The importance of vision is reflected in the abundance of metaphors based in sight.
“I want to see you” means “date”; “I see” is used interchangeably with “I understand.”
Someone “with vision” may be a leader, while a person with “second sight” has psychic powers. A subject “comes into focus” when grasped and, conversely, is blurred when one can’t decode meaning.
When vision becomes blurred in real life, the wound to the psyche may be deep.
Learning to live with the disability, both for sight-impaired persons and their friends and family, is a long road that begins with education, say the VIPs – Visually Impaired Persons, the 11-year-old Bainbridge Island support group for those with low vision. The group convenes monthly at the Bainbridge Library.
The VIPs invite islanders to find out more at Bainbridge’s first community forum for friends and family of persons with visual loss, Oct. 18 at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church.
Kevin Nathan, director of the state Services for the Blind’s Independent Living program, accompanied by his sighted wife, Kathy, will address ways to help low-vision people, while islander Todd Schneiderman, a specialist in diseases of the retina, describes eye diseases, including macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic retinopathy.
Islanders with low vision are a larger group than one might suppose, Schneiderman says, and sight-impaired people can be hard to spot.
“The person who is truly blind with a big white cane, that’s not a common person I see,” he said. “People with macular degeneration may be walking right next to you and you can’t pick them out.”
Macular degeneration leaves peripheral vision intact, while affecting the central core.
“If I was sitting across from you I might not see your eyes, Schneiderman said, “in fact, I might not see your face.”
The disease seldom produces what Schneiderman defines as true blindness: “when the world goes black.”
People with glaucoma, on the other hand, have tunnel vision that Schneiderman compares to looking through a paper towel holder.
Their vision may be reduced to a pin-point that eventually does leave the person truly blind.
Low-vision people can learn coping strategies, like scanning an object to use the best of their vision capacity, and that’s where VIP and the forum come in, VIP president Mary Lewis says.
“There are people who, when crossing the street will grab my arm,” Lewis said. “Part of is is that they really don’t comprehend what the visual impairment is, what people don’t see.”
The forum will feature printed materials showing how the world looks to people with different types of vision loss.
Friends and family either tend to deny the problem exists, or overreact, Lewis says.
For many years a professor of history, archeology and classics at Kean State in Union, N.J., Lewis left teaching when her eyesight deteriorated through macular degeneration, retiring to Bainbridge in 1999.
“People will still say, ‘oh I’d love you to read this book’” she said. “I’d have to use a magnifying glass, and even then it would take me about 49 days.”
The other side of the coin, Lewis admits, is her inclination to downplay the disability because she wants to appear “together.”
While she is quick to praise the friendliness of Bainbridge businesses and services that step up to the plate when asked, there are literal stumbling blocks that include unmarked curbs, menus printed in tiny script, and – a pet peeve – a near-illegible Kitsap County tax bill printed on light green paper with grey type.
“The world is just generally not geared to low sight,” she said. “If you speak out someone will help you. But most companies and services don’t think in advance.”
VIP secretary Katherine Hayner, who says she was just 54 years old when she noticed she was bumping into furniture as she lost peripheral vision – spent a year in denial before coming to terms with vision loss.
After receiving help from VIP – ranging from referrals to find up-to-date sight aids to discussion of public transportation options – Hayner says she learned to adapt and cope.
“We keep up to date on research and that brings hope to people,” she said. “Now we want to educate the community about people with vision loss. There are too many who are unnecessarily isolating themselves.”
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The Bainbridge Island Visually Impaired Persons support group sponsors a free community forum for friends and family of persons with vision loss, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Oct. 18 at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church. Keynote addresses by retina specialist Todd Schneiderman, M.D., and Kevin Nathan, director of the state Services for the Blind’s Independent Living program, are followed by a panel discussion on ways friends and family can help. Information and transportation: 855-1470 or 842-4462.
