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Blindness and Visual Impairments

The International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) states that more than 35 million people in the world are blind, and another 15 million are considered to have a visual impairment. When discussing blindness or visual impairments, many different terms are used to describe varying degrees of vision loss. According to the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities, low vision and legal blindness can be defined in the following ways:

“Low vision” generally refers to a severe visual impairment, not necessarily limited to distance vision.

Low vision applies to all individuals with sight who are unable to read the newspaper at a normal viewing distance, even with the aid of eyeglasses or contact lenses.

“Legally blind” indicates that a person has less than 20/200 vision in the better eye (with corrective lenses) or a very limited field of vision (20 degrees at its widest point).

“Visual impairment” is the condition of having some usable vision. People with severe visual impairments cannot read newsprint with glasses. Visual impairments also include conditions such as tunnel vision and color blindness. People who have congenital blindness have been without sight since early child-hood or birth. People who have adventitious blindness lost their sight later in life. It is important to differentiate between these two conditions because of the diversity among people with these two different types of blindness.

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