There was an informative Ask Yahoo today about “legal blindness”. Apparently if your vision is worse than 20/200, you’re legally blind. Curious, I took off my glasses and held a piece of paper with approximately one centimeter high writing on it (as per the instructions) two feet from my face. As expected, it was an impenetrable blur. So go me! I’m blind.
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That’s not quite true, though…the American Optometric Association (which they link to) defines legal blindness as “visual acuity that cannot be corrected to better than 20/200 with conventional lenses and/or the patient has a restricted field of vision less that 20 degrees wide.” Your (and my) vision can be corrected, so we’re just blind in the colloquial sense of the word…
Yeah, I was just discussing that with the Snook. It’s a bit weird that they left out the “can be corrected” bit. I mean, with my glasses or contacts I’m 20/20 or better. But they don’t mention it; they just say that if you’re worse than 20/200, you’re blind. Huh. What’s your prescription anyway? I’m -6.0 and -8.0.
I was just reading an article about a woman who’s legally blind (I forget her name) who will run in the upcoming NYC marathon. She hopes to have a 2:32 debut time. Amazing.
Casey took the words right out of my mouth. Next time you visit your friendly optomitrist (or optician), you’ll notice that the big ‘E’ on the chart is 20/200. I’m like you, I know it’s a big E because I know it’s a big E.
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Defpotec is the 20/20 line… and the way my grandfather got into USMA and my dad got into USNA. I’m worse than 20/200 in my left eye and can’t even fake that one anymore. (-2.25 and -.75)
You’d think they’d change the eye charts by now. 🙂
Heh. I’m going to remember that. Well, except that I have optometrist-guilt issues. When they do the “better here? better here?” testing, I always feel like I’m making it up and they know and they’re giving me the same ones over and over again to prove that I’m an idiot. Lately I’ve taken to saying, “It’s hard to tell…” a lot.
And I hate the “do the letters look clearer against the red or green?” test. I always feel like they’re going to tell me I’m color blind or something. I’ve started asking them why we do every test and what it checks for. At least this way I’ll be able to fake my answers better. (Just kidding, Jenny.) 🙂
I found the link about the blind marathon runner; she did finish first among U.S. Women!