I can't see you, but I can see!
Viewing our world through eyes declared Legally Blind.
By Joe Clawges, Sr. with assistance and collaboration by the 400 member on-
and its director Dan Roberts. Clawges is an octogenarian who is Legally Blind from Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).
One of the most frequently mentioned frustrations, expressed by people having macular degeneration, concerns their inability to adequately explain to family and friends the precise nature of vision changes. Notably why they can see some things, but not others. Medical professionals have attempted to demonstrate the nature of the changes via the use of charts. In this article, we will authentically reveal, by photographic images, exactly how a legally blinded person, inflicted with macular degeneration, can see in a variety of circumstances:
Copyright 2008, all rights reserved.
By definition, blind is applied to anyone who has zero perception of light. They
live in total darkness and are easily recognized by familiar seeing-
Legal blindness is defined by the American Medical Association: Central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with corrective glasses or central visual acuity of more than 20/200 if there is a visual field defect in which the peripheral field is contracted to such an extent that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees in the better eye
"Acuity" is a means of measuring sharpness of perception which is derived from central vision. The normal visual field is 180 degrees, and is referred to as peripheral vision. Via the AMA definition anyone whose peripheral vision is 20 degrees, or less, is declared legally blind. Thus, legal blindness, which is neither incurable nor reversible, is the result of loss of either central or peripheral vision, or both.
In macular degeneration, it is the central vision that is destroyed; this can result inability to see fine details, to read, or to recognize faces.
There is an estimated 1.3 million legally blind Americans, according to the American Foundation for the Blind, and approximately 10 million visually impaired people in the U.S.