Well it doesn't really count for much but I'm impaired in both eyes in different ways. My left eye is nearsighted while my right eye is farsighted.
However for years I was getting along just fine. I'd wear an eyepatch to cover my right eye at a computer and just blow up the screen or sit close to it so I could do what I needed if I needed to read something. I got away with it because before I hit the age of 8 when my vision started quickly turning sour, I'd memorized every eyechart that had ever been thrown at me. I was fine, it didn't prevent me from doing anything I needed to do. Sure I'd trip on things or mess up when I needed an aid and only got a visual one but it didn't take much to get over those. I started out the 6th grade as one of the worst French