, I thought I would dedicate a blog post explaining what actually constitutes as being “low vision” as well as the different types of sight loss people can experience.
Low vision refers to any eye condition that causes reduced vision which can not be fully corrected by glasses, contact lenses or corrective surgery, and affects a person’s day-to-day life.
There are many different terms for referring to being low vision: visually impaired; partially sighted; severely sight impaired, etc. Many of which can be used interchangeably, however some people feel that there are certain terms which they feel they identify with better.
If you have met one person living with sight loss, you have only met one person with sight loss.
An important message which I try to get across to people, is that sight loss is a huge spectrum. No two people with an eye condition will see exactly the same. Moreover, different types of eye conditions will have very different impacts on a person’s vision.
The different ways in which eye conditions can affect vision.
Visual acuity: Visual acuity refers to the level of detail and how far a person can see. This is tested at the opticians through them having you read down the chart with letters on the Snellen chart. How far down you can see determines your visual acuity.
To be registered as partially sighted / sight impaired, your visual acuity has to be no better than 6/24 when wearing corrective glasses. What this means is that someone with normal vision would be able to clearly see from 24 metres away, someone with 6/24 vision would need to be standing 6 metres away.
Furthermore, to be registered as blind / severely sight impaired, your visual acuity needs to be 6/60 when corrected to its best while wearing prescription glasses.
Loss of central vision: Another way to be registered as sight impaired, is through having loss of central vision. Someone with loss of central vision cannot see out the centre , but can make out objects from the sides. Conditions like Macular degeneration causes the loss of central vision, and can lead to deterioration over time, making the blind spot in the middle spreading out further.
Loss of peripheral vision: This is essentially tunnel vision, when you can’t see things to the side of you. However the degree can vary. Conditions like Retinitis Pigmentosa and Glaucoma cause this loss of peripheral vision and are often progressive, meaning that the window of vision will start getting smaller and smaller over time.
Lack of depth perception: Some eye conditions, including both of my eye conditions (Nystagmus and Strabismus), cause reduced depth perception. This affects your ability to determine how far something is away from you and makes staircases look more of a slope down rather than being able to distinguish the change in level between steps.
Night blindness: The clue is very much in the name of this one. There are some eye conditions which cause people to not be able to see at all in the dark despite having some useful vision in a brightly lit place.
Ways in which sight loss can affect day-to-day life.
Many of us living with a vision impairment are unable to drive. One big impact of this is the ability to get to work. There is still a really big issue with only 25% of working-age partially sighted and blind people are in employment.
While public transport is generally quite good across the UK, even this can be tricky to navigate with reduced vision. Many of us cannot read the numbers on buses to see which bus to get on, or when to get off. Many train stations are inaccessible too with the train times and platform numbers being on the digital screens.
I could name lots of practical things that sight loss has an impact on, however I also want to highlight the emotional impact living with a vision impairment can have. Without wanting to get too negative on this post, I do want to bring awareness to the fact that a high percentage of people living with a sight impairment do experience mental health difficulties as a result of the impact their disability has.
Being born sighted and then losing it later in life is a big bereavement. Additionally, even when born visually impaired, it can still feel quite isolating at times. I don’t know what it is like to have normal vision, however I’ve known since being a child that I was different and that I was treated differently by others. I am also very aware of my added challenges.
You cannot see vision impairments.
Many visually impaired people who share their experiences online get accused of “not looking blind” because of the fact that their eyes look normal. I talked about this in my very first blog post, that people have this assumption that blind people’s eyes are cloudy-looking. This is only true for certain types of conditions, such as with Glaucoma. Most eye conditions cause the outer eye to look completely normal, as it is typically the nerves at the back of the eye, or the brain, which causes the vision impairment.
As you can see, vision impairments can affect people in so many different ways. We all have different requirements depending on the severity and type of eye condition.
I hope you found this more informative style of blog post interesting.
Becky. X
