Describing your visual impairment to others

I’m sure every blind or visually impaired person will tell you that they constantly find themselves describing their visual impairment.

We can be faced with questions such as ‘so what can you see?’ Or ‘but are you actually blind?’ Which then leads to us explaining what we can and can’t see, sometimes giving a rather lengthy description of our visual impairment. Oh, and for the record, yes I am actually blind.

We often have to assess a situation and think of an appropriate answer when we are posed with such questions.

 

Some people have a stereotypical idea of what a blind or visually impaired person looks like, whilst others have the outdated idea that blindness means that you have no sight at all, they seem shocked or puzzled when you tell them that you can in fact see something.

It is important to remember that there is a spectrum of vision impairment.

 

Describing your visual impairment can sometimes be easy, but it can also be difficult. It may roll off the tongue and feel a bit like a script, but it may also leave you feeling awkward or in a state of panic when trying to find the right words.

We don’t always want to talk about our disability, or we may feel like it isn’t an appropriate time to give a description and that’s okay.

 

There are many situations when we find ourselves needing to describe our visual impairment – to a friend or family member, a stranger, to someone we just met or to a colleague.

It can often be difficult to know when to describe or disclose your disability, this could be when applying for a job or when meeting someone for the first time. But how do you say it in a way that people can understand? The language we use to describe our visual impairment is very important and makes a huge difference.

 

Sometimes it’s very easy to give an explanation but other times not so much, especially when people assume things or just don’t get it.

 

How do I describe my visual impairment?

I’m registered as blind due to a condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity as I was born at 24 weeks, I have a detached retina in my left eye, meaning that I have no useful vision in that eye, and only have light perception in my right.

That explanation is rather lengthy and sounds quite medical, so I alter it depending on who I’m talking to.

I’ll usually say something along the lines of: “I have no vision in my left eye and can only see light and dark in my right, that means that I can see bright lights, tell where a window is in a room and I can see the sun.”

 

However, I’m just one person living life with a visual impairment in a sighted world. I took to Twitter to ask people to tell me how they describe their visual impairment to others in the hope to bridge the gap. There were varied responses, and I feel like it started a conversation.

Describing my visual impairment is something that I’ve become very used to doing over the years, but I have my own description, my own story and so does every other blind or visually impaired person.

The responses highlight that visual impairment is different for everyone, no one’s description was worded exactly the same, even if they have the same condition or the same level of vision.

How do you describe your visual impairment to others? I’m currently writing a blog post on the topic and I’m looking for people to get involved. If you’d like to contribute then let me know and I can send you more details ☺️

— Holly (@lifeofablindgrl) February 8, 2020

 

I want to share some real examples of how people describe their visual impairment, in the hope that it might help others, but also to raise awareness and tackle the stigmas surrounding sight loss.

This topic might not be important to some people, but if it offers a helping hand to someone out there who’s struggling to find the words to describe their visual impairment, then surely that’s important?

Some of us may feel comfortable describing our visual impairment, others may not and that’s absolutely fine.

 

Describing your visual impairment to others

“I end up saying something like this: I’m totally blind. No, I can’t see anything. Yes, that includes not being able to tell if it’s light or dark. My eyes aren’t real, so I definitely can’t see anything.” This is usually regularly interrupted by questions about how much I can see.” – Victoria

 

“When people ask how I lost my site it can be a little overwhelming as I have had varied levels of vision and it has never been due to a certain condition. So it is never just simply I have RP or cataracts, that is up until I lost my site completely. Now when people ask, I just say I am blind through losing my site due to an accident to both eyes. Before I would find myself trying to explain the different conditions and how I got it starting from a child and rumbling my life story to try and explain” – Nina

 

“I’d say I have no usable vision. I’m losing my light perception so can only see really really bright lights that are close to me. I’m registered blind.” – Lucy

 

“I am totally blind except for a tiny amount of light perception in my left eye. I have no useful vision.” – Alice

 

“it’s just light. It puzzles them as they think I can see black, or another colour. But I try to explain, it’s just like seeing nothing, just light, or, brightness. This is because I have light perception.” – Zenaib

