Visual Impairment and Autism

[Arashi222]

So I was wondering how many of us have a visual impairment of some sort. I was doing some research and found out that people with my eye condition my type of blindness have a greater occurrence of autism or developmental delay. I have no vision what so ever but light and dark in my left eye and very limited sight in my right. I do not use a cane or seeing eye dog like some people with blindess because blindness is a spectrum. I do a lot by touch and sound. I also use a lot of high contrast and large (OK huge) font to see. Which I found interesting. Also I found video on a camp for kids that are blind in New Zealand (I am from the USA).

Part 1 of video:

Part 2 of video:

 

[AspieSam]

Does slight nearsighted count? I can wear glasses or contacts for this to get too 20 20 though. And I was was born with 20 20.

 

[Ereth]

When I was born, my vision was fine (though I wear glasses now), but I had strabismus as a baby. That was corrected with therapy.

 

[Judge]

For years my mother used to drag my inch-thick medical records to every new ophthalmologist I saw. I finally got rid of them a few years ago.

As a small child I had a muscle imbalance in one of my eyes. Correction without surgery occurred with eyeglasses over about five years. At the time I was considered a one-in-a-thousand success without requiring surgery. Didn't have to wear glasses for another eleven years, until I developed astigmatism.

 

[Warwick C]

I am just suffering the effects of aging on my eyes. I need Glasses to see the monitor.

 

[tlc]

Yes very nearsighted here. I could never see the board in school, I just figured humans weren't supposed to be able to see far away things without binoculars, so I learned in my own way. It continually gets worse and I can only see something clearly if it's less than 8 inches away. It used to be straight but I developed astigmatism a few years ago, which I noticed when road signs started appearing double. I started getting the floaters about 10 years ago. Normal things of getting older.

But I've always been very sensitive to normal light and prefer to live and work in the dark. I keep my monitor turned way down, and all but one bulb functioning in my office and window blocked off. 40W bulbs in my house and some are on dimmers. What most call normal light is either very distracting like sitting on nails, or sometimes even makes my eyes water and burn.

 

[Arashi222]

OK I suppose I was not clear in terms of visual impairment so I will make my self more clear here are the definitions of what visual impairments mean usually. I found this really helpful for people to understand when explaining to them:
Visual Impairment
Definition
Total blindness is the inability to tell light from dark, or the total inability to see. Visual impairment or low vision is a severe reduction in vision that cannot be corrected with standard glasses or contact lenses and reduces a person's ability to function at certain or all tasks. Legal blindness (which is actually a severe visual impairment) refers to a best-corrected central vision of 20/200 or worse in the better eye or a visual acuity of better than 20/200 but with a visual field no greater than 20° (e.g., side vision that is so reduced that it appears as if the person is looking through a tunnel).
Description
Vision is normally measured using a Snellen chart. A Snellen chart has letters of different sizes that are read, one eye at a time, from a distance of 20 ft. People with normal vision are able to read the 20 ft line at 20 ft-20/20 vision—or the 40 ft line at 40 ft, the 100 ft line at 100 ft, and so forth. If at 20 ft the smallest readable letter is larger, vision is designated as the distance from the chart over the size of the smallest letter that can be read.
Eye care professionals measure vision in many ways. Clarity (sharpness) of vision indicates how well a person's central visual status is. The diopter is the unit of measure for refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism and indicates the strength of corrective lenses needed. People do not just see straight ahead; the entire area of vision is called the visual field. Some people have good vision (e.g., see clearly) but have areas of reduced or no vision (blind spots) in parts of their visual field. Others have good vision in the center but poor vision around the edges (peripheral visual field). People with very poor vision may be able only to count fingers at a given distance from their eyes. This distance becomes the measure of their ability to see.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines impaired vision in five categories:

• Low vision 1 is a best corrected visual acuity of 20/70.
• Low vision 2 starts at 20/200.
• Blindness 3 is below 20/400.
• Blindness 4 is worse than 5/300
• Blindness 5 is no light perception at all.
• A visual field between 5° and 10° (compared with a normal visual field of about 120°) goes into category 3; less than 5° into category 4, even if the tiny spot of central vision is perfect.

Color blindness is the reduced ability to perceive certain colors, usually red and green. It is a hereditary defect and affects very few tasks. Contrast sensitivity describes the ability to distinguish one object from another. A person with reduced contrast sensitivity may have problems seeing things in the fog because of the decrease in contrast between the object and the fog.
According to the WHO there are over forty million people worldwide whose vision is category 3 or worse, 80% of whom live in developing countries. Half of the blind population in the United States is over 65 years of age.

 

[Aspieistj]

OK I suppose I was not clear in terms of visual impairment so I will make my self more clear here are the definitions of what visual impairments mean usually. I found this really helpful for people to understand when explaining to them:
Visual Impairment
Definition
Total blindness is the inability to tell light from dark, or the total inability to see. Visual impairment or low vision is a severe reduction in vision that cannot be corrected with standard glasses or contact lenses and reduces a person's ability to function at certain or all tasks. Legal blindness (which is actually a severe visual impairment) refers to a best-corrected central vision of 20/200 or worse in the better eye or a visual acuity of better than 20/200 but with a visual field no greater than 20° (e.g., side vision that is so reduced that it appears as if the person is looking through a tunnel).
Description
Vision is normally measured using a Snellen chart. A Snellen chart has letters of different sizes that are read, one eye at a time, from a distance of 20 ft. People with normal vision are able to read the 20 ft line at 20 ft-20/20 vision—or the 40 ft line at 40 ft, the 100 ft line at 100 ft, and so forth. If at 20 ft the smallest readable letter is larger, vision is designated as the distance from the chart over the size of the smallest letter that can be read.
Eye care professionals measure vision in many ways. Clarity (sharpness) of vision indicates how well a person's central visual status is. The diopter is the unit of measure for refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism and indicates the strength of corrective lenses needed. People do not just see straight ahead; the entire area of vision is called the visual field. Some people have good vision (e.g., see clearly) but have areas of reduced or no vision (blind spots) in parts of their visual field. Others have good vision in the center but poor vision around the edges (peripheral visual field). People with very poor vision may be able only to count fingers at a given distance from their eyes. This distance becomes the measure of their ability to see.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines impaired vision in five categories:

• Low vision 1 is a best corrected visual acuity of 20/70.
• Low vision 2 starts at 20/200.
• Blindness 3 is below 20/400.
• Blindness 4 is worse than 5/300
• Blindness 5 is no light perception at all.
• A visual field between 5° and 10° (compared with a normal visual field of about 120°) goes into category 3; less than 5° into category 4, even if the tiny spot of central vision is perfect.

Color blindness is the reduced ability to perceive certain colors, usually red and green. It is a hereditary defect and affects very few tasks. Contrast sensitivity describes the ability to distinguish one object from another. A person with reduced contrast sensitivity may have problems seeing things in the fog because of the decrease in contrast between the object and the fog.
According to the WHO there are over forty million people worldwide whose vision is category 3 or worse, 80% of whom live in developing countries. Half of the blind population in the United States is over 65 years of age.

Yes very nearsighted here. I could never see the board in school, I just figured humans weren't supposed to be able to see far away things without binoculars, so I learned in my own way. It continually gets worse and I can only see something clearly if it's less than 8 inches away. It used to be straight but I developed astigmatism a few years ago, which I noticed when road signs started appearing double. I started getting the floaters about 10 years ago. Normal things of getting older.

But I've always been very sensitive to normal light and prefer to live and work in the dark. I keep my monitor turned way down, and all but one bulb functioning in my office and window blocked off. 40W bulbs in my house and some are on dimmers. What most call normal light is either very distracting like sitting on nails, or sometimes even makes my eyes water and burn.

 

[Aspieistj]

I was born with a severely crossed eye and spent years on a visual exercise machine to correct the problem. My mother refused to consider surgery. I also had to wear an eye patch for a long time. I wish she had considered the psychological pain the patch caused me. I was extremely nearsighted and wore bifocals by the time I was in high school! My vision then and prior to cataract surgery with lens implant was 20/200, but could be correct with glasses. I have extremely poor depth perception and all my life, when I reach for things, I often stub my fingers into something. My nails are always chipped and broken. I do parallel park, but it is done intellectually and by formula, not by what I perceive, and in a compact car. I have always been clumsy and frequently fell down the stairs. My mother would yell at me for not being careful. I eventually learned to jump to my feet at the bottom of the stairs shouting, "I'm OK," so she didn't think I hurt myself. I couldn't use a hula hoop or jump double Dutch. I am miserably self conscious and once I became an adult I refused to dance for any occasion, even my wedding. I knock things over and drop things often. I can't make my handwriting pretty, though I can be legible. I am totally unable to "see" optical illusions. I am mixed dominant--right handed and left eyed. In short, I am a klutz and I think it is terribly unfair to tease or criticize anyone who is.

 

[Arashi222]

I was born with a severely crossed eye and spent years on a visual exercise machine to correct the problem. My mother refused to consider surgery. I also had to wear an eye patch for a long time. I wish she had considered the psychological pain the patch caused me. I was extremely nearsighted and wore bifocals by the time I was in high school! My vision then and prior to cataract surgery with lens implant was 20/200, but could be correct with glasses. I have extremely poor depth perception and all my life, when I reach for things, I often stub my fingers into something. My nails are always chipped and broken. I do parallel park, but it is done intellectually and by formula, not by what I perceive, and in a compact car. I have always been clumsy and frequently fell down the stairs. My mother would yell at me for not being careful. I eventually learned to jump to my feet at the bottom of the stairs shouting, "I'm OK," so she didn't think I hurt myself. I couldn't use a hula hoop or jump double Dutch. I am miserably self conscious and once I became an adult I refused to dance for any occasion, even my wedding. I knock things over and drop things often. I can't make my handwriting pretty, though I can be legible. I am totally unable to "see" optical illusions. I am mixed dominant--right handed and left eyed. In short, I am a klutz and I think it is terribly unfair to tease or criticize anyone who is.

So you fit into the legally blind category? Or just low vision sorry your print is very small. But thank you for responding. I am hoping to find other people with Autism that have visual impairments. It find it interesting. Also I too had to patch my good eye to try to force my bad one to stay working...that worked but only mildy as I have only light and dark perception but no actual usable vision in that eye at all. I have some usable vision in my right. Do you know what your eye condition was called. I want to look it up I am very interested in it. I am very fascinated by eye issues because of my own. I find that fascinating that you were wearing bifocals they don't want to put me in bifocals. They said it would cause my eye damage if I was so young. Where did you go what eye clinic I get really excited when people have similar visual impairments.

 

[Aspieistj]

No special clinic for me. I guess crossed eyes would be strabismus and severe near sightedness is myopia. I believe that is all that was wrong with my vision when I was young. I now require tri focals. The top of the lens is practically no correction since the implants correct for distance and my distance vision is so good I can pass a driving test without glasses. I absolutely have to have a different prescription for reading and close work, so that is what the bottom third of my glasses corrects. Because I read music and spend hours on the computer I also need correction for the middle distance. It is quite funny if I get up from the piano or computer with my single vision computer glasses on because I desperately need help with close vision and almost zero help with distance vision. Implanted lenses don't allow for my irises to constrict or relax so I also need sun glasses. I have tri focals, single vision spectacles for the computer and music and bi focal sun glasses because I can't even see the denomination of money or coins without mid or close distance correction. I can quite comfortable watch a movie or TV without glasses. I have no idea what my poor vision might have played with my neurological development or the presence of Asperger Syndrome. I got my glasses while I was in the first grade when I was six.

 

[Arashi222]

Ok so do you have bifocals or trifocals I am confused. So you can drive a car? I cannot. I must rely on the local bus system. See I was lucky in that I did not need lens replacement for mine...sometimes with Peter's you do need lens-replacement. But they didn't have to with me. I am also severely myopic or nearsighted in my right...but it has strained so badly that I have very little usable or correctable vision in that eye. They correct it to 20/70 sorta...like that is the most they are willing to correct without straining it further because I really would be more like at 20/200 without correction. I have lattice in the back of my right eye so basically it is pulling the retina away from the back of the eye and eventually I will not have any useable sight in my right eye either when the retina detaches...which they told me was any time now in fact last year when I went they told me that they expected it to already happen. My left eye is light and dark perception and some shadows I guess you would say. They said that varying on if the cataract that is there moves I get 20/400 on a good day and 20/600 on a bad day or anything in between.

That being said. I wonder though...how many of us have sight issues. Like genetic sight issues. I was reading about my eye condition and I just found it interesting that people with it either tend to have autism (of varying degrees) or developmental delays. As my mom has said it would have been nice to know when I was kid that I would probably end up with either one ( I obviously ended up with Autism)

 

[Aspieistj]

Ok so do you have bifocals or trifocals I am confused. So you can drive a car? I cannot. I must rely on the local bus system. See I was lucky in that I did not need lens replacement for mine...sometimes with Peter's you do need lens-replacement. But they didn't have to with me. I am also severely myopic or nearsighted in my right...but it has strained so badly that I have very little usable or correctable vision in that eye. They correct it to 20/70 sorta...like that is the most they are willing to correct without straining it further because I really would be more like at 20/200 without correction. I have lattice in the back of my right eye so basically it is pulling the retina away from the back of the eye and eventually I will not have any useable sight in my right eye either when the retina detaches...which they told me was any time now in fact last year when I went they told me that they expected it to already happen. My left eye is light and dark perception and some shadows I guess you would say. They said that varying on if the cataract that is there moves I get 20/400 on a good day and 20/600 on a bad day or anything in between.

That being said. I wonder though...how many of us have sight issues. Like genetic sight issues. I was reading about my eye condition and I just found it interesting that people with it either tend to have autism (of varying degrees) or developmental delays. As my mom has said it would have been nice to know when I was kid that I would probably end up with either one ( I obviously ended up with Autism)

Ok so do you have bifocals or trifocals I am confused. So you can drive a car? I cannot. I must rely on the local bus system. See I was lucky in that I did not need lens replacement for mine...sometimes with Peter's you do need lens-replacement. But they didn't have to with me. I am also severely myopic or nearsighted in my right...but it has strained so badly that I have very little usable or correctable vision in that eye. They correct it to 20/70 sorta...like that is the most they are willing to correct without straining it further because I really would be more like at 20/200 without correction. I have lattice in the back of my right eye so basically it is pulling the retina away from the back of the eye and eventually I will not have any useable sight in my right eye either when the retina detaches...which they told me was any time now in fact last year when I went they told me that they expected it to already happen. My left eye is light and dark perception and some shadows I guess you would say. They said that varying on if the cataract that is there moves I get 20/400 on a good day and 20/600 on a bad day or anything in between.

That being said. I wonder though...how many of us have sight issues. Like genetic sight issues. I was reading about my eye condition and I just found it interesting that people with it either tend to have autism (of varying degrees) or developmental delays. As my mom has said it would have been nice to know when I was kid that I would probably end up with either one ( I obviously ended up with Autism)

I wore bifocals in high school. I am now almost 70. Several years ago I had cataract surgery with lens implants. I now use trifocals most of the time. I need only dark bifocals in order to drive. My distance vision is good and I don't need glasses to drive except that I do require sunglasses in bright sun. My sunglasses are bifocal so I can read print while I have the sunglasses on. I need correction to read anything close to me like currency. I couldn't choose toll money without the bottom of my sunglasses. Inside, I need trifocals because while my distance vision is good, I need correction for middle and close vision. While at the piano or computer the trifocals drive me crazy so I also have single (mid distance) glasses for those distances. If I walk away from the piano or computer wearing the single vision glasses I am aware very quickly that I have the wrong glasses on. When I go on vacation, and I always take my netbook, I have to carry three pairs of glasses.

 

[Arashi222]

I wore bifocals in high school. I am now almost 70. Several years ago I had cataract surgery with lens implants. I now use trifocals most of the time. I need only dark bifocals in order to drive. My distance vision is good and I don't need glasses to drive except that I do require sunglasses in bright sun. My sunglasses are bifocal so I can read print while I have the sunglasses on. I need correction to read anything close to me like currency. I couldn't choose toll money without the bottom of my sunglasses. Inside, I need trifocals because while my distance vision is good, I need correction for middle and close vision. While at the piano or computer the trifocals drive me crazy so I also have single (mid distance) glasses for those distances. If I walk away from the piano or computer wearing the single vision glasses I am aware very quickly that I have the wrong glasses on. When I go on vacation, and I always take my netbook, I have to carry three pairs of glasses.

Its very interesting that you have three different differences in distances. Do you know how your inability to see played into having Autism? I have special wraparound sunglasses that I wear. I am not allowed to wear them indoors at work...even though that would be more helpful. As the bright lights bother me a lot. I don't use cash so I don't worry about trying to figure out bills. But if I have to then I have my mom or friend tell me.