Blind and Vision Impairment

Millions of Americans have the tendency to confuse being vision impaired as being blind but in all actuality they are different. This summary will break down the different components of blindness and vision impaired highlighting the components of the two. Blindness: When a person is legally blind their visual acuity is 20/200 or worse in the better eye with corrective lenses (20/200 means that a person at 20 feet from an eye chart can see what a person with normal vision could see at 200 feet).

Visual field restriction to 20 degrees or less (tunnel vision) in the better is another component to blindness.

An individual who suffers from advanced glaucoma, retinal degenerations, and neurologic disorders usually qualify under this criterion. Legal blindness is very common in older people because eyesight tends to worsen with time and age. Approximately 135 out of every 1,000 people over the age of 65 are considered legally blind. About 1. 3 million Americans fall into this category. Only about 10% of legally blind people read Braille, and a much smaller percentage use white canes or guide dogs.

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Vision Impairment:

Visual Impairment or Vision Impairment is vision loss that constitutes a significant limitation of visual capability resulting from disease, trauma, or a congenital or degenerative condition that cannot be corrected by conventional means, including refractive correction, medication, or surgery. Partially sighted indicates some type of visual problem, with a need of a person to receive special education in some cases. Low vision generally refers to a severe visual impairment, not necessarily limited to distance vision.

Low vision applies to all individuals with sight who are unable to read the newspaper at a normal viewing distance, even with the aid of eyeglasses or contact lenses.

They use a combination of vision and other senses to learn, although they may require adaptations in lighting or the size of print, and sometimes, Braille. Common phrases used with vision impairment is near-sighted or short-sighted, the correct term is Myopic which is unable to see distant objects clearly. Another common phrases used with vision impairment is far-sighted or long-sighted; the correct term is Hyperopic which is unable to see close objects clearly.