 

“I try to stick to a simple explanation. I have good light perception, so I usually describe it by saying I am able to tell whether it is light or dark, if the sun is out, where windows are in a room, etc. I can’t see anything else, but light perception can sometimes be helpful. I always try to keep the description light-hearted and encourage people to ask questions.” – Elle

 

“I have a condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa and I like to describe my vision as an old camera which is constantly out of focus. The little focus that is there is fading away a little every day and the shutters are slowly closing in meaning that nothing can be seen from the sides.” – Elin

 

“I see colours but anything that isn’t a couple inches away has no detail. Even close up isn’t well detailed. My vision constantly experiences vertigo and over exposure to light.” – James

 

“I can see bright lights and outlines of objects if they’re large or close enough. I can’t see colours or detail, but I can form vivid mental pictures and have my own interpretations of what colours look like.” – Becky

 

“When scanning a room, I notice things like tables, chairs, and people. I am unable to notice fine details such as eye colour, facial expression, and facial features.” – Becca

 

“I tell people that I can see slightly more than shapes and shadows. Things are mostly a gradient from dark to light with only a splash of colour.” – Cayla

 

“In my right eye my vision is completely gone, it’s like I have my eye closed, my vision is completely black, and in my left eye I have useful vision but its blurry and the level of blurriness varies, I can see things but not in great detail.” – Leah

 

“I have Retinitis Pigmentosa, which means that I suffer from Tunnel Vision, which is kind of like looking through a funnel as my Vision in the centre is fairly clear and then gets less and less in focus the more that it circles out. I also suffer from Night Blindness which means that I can’t see in the dark and Floaters which are like little bits of Tissue that float around my Vision whenever the lighting situation changes.” – Luke

 

“I’d describe my vision as I can kind of/sort of read and see with my left eye while my right eye is mostly going along for the ride. I also have blind spots all over my peripheral vision and every light or white background can be super bright.” – Juan

 

“It took until I was 24 for me to be able to explain my visual impairment and it’s not that complicated. I have no sight in my right eye and reduced peripheral and distance in my left eye. If I look ahead, I wouldn’t be able to c people either side.” – Zoe

 

“For me it’s just so complicated. My vision is affected by so many factors & changes so much. I usually just say, it’s complicated.” – Amy

 

Using analogies and everyday examples

“For my (not very bad yet) diplopia, I make people hold up a finger at arm’s length and ask them how many fingers they can see. They say “1”. I tell them I can see two, about 5cm apart. Then I show the prisms in my glasses. My lenses are quite thick near my nose, and thinner towards my ears, merging the 2 images I see into 1.

This also means I focus on what I am reading or working on and nothing around me.” – Jonathan

 

“I usually just try and pick a real-life example that’s applicable at the time- using road signs or shop signs or something- then go into a bit of info.” – Chloe

 

“I have really blurred vision so in order for them to understand I say it’s like looking through a kaleidoscope as all the colours just mix together.” – Mark

 

“I have Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and still have some useful central vision. The problem I find is when people stand to the side of me and wonder why I don’t respond! I just say to them that I have an eye condition that affects my peripheral vision. So if you stand there silently I won’t see you! Sometimes they ask what it is like and I just say, imagine looking down two toilet rolls. Then reduce it gradually. That’s what advanced RP is like. If someone is at home with me then I’ll use the Eyeware app and show them what different eye conditions are like.” – Suzanne

 

“I say: Blind in one eye and I look down a toilet roll tube with the other. People understand what I mean.” – Tilly

 

Everyone has their own way of describing their visual impairment, but I hope this post gives you a few ways you can describe it and possible examples you could use. I also hope it gives sighted people a bit of an insight into visual impairment.

 

Thank you to everyone that got involved with this post. I couldn’t include all of the responses as the post would have been too long, but a huge thank you to those of you that took the time to share your descriptions, I really appreciate it.

 

How do you describe your visual impairment to others? Let me know in the comments.

 

Holly x