Nolan here with another post. This time I am going to share some facts about myself portaging to the one thing that most people take as a given and that is their vision. First, let me say that nothing I write here is intended to garner sympathy for me or any other person who is visually impaired. That is not what anyone needs. What is needed is awareness and a little understanding; that is what I hope I can provide by writing this.

NOTE: I am writing all of this in my own words and in the way I understand it. The way I explain things may not be entirely accurate to those who already know of them.

Okay, I am just going to jump right into it. My Visual Acuity is at least 20/450, I have a Visual Field of fewer than 20 degrees (not sure of the correct number.), I am night-blind, I am color-blind to a certain extent, and my eyes are sensitive to extreme light. You might wonder what all of that means, and I will explain it.

Visual Acuity represents a standard measurement of how well a person can see at a distance. In the USA the first number in this oddly arranged equation is always twenty; that stands for twenty feet, it is the distance from an object that is considered the average or a reasonable distance. The second number represents how you measure up to the previous number, but the way it is all expressed can be kind of tricky.

If your Visual Acuity is 20/20 then your sight is considered normal. What others can see at a distance of 20 feet, you can see at 20 feet. Now, if that second number is different, like mine 20/450, it goes like this. What others can see at 450 feet; you cannot see until you are 20 feet in front of it. If your Visual Acuity is 20/15 then what you can see at 20 feet, others cannot see until they are 15 feet in front of that object. It stands to note that in the USA you are considered legally blind if your Visual Acuity is 20/200 or worse.

A Visual Field is the measurement of the angle in degrees of how far from the center of your vision you can see without moving your head or eyes. The average is 120 degrees horizontally and 90 degrees vertically. When your Visual Field is measured, and if you have a degenerative eye disease like I do, the results are not always clean-cut.

You can have results that can have you seeing through something in the shape of an asterisk (*) or just about any shape in as many ways as you can imagine. No matter what shape you see through what matters is the degrees from the center of your eye. If your visual field is 20 degrees or less you are considered legally blind.

This limited field of view is most commonly referred to as tunnel vision, it is where you cannot see much if at all outside of your central vision. I do have to mention that I am not sure how it works for people with Macular Degeneration. I would assume that since their central vision is affected that the classification of legally blind applies.

When someone says that they are night-blind it sounds self-explanatory, but the word fails to explain the condition in full. The actual word for this condition is nyctalopia (Pronounced nyc·ta·lo·pi·a). This condition is when you have a problem seeing in dimly lit places. While the severity of nyctalopia can vary from person to person, I think it is safe to say that most places where a light source is not generously applied make that environment extremely difficult to navigate.

I am colorblind, but it does not present itself in the traditional way. Primary colors black, white, red, blue, and yellow are fine with me. Well, maybe not yellow, it tends to do some odd things to my eyes. (More on that in a moment.) It is when those colors are mixed is when I have a problem. I usually can identify the simple mixing of red and blue that makes purple, but anything beyond the mixture of two primary colors kind of confuses my eyes.

Burgundy for example is one of those complex colors that I have trouble with. A quick web search is telling me that burgundy is made from red and brown, and brown is a mix of red, yellow, and blue. My problem has a lot to do with my sensitivity to yellow, it does not matter how much yellow is in a color it always stands out. This causes all of the other colors to be muted resulting in a color that I cannot identify at all.

When the color yellow stands alone like a simple yellow shirt, it tends to slightly sting my eyes. I am not sure why. I have not looked into it, but it does it every time. Colors such as orange and green do the same thing because of the yellow in them. This causes me to see green and orange in a different way, and in their lighter forms, I am unable to tell the difference between them and yellow. I know weird, right?

My sensitivity to extremely bright light is a new development that came about in my thirties, and to me is ultimately a result of having Retinitis Pigmentosa. The way an Eye Doctor explained it to me is that the outer ring of the retina is what controls the dilation and contraction of your pupils. Retinitis Pigmentosa damages the rods and cones of the retina starting with the outside of the retina and working its way to the center.

Science the outer ring of my retina does not work correctly my eyes stay dilated. Things like sunlight even when it is filtered through sunglasses or tented windows are still too bright for me to see. Even the overhead lighting at most stores is too bright, resulting in me wearing sunglasses in stores even at night.

Well, that is my eyesight in a nutshell. The way people see the world around them is as unique as their personality, fingerprints, or DNA. Everyone, even people who are completely blind view the world in a way that makes it worth it to recognize if not learn from another’s point of view. If you take the time to explore things that are unknown to you then I think you will find that there is more to take from life than you might have expected. Until next time, I am Nolan Ex Tenebris.