Blindness is More Than No Light Perception

What is, what it isn't, and what NOT to do when you meet a blind person.

To be Legally Blind in the United States, and most other countries, one must have a corrected vision of 20/200 in one or both eyes, centrally, or have no peripheral vision, or a decreased visual field, so as to make remaining vision non- functional. Extreme light sensitivity so that the person cannot stand to open their eyes due to terrible pain, makes vision non functioning, as well.

What this means is that a blind person may have light perception, color perception, and be able to see you directly and closely in front of them, but that they cannot see well, or distinguish many features, such as different facial features. They may have perfectly good vision, but be so sensitive to light, that it is torturous to them to open their eyes; this causes the eyelid to spasm closed, and be nearly impossible to open. This person is functionally blind. A blind person may be born with no eyes, or lose the eyes due to injury or disease. These are all working definitions of blindness.

I am a legally blind person. I have tunnel vision- I cannot see you beside me. I have about 20/200 vision on a good day, 20/300 on a bad day, in my small vision field. For those readers of this article who have 20/20 or better vision this means that standing 20 feet from a given object, I see it as well as you would at 200 or 300 feet away.

Here is a list of reactions I hate receiving from the sighted folks I meet:

• Saying, “I'm Sorry”, “That's sad”, “You're too young for this” or any other equivalent of sympathy. To be brutally frank, the term, “sympathy” is in the dictionary somewhere about halfway between the terms, “shit” and “syphilis”. I do not wish to receive any of the three, thank you anyway.
• Hovering over me, and trying to do everything for me, as though I were mentally challenged, or a child. I am a full-grown woman. Please treat me like one.
• Speaking to me as if the loss of my vision has affected my intellect. I happen to be as intelligent as anyone else. Please don't speak to me like a child.
• Talking to others about me as if I aren't sitting right there. There is no need to explain my condition for me. It is rather like stating the obvious.
• Speaking very preciously to me, or behaving as if you think I may break. I am not made of porcelain, I am a person.
• Placing limits on me that would not be placed on another. I can do everything that anyone else can do, except operate a motorized vehicle of any kind.

Another thing I would like for sighted people to know and understand is that my white cane is your signal that I may need directions to the bathroom or another place that do not include the words, “over there”, “right there”, or “here”. They only serve to frustrate us both. Proper directions include the words, “right”, “left” “behind” forward” and by the imagination of a clock. For example, “Your coffee is at four o'clock on the table, against your plate. Meat is at 6 o'clock, potatoes at four, corn at noon.”

If the sighted community knew more about blindness, and what it is, what it is not, and how to deal with the blind people they meet, the world would be a much less awkward place. Yes, I am blind, but I am still myself, and still a whole person. The only thing that can stop me is the Department of Motor Vehicles and myself.