If you ever meet me in person, you may notice something a bit off about me. Maybe it\u2019s the way I don\u2019t quite meet your eyes or the way I miss the most obvious details. Or maybe you see me reading something with my trusty magnifying glass, the manuscript mere inches from my nose.<\/p>\n
Let me just start by answering your first question: No, glasses will not help. Glasses, though they help so many, are not a magical cure. Alas, those of us whose problems do not lie in the area of the lens cannot benefit from the corrective power of glasses or contacts. I\u2019m afraid I have a broken retina.<\/p>\n
I was diagnosed with Stargardt\u2019s Disease when I was sixteen years old, at which point I began a rapid spiral towards legal blindness. Scar tissue formed on the center of my retina, creating a hole in the center of my vision. I don\u2019t see a black spot \u2013 like anyone with a blind spot my brain tries to compensate by filling it in with details from the periphery. At the right distance, you\u2019ll look like Cousin It to me. Step a little farther back and you may lose your head to the wall behind you.<\/p>\n
\u201cLegally blind\u201d is a difficult concept to describe. I can give you some technical jargon about having 20\/200 vision with best correction but what does that mean?<\/p>\n
Between guide dogs and glasses lies a middle ground of visual impairment, one that comes with blurred vision, an inability to see details, and a check in a box on tax forms. I can see you, but not as well as you see me. I can read, but not without enlargement of some sort. I am writing this right now in 26-point font, though it will appear normal on my web site.<\/p>\n
When it comes to my daily routine, the biggest problem with legal blindness is that I cannot drive. It is a freedom that so many take for granted, but I\u2019m afraid I have less sympathy with the current oil crisis than most. For me, an increase in public transportation would kill two birds with one stone.<\/p>\n
I am very glad that my first novel will come out as both an e-book and a paperback. Having it available in e-book form means that I can enlarge it so I can read my own novel in print. I was not sure I would be able to do that.<\/p>\n
For more information on Stargardt\u2019s Disease (including more technical information), visit the American Macular Degeneration Foundation at http:\/\/www.macular.org\/stargardts.html.<\/p>\n
UPDATE 2\/12\/2019<\/p>\n
I wrote this article in 2005 and only just realized how out of date it has become. First of all, I am now drafting this in 36-point font, not 26. (Yes, my visual acuity has slipped a bit more.) In fact, I am no longer at a point where I can decipher normal sized print with anything short of extreme magnification. I have some tools, including an oversize tablet with a camera, not to mention a cell phone with a camera. (I use the tablet for playing certain board games and the cell phone for spot checks, especially at stores.) I also have extremely thick reading glasses — sometimes, I need to use both tools at the same time.<\/p>\n
I have also come to the conclusion over the past fourteen years that next to driving, my inability to recognize people or see facial expressions creates a lot of challenges as well. Back in 2005, I was still hanging around the same people I’d known for years, but then I had a child and the world shifted. I now meet a lot of new people through my kids, and I have no faces to put with the names I hear. The other kids are the worst — a sea of tiny humans with various hair and skin colors. And don’t even get me started on teens. Adult-shaped blobs with voices to match.<\/p>\n
I continue to write, though, and I’m also an editor. Yes, in 36-point font, but I’m an editor. A damn good one too, even if I do say so myself. I prefer not to do final proofreads, but even a copy edit is doable thanks to modern technology. Really, if you’re going to have vision problems, now’s the time to do it! Fifty years ago, I would have had real problems. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
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