In this article, we will talk about the differences between people with low vision and totally visually impaired people.
First of all, who is called visually impaired?
We had talked about this subject in detail in this article (in Turkish), but it would be good to talk about it briefly here.
In summary, a visually impaired person is who has been diagnosed with 40% or greater vision loss after seeing a doctor.
Visual impairment is divided into two by total visual impairment and low vision. So, what exactly are the differences between a person with total vision loss and a person who has low vision?
People with total visual impairment cannot see anything. They can’t perceive colors, lights, or objects. Their eyes are in an unusable state and there is no remedy for this condition.
People with low vision are people who have their sight considerably reduced untreatably due to a disease (retinitis pigmentosa, cataracts, eye pressure, glaucoma, etc.) and cannot be corrected with any correctional tools (eyeglasses, lenses, etc.) The above-mentioned diseases can make a person with low vision completely blind, especially Retinitis Pigmentosa.
Who is called blind?
The word blind is another usage of the word visually impaired. Most visually impaired people can call themselves blind. There is no harm in calling a visually impaired person blind unless it is offensive.
Can a person with total visual impairment be called blind?
Yes, people with total visual impairment can be called blind as well, because they don’t see anything.
What are the common misconceptions about people with low vision?
Are people with low vision visually impaired?
People usually think that people with low vision aren’t visually impaired, because like sighted people, they can see, even though restricted.
People with low vision are considered visually impaired because the rate of vision cannot be improved with eyeglasses or lenses and because the probability of vision gradually decreases.
As a preparation for the day that they will lose their sight completely, people with low vision can use a white cane or they can prefer to use a screen reader while reading text instead of using a magnifier to avoid eye strain.
Alongside being able to use the braille alphabet for reading, they can read books with font sizes larger than normal.
Can people with low vision establish eye contact?
People with total visual impairment can’t establish eye contact while talking to other people because they can’t see, but people with low vision can establish eye contact while communicating with people, but the fact that they can establish eye contact doesn’t mean that they aren’t visually impaired.
What are the challenges that people with low vision face?
People with low vision are stuck between having a vision and not having vision. Because of this, they can experience dilemma within themselves.
When they state that they are visually impaired within the community, they can get answers like “you can see, how are you visually impaired?”.
These kinds of answers are because society thinks that the term visually impaired only applies to people with total visual impairment. However, the term visually impaired is used for people who have vision loss of %40 or above as we stated above.
While people with total visual impairment can’t establish eye contact at all, people with low vision can establish eye contact, even if they can’t exactly see someone’s eyes. This is due to the fact that the brain gives the impression of eye contact when it can’t fully detect the person.
How do people with total visual impairment and people with low vision use the white cane?
While people with total visual impairment must use a white cane, people with low vision can walk on the road without using a white cane if their sight is sufficient, or they might prefer to use a white cane to protect themselves.
In this article, we tried to explain the differences between people with total visual impairment and people with low vision.
As BlindLook, our aim is to solve all of the problems visually impaired people face, whether it be people with total visual impairment or people with low vision, and to try to help these people become useful people to the community by integrating these people into life.
Author: Fatih Yüksek / BlindLook Team
