VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS describes a wide variety of conditions that affect vision abilities. We use the term to denote mild to most severe vision loss, rather than to defects in the eye itself. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997, a visual impairment refers to “an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.”
Degrees of Visual Impairment: * Totally blind. This term usually implies little or no visual sensitivity to light at any level. This condition is rare, and people who are totally blind typically have severe physical damage to the eyes themselves or to the visual nerves. * Legally blind. A legally blind person has a visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye, after correction. This means that what an individual with normal (20/20) vision sees at two hundred feet, the legally blind person cannot see until he or she is within twenty feet. In addition, a person can be classified as legally blind if she has a field of vision no greater than twenty degrees at the widest diameter. (A normal field of vision is close to 180 degrees.) Only about 20 percent of legally blind people are totally blind. Legally blind individuals typically use Braille and visual aids. * Low vision. People with low vision can read with the help of large-print reading materials and magnifying objects. They may also use Braille. * Partially sighted. Partially sighted individuals have less severe loss of vision than people in the other three categories. A person with partial sight may be able to see objects up close or far away and with corrective lenses may be able to function at normal levels.
Adjusting attitude: To avoid the rejected feeling of the visually impaired, people need to treat the blind the same way they would