Low Vision Driving Is Possible Too
There was a
time when people with low vision thought that they could no longer drive or
even watch a cricket match live in a stadium. But That’s not the case anymore.
Today, They can resort to using small and compact telescopes to see things
better. And these are especially useful if users need to keep their hands free
for extended periods, like when they are driving.
Currently,
Some countries like the US, permit people with mild to moderate levels of
central vision loss – but with intact peripheral vision – apply for driving
privileges when using a bio optic lens system, after completion of formalized
low vision driver education training. These are spectacle – mounted telescopes
that can be pre-made or can be custom-fit given a patient’s eyeglass
prescription in the telescope.
Henry
Greene, Co-founder of US-based Ocutech, which has bio optic telescopes, says
that by attaching bio optic telescope to Optical Lenses, the user can switch
their sight between their ‘regular vision’ and the ‘magnified vision’ offered
by the telescope by slightly tilting
their head downward, since the telescopes are usually angled upward. For instance,
when the user is walking on a pavement and wants to see a tilt his head down
while looking straight ahead to view a magnified image through the telescope.
There are
other companies too that offer a variety of such telescopes including monocular
and binocular, focusable and fixed-focus, Galilean and Keplerian designs,
hand-held and spectacle mounted, in a diverse range of magnifications.
According to Eschenbach, another manufacturer of Bio Optic devices, any task
distance (near, intermediate, far away) and any task duration (short – term or
long –term).
A child with
low vision may experience difficulty in acquiring concepts. Vision is an
organizing sense that allows us to perceive objects at a distance and to make
connections between these objects. Many concepts developed in childhood are
learned incidentally through vision. If the visual sense is impaired, concepts
may be incompletely developed or missed entirely. Because of this, it is
important for children with low vision to directly experience as much of their
world as possible and to receive augmented instruction in making connections
between objects and processes.
Much
confusion exists in the terminology surrounding low vision. Often times,
individuals may use the terms partially sighted, legally blind, blind, and low
vision interchangeably. Although out of date, the term partially sighted refers
to individuals with visual acuities ranging from 20/70 to 20/200. For example,
a student with acuity of 20/100 is able to see at 20 feet what an individual
with 20/20 visual acuity sees at 100 feet. Legal blindness refers to
individuals with central visual acuities of 20/200 or less in the better eye
with the best possible correction, or with visual fields of 20 degrees or less.
Blindness is a more general term used to describe a person with a significant
loss of vision, usually in the range of 20/200 or less. Often times, the term
is used to explain an individual with very little or no functional use of
vision. Low vision is a term related not only to visual acuity but often
includes an individual's level of visual functioning. A precise definition for
an individual with a visual impairment who is not functionally blind is an
individual who has "difficulty accomplishing visual tasks, even with prescribed
corrective lenses, but who can enhance his or her ability to accomplish these
tasks with the use of compensatory visual strategies, low vision and other
devices, and environmental modifications" (Corn and Koenig, 1996).
