[nagdu] Impact of visual acuity was Introduction and Questions

[Mardi Hadfield]

Mardi here from Arizona.I am a Partial with usable vision. I have been
visually impaired since 1976, but was only diagnosed as legally blind
in1995. I probably would have been turned down by a guide dog school for
having too much vision. There were no schools that trained guides for
wheelchair users at that time so I began training my own dog.Lily was
already trained as a service dog,so I just trained her to guide me. My
vision problems were caused by a brain injury and not related to my eyes.No
eye doctor even thought to send me to a neurologist to find out why I had
double vision.They just kept giving me new glasses which did not clear up
the problem.I finally got a doctor that explained to me, that my vision
problem was caused by damage to the visual cortex of my brain.My vision
continued to get worse and I was told that I had Macular Degeneration,the
dry form.My vision has deteriorated a lot more since then,but I can still
see things like cars and people ect. because they are large enough.I can't
see facial details or eye colors. I have trouble distinguishing certain
colors such as red,orange and shades of pink.I can see yellow very well.I
can still read some things if they are magnified enough. It is not easy
though because of the double vision.I do not see 2 objects side by side.
The 2 objects over lap each other and the second object is also just
slightly above the first object. I have no depth perception and my right
eye has a dark spot in the middle. Every thing I see is doubled, blurred
and hazy.I do use my vision but really rely on my dog a lot.There are
really no numbers that make sense to me like 20/200.No one has ever
explained the numbers to me except that if you have 20/200 you are legally
blind.I know my vision is a lot worse than when I was told I was legally
blind, but I don't what the numbers are now.I have often been told that I
am not blind if I can see some one petting my dog.I have tried to explain
that there are varying degrees of blindness but most of the time they don't
understand.How can I make people understand different types of blindness
when I don't really understand it all myself ?I am confused about it so I
when I try to explain it to others, I guess I just confuse them more.Is
there  some list that I can find that I can learn more about blindness? I
guess I don't feel so alone as I now see that other blind people are also
confused about it.  Mardi and Shaman and Neechee,GDIT.