The Term Legally Blind Has Been Used as the Federal Definition of Blindness

There was general agreement on only one point in all the polls. The determining factor influencing both the incidence and prevalence of blindness is the increase in life expectancy of the U.S. population. More than 50% of the country`s visually impaired are over sixty years old. In 1967, a biometrics specialist planned an “army of the old blind” until 1985. To serve the visually impaired men, women and children of the country, there were several hundred voluntary and tax-funded agencies in the United States in 1972. Depending on how they were counted – whether the units or branches of the multi-service agencies were considered separately or grouped under the parent organization – the total was estimated to be just over 400 or just under 800. The gross expenditures of these organizations, however recorded, were estimated at $469 million for fiscal year 1967. According to the government-sponsored study that revealed this estimate, about 57 percent of that ($268 million) was federal money, 29 percent ($131 million) came from state tax revenues, and the remaining 14 percent ($70 million) was spent by 274 voluntary organizations. The most frequently cited figure for the incidence of new blindness in the sixties was that in the United States, 30,000 people lost their sight each year.

A much higher rate was predicted in 1971 by the director of the National Eye Institute, who predicted that 50,000 people would go blind in the year and 500,000 in the next decade. Correction, October 27, 2009: The article originally states that legally blind people can never get a driver`s license. In most states, they can apply for a restricted driver`s license as long as their visual acuity exceeds a legal limit using a bioptic telescope. (Return to the corrected sentence.) While low vision or legal blindness can be limiting, there are many resources and tools to help you live your life with the utmost independence. Depending on the cause of your vision loss, you may be able to benefit from eye exercises and strategies to participate in daily activities. You may also find it helpful to use a stick, talking calculator, special computer software, and other products to help people who are legally blind. From a national perspective, the significance of the North Carolina census was that its results destroyed the 1:1,000 rule of thumb, which has long been used to estimate the prevalence of blindness in the United States. A few years later, Dr.

Hurlin said his 1937 estimates, based on the North Carolina census, proved that the extent of blindness in the country was “two to two and a half times greater than is generally believed.” Extensive public awareness campaigns have been launched to ensure the adoption of the necessary legislation. It was not an easy task: mentioning STDs was taboo in polite society, and it took courage for editors to allow discussion about why so many infants suffered from vision loss. Helen Keller, who wrote articles on the subject in the Ladies` Home Journal in 1907, credited the magazine`s editor, Edward Bok, with playing a key role in breaking through the barrier of public ignorance. Legal blindness was defined in a formula adopted by the American Medical Association in 1934, later included in the title Assistance to the Blind of the Social Security Act of 1935, and enshrined in federal and state laws that provide various services and special benefits for the blind. Because it is the eligibility criterion for so many tangible benefits, from welfare to income tax exemptions, legal blindness is sometimes called economic blindness. Equally serious is the fact that there are no provisions guaranteeing standardized measurement and reporting, even for the two characteristics mentioned in the definition. It is therefore quite possible that different ophthalmologists who examine the same person will report different results. If you are completely blind, you cannot see any light or shape. Among people with eye diseases, only about 15% can see nothing at all. If you are legally blind, you can still see, but not so clearly.

American printing house for the blind. What is legal blindness? An estimated 1.1 million Americans are legally blind. Certain conditions, such as glaucoma, cataracts, diabetes, and macular degeneration, can affect your vision to the point where you can be diagnosed with the disease. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, legally blind is not the same as completely blind, which is used to describe the inability to see anything with both eyes. Most people who are legally blind have some eyesight. The terms may also be used by health insurers to determine benefits and as part of the vision screening tests required by state departments of motor vehicles (DMV) when determining driver`s license eligibility. For safety reasons, people who are legally blind or visually impaired are generally not entitled to a driver`s licence. The simple precaution of systematically placing drops of effective prophylactic silver nitrate in the eyes of newborns stopped the onslaught of this disease, which was once responsible for up to 30% of all blindness in children. A 20-year campaign to introduce and enforce state laws mandating the use of such drops by doctors, nurses or midwives has led to a steady decline in this particular cause of blindness year after year. reported 48,929 blind people. This was twice as many as what was reported in the report ten years earlier, namely 20,220. Blind workers feared that the number of blind people had doubled in a decade.

However, one possible explanation for the doubling was the fact that the counters [of the 1880 census] received a five-cent bounty for each reported case of blindness! The realistic probability is that it will never be possible to obtain an accurate count of the country`s blind population, especially the geriatric blind. One reason for this is that an aging person whose blindness is caused by diabetes is declared diabetic rather than blind. Public records also do not provide a reliable index. In many countries, needy blind persons who receive public social assistance and reach the age of sixty-five are automatically transferred from the list of assistance to the blind to the category of old-age assistance. There is also the “hidden blind” factor – isolated people who do not want care and avoid contact with organizations that serve blind people. You measure your eyesight by wearing glasses or contact lenses. Their vision could fall below 20/200 without them. If it improves when you put on your glasses or contact lenses, you are not considered blind under the law. If you learn that you are legally blind, organizations like the American Foundation for the Blind can help. They have programs to help you cope with the physical and emotional effects of vision loss.

Being considered legally blind means you can`t drive in any state. Talk to your doctor about your concerns. As a result of this one-year project, the Legislative Assembly established a State Commission and approved $25,000 for the first year of operation; Three voluntary district associations and one national association for the blind have been established; a sheltered workshop has been set up; Home instructors have been hired; a committee for the prevention of blindness has been established; Lions clubs have been activated to help. According to Hurlin`s formula, the extent of blindness in the country is estimated using a rate originally derived from a particular state where a reliable and complete register of blind people was kept. This basic rate is then weighted for each of the other countries according to three social factors: (1) the proportion of older people in the state`s population (because the older the population, the more likely they are to lose their vision severely); (2) the ethnic composition of the state (because non-white groups tend to receive less eye care); (3) the state`s infant mortality rate (because the same inadequate health programs that produce above-average infant mortality rates tend to lead to above-average blindness).