I get asked all the time, what my vision is like? Alot of times, to strangers especially, its difficult to explain how much, or little, vision a person has when that person is considered “legally blind”. Because the term “legal blindness” has such a wide spectrum of different vision levels, its extremely difficult to emulae that to someone who has normal vision. In other words, we don’t understand what you see, any better then you understand what we see.
Lets use this picture of a woman as an example. Pretend for a moment, that this picture represents what a person with 20/20, perfect vision, can see.
Now this picture, is what a person with a age-related cataracts sees like. Notice how the image is blurred? People with cataracts see like this all the time, blury like that, almost like your trying to see on a foggy day in cases like mine for instance, which is more distorted then this even.
Now, remember the fact that I have cataracts. In my right eye, the following photo is what happened to my vision about 3 years ago, on top of the foggy day. Notice how there is no vision right in the center? This is a Macular Degeneration photo, but its also what happens in severe cases of Glaucoma, which is what happened in my right eye. The black spot in my right eye is much larger then the one represented in this photo, but gives you a basic idea.
Now in my left eye, this photo demonstrates what happened. Notice how there is still some vision in the center, but is black around it? This is called Glaucoma. Eventually, what will happen, is the black around the edges will consume the entire image, making the sight completely gone within a few years. They can slow this process down with eye drops, but the end result remains the same. Again, the black around the edges is much larger in my case, but this is the general idea.
Another question I get asked alot, if this is all you see, and you really are blind, then how do you get around? To answer this question takes some explaining.
When an adult goes blind, they are given the opportunity to take what is called “Independant living skills training”. This is training that teaches a person how to do everyday tasks, such as cooking, cleaning, dressing themselves, or whatever else we do in our everyday lives.
Along with Independant Living Skills, that person is also given the option to learn what they call Mobility Training. Mobility means getting around, walking from point A to point B, crossing streets, traffic lights, so on and so forth. Much like an Independent living skills instructor, a Mobility trainer is specializes in training for the blind. She or he usually has a Masters Degree in orientation & mobility, so its not just anyone who trains you.
Basically what is taught to a partially sighted person. The partially sighted person is first blindfolded, and then taken out to be trained. The purpose of the blindfold, is to train the individual to not depend on what sight they have. The reason for this, is because a partially sighted person’s sight is not reliable. When you walk out onto a street with floaters in your eyes, or distorted vision, you may think a car is further away then it really is, or get hit by misjudging, so just like in karate training, you first have to learn the blindfold technique, so you learn to use the force, and not your sight. hehe. just joking, but you are blindfolded so that you can use your sense of touch, smell, and hearing, to get from point A to point B.
Just as an example, I can cross a traffic light just by listening to the sound of the traffic. I know that if I am standing at a light, and the car next to me starts up and goes forward, then its my turn to go as well. If I hear that car just sitting there, then I know the light is red, and I stand there and wait, its as simple as that. You use the same technique for arrows in lights, if you hear a car going forward and turning in front of you, you don’t go, but if you hear the car going straight, then you know its safe to cross and you don’t have an arrow.
The white cane is very important. It first alerts the drivers that you are blind, so if your sitting there waiting for a light to change, the driver should be aware that you are blind and just listening for the traffic. If I don’t know if its safe to cross, or not, I won’t cross. There are times in busy intersections, where a blind person has to wait for 2-3 light cycles in order to know its safe to cross. This is a good thing, so don’t interrupt a blind person by screaming out when there trying to listen to the traffic.
Just like at stop signs, 2 and 4 way stops, blind people are taught to go in the order that the cars arrive. If you as a driver go out of order, it makes it more difficult for the blind person to know when its their turn to go, so as a driver, if you see a blind person walking, just obey your traffic laws, and the blind person will not get hurt. Alot of times if I’m not sure, I’ll just wait until all the cars are gone to cross. Again, thats just being over cautious, nothing wrong with that, because alot of drivers do stupid things, like one day I was waiting for a car to go in front of me, the car stopped, so I went, but as soon as I went, he went too, so he ended up running into me. It was as if he was trying to hit me or something because I knew he knew I was there. Because of situations like that, I just stand there and wait til all the cars have gone, that way no miscommunication between drivers and pedestrians.
A division of the state called Vocational Rehabilitation, which is a division of Social Security, pays for all this training, in an attempt to get the person employed. VR as its commonly called, VR’s mission, is to get the disabled off Social Security, and into the workforce. After all, in general terms, its cheaper for the government to train someone how to keep employment, then to keep them on disability the rest of their lives. This is VR’s mission, but some counselors advice their clients better then others.
Some VR counselors won’t pay for training at all, or they will only for a certain length of time, depending upon the counselor. I’ve had most counselors who treat their clients like everything they authorize is taken out of the counselors own personal pocket, so getting authorization is sometimes difficult. Since Mobility and Independant Living Skills training has to be paid for by VR, not all blind or visually impaired people get the training and supplies they need to live their lives. I’ve seen blind and partially sighted clients who never find work, because their counselors don’t get them the supplies and training they need at all, but most only agree to authorize for stuff as long as that client is unemployed.
VR counselors have the authority to authorize for things like, a college degree, glasses, eye exams, mobility and living skills training, braille training, computer software for the blind and the training on how to use it, or anything else that an authorized living skills trainer suggests to VR that the client needs. However, the problem is, not all VR counselors will agree to cover the cost of these things, mostly because they act like everything they authorize comes out of their own personal pockets, which is sad I think, because that only destroys VR’s mission, which is to get clients off disability.
Now me personally, if I was a VR counselor, I’d be searching for ways to get all my clents off disability, so that I wouldn’t have to pay them Social Security checks for the rest of their lives. If I had the attitude that everything I authorized came out of my own personal pocket, then I’d be thinking it would be cheaper in the long run, to get this person employed in a good paying job, instead of paying him or her Social Security benefits out of my own pocket the rest of their lives, but I guess VR counselors get paid the big bucks just to be idiots, I don’t know.
I mean, think about it, say it costs one client $20,000 for 4 years to get that client employed permanently, or $80,000 total. Which would be cheaper? $80,000 or $800 x 12 mo x 20yrs = $192,000? so which would be cheaper? $80 grand or $192 grand? then you take that times 100+ clients, its no wonder the Social Security system is going broke… The goal should be, getting as many of these disabled people employed as possible, especially the younger ones, then paying them Social Security benefits the rest of their lives. I mean, its crazy.
I mean, if it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t get what I need to complete my college degree, I’d not only be employed, but I’d be working for VR to work on fixing this issue, at least in my county. My old VR counselor I had 15 years ago was blind, and he tried and tried to talk me into going to IPFW, but I didn’t listen because I was young and stupid.. All I wanted to do at that time was get married, I thought IPFW was too hard, so I didn’t listen to him..
Now I wish I did, because I’d give anything right now to have a Bachelors Degree from IPFW, and I would have if I had listened to him. Now that I want to, I can’t, because my current VR counselor won’t support me on it. My only hope is to go on FAFSA and Pel grants, now that I’m single not married anymore, I have that opportunity now, just depends if I can get the funding that way or not.
I was thinking either a VR counselor, or a disabilities Coordinator. Disabilities Coordinators make the accomodations for people who are in college, or at school, and I keep thinking, what better person for the job of getting disabled people the things they need in school, then a person who is disabled themselves? and can understand what people with disabilities go thru on a daily basis. If only I can get that college degree, my dreams would be a reality.
