Visual Impairment

The world of visual impairment is varied and vast. Impairments can range from simple vision corrections with the use of corrective lenses all the way to complete vision loss. There was a great article I came across a while back that helped me, and ultimately drove me to write up my own version of what visual impairment from the eyes of Teena looks like.

It all started October 2012. Up to this point I had what would be considered normal corrected vision. With some minor help of contacts & occasionally glasses I had 20/20 vision. After October and a diagnosis of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension I was left with aprox 45% of my vision. January 3rd, 2013 I was told I was legally blind; no peripheral vision or night vision. My husband explained it best, and I've used his analogy ever since - It's like looking through a pair of toilet paper tubes. My right eye I have between 5-10% vision left, and my left eye has 35-40% vision left. I have central vision (the same corrected vision I had before just lots less) so I make eye contact and track things with my eyes, but there is a lot that goes unnoticed. I frequently trip over things because I can't see my feet unless I'm staring directly down at them. I am not allowed to drive any more. However because I don't use a cane many people don't realize I even have a visual impairment. I have a cane, and occasionally use it. But it feels like a blaring red beacon and when I'm in normal surroundings that I am familiar with I don't usually have any problems. I very rarely find myself in unfamiliar places alone these days so even if I do have problems I usually have a friend near by whose arm I can use for guidance.


I have a significant gap between my eyes vision fields, which in normal every day activities isn't blatantly obvious (our brains are such interesting pieces of magic). I'm not aware of the gap, until I miss something significant. Computer screens are now one of my worst enemies because that gap is very obvious and my brain is not able to fill in the gaps so easily. Where once upon a time I spent far more than 8 hours a day staring into my computer screen crunching numbers and analyzing data, now I can barely stand to be in front of one for more than 15-20 minutes without giving myself a migraine.