Low Vision
November 3, 2015 -
“I don’t know why they keep making the type smaller on these medicine bottles.” “Is the print smaller in the NY Times? I swear I have to hold it up to my nose to read it!” “Did they just add that step to my cottage?”
These and other comments begin to creep into our conversations with friends and leave us sputtering in consternation. Then one day someone dares to say, “Betty, I think your eyesight is failing. You’d better get an eye exam and see what’s going on.”
With heavy heart, you go to the eye doctor. As the dreaded eye chart comes on the wall and you look through both, then right and left eyes, you realize something has happened. You have been wearing glasses but they don’t work for you like they used to. Roughly 10% of people age 55 to 84 and 26% of people 85 and above have low vision. It is defined as unable to correct an eye to 20/70 by refraction and legally blind means unable to correct to 20/200. The most prevalent age-related causes are macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataract.
It seems that watching television or reading are the first places you notice a change, and although drug store reading glasses help, an eye exam is in order. There may not be any serious problem, but adjustments for your acuity issues are called for. Ophthalmologists don't meet the expenses of their office by coaching you on these adjustments, so advice from friends with low vision, books and education events are your best sources as you make these transitions.
At Carol Woods, our interest group meets every two months with a speaker or topic of general interest. We discuss ways that Carol Woods can be more friendly to low vision people and share tips with how we are coping. We are learning strategies such as changing the perceived size of objects, lighting, contrast between objects and background, bright clear colors and organization that can ease our quality of life. The electronic tablet readers, computers that enlarge print and are voice activated, and free books on CD from the NC Service for the Blind are helping to keep us up to speed in our heavily information-based environment.
Unless we carry a white cane or wear a “low vision button” you cannot tell whether we have low vision. It isn’t easy to ask for help, but if we say, “I remember your voice but not your name,” oblige us by discreetly saying your name. Once you know, greet us with your name so the hazy environment we live in can be made comfortable again.
—Written by Carol Woods resident Jan D.