Bus Hide and Seek

Too many times people get confused…

If I’m blind how can I see.

This video is me describing my experience while waiting for my bus.

https://youtube.com/shorts/nzViNW2QzTg?si=_FfDN-WqdnX2O8tb

And this is the text of a recent instagram post I made sharing the video.

“The video is of me describing my experience waiting for a bus as a blind person. The medical definition of being blind is based on 2 measurements. Acuity reading letters from a chart. Field of vision pressing a button as you see a bouncing light while looking straight ahead at a centre point- this maps blind spots. In my case my left eye is almost all a blind spot with a small area of unfocused blur at the bottom left edge. My right eye is extremely blurry except 4 inches from my nose where my best focus is smudged text on my phone screen. People become faceless blurs at 3 feet away and unless in stark contrast to the background blur they become invisible 6 feet away. Swipe for photo showing how I see a quilt I made. 3 days ago”

Here is the photo

And the Alt Text written by Be My Ai (part of the Be My Eyes app) I added.

“The image is a side-by-side comparison. On the left, there is a clear photo of a colourful quilt hanging on a wall. The quilt features a pattern of squares and triangles with various colours, including blue, green, yellow, and orange, and some sections have sunflower designs. Next to the quilt, there are stacks of plastic storage drawers in different colors, and a cat is sitting on the floor in front of them. On the right, the same scene is shown but heavily blurred, with a red circle marking the centre of the photo”

I don’t know if the definition is different internationally but in the UK the definition is stated as:-

• Visual acuity of less than 3 / 60 with a full visual field.
• Visual acuity between 3 / 60 and 6 / 60 with a severe reduction of field of vision, such as tunnel vision.
• Visual acuity of 6 / 60 or above but with a very reduced field of vision, especially if a lot of sight is missing in the lower part of the field.

In this webpage from the RNIB

https://www.rnib.org.uk/your-eyes/navigating-sight-loss/registering-as-sight-impaired/the-criteria-for-certification/

And this is the information on the NHS website.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vision-loss/

6/6 is the UK equivalent to 20/20 since we went metric and sit 6 metres from the Snellen chart.

3/60 means a person would need to be 3 metres away to read what someone with 6/6 sight could read from 60 metres away.

Think about that for a moment…

Now think about the fact that at first I was encouraged to continue wearing my specs because instead of having my best focus being 4 inches from my nose (with no headaches, dizziness, and nausea) I could see 6 inches and would be classed as partially sighted instead of blind (of course the 24/7 pounding headaches, dizziness that meant I couldn’t stand or walk without my walking stick, and constant nausea were just unfortunate side effects of that extra 2 inches of focus).

I hope this helps you understand why a person can be blind by medical definition and still see… but in my case what I see is like a super abstract view of the world unless it’s 4 inches from my nose where it’s not fully in focus but more discernible.

Think about that some more…

Until next time.