Impaired Vision Experience

I participated in a temporary-impairment experience two weeks ago to be able to have a sense of what diminished vision capacity is like for potential vision impaired clients. After completing a set of tasks while wearing vision-obscuring glasses, I was able to better understand the daily life of a visually impaired person. Looking through a plastic bag represented 20/60 vision. A person with this eye site is still able to legally drive during the day. While looking through the bag, I briefly glanced at a nearby newspaper. The writing on the page was blurry and hard to read, although the bigger the text, the easier it was to see. For example, titles could be read while the smaller text was blurry and difficult to see. Next, we folded the plastic bag in half, creating a total of 4 layers to look through. This represented being legally blind. Once looking through the plastic layers, it was extremely hard to see anything. I was only able to see colors and color changes as well as the shapes and outlines of objects such as people. The lights in the room were helpful for direction and way finding purposes. Next, I looked through a vision simulator, a tool that allowed me to gain a basic impression of the effects of several kinds of vision loss. The first type of vision loss was central vision. Here, the middle of my vision was blocked and forced me to turn my head in order to see what I wanted. Loss of parts vision loss gave a fuzzy and distorted view, sometimes making me see double. The tunnel vision part also forced me to move my head around in order to see everything, giving me a limited amount of vision. The last type of vision loss was completely blind. There was no vision, everything was dark. The next exercise was to put on a pair of sunglasses smeared with a layer petroleum jelly, giving off a blurry vision. Walking around our campus book store, using the elevators and stairs, and using the ATM machine while wearing the glasses turned out to be a hard feat. It was hard to see signs and read the writing on descriptions around the building and at the ATM. To help people see and identify objects, it would be helpful to use high contrasting colors and to use brighter colors on important pieces, like the card acceptor at the ATM machine. Hand rails for the stairs are helpful as well as the sand paper like strips on the edges of the steps in order to help a visually blind safely get down the staircase. After participating in this experience, I have learned a few helpful ideas to create a safe and accommodating place for a visually impaired person.

Normal Vision

Looking Through the Plastic; 20/60 Vision, Legally Able to Drive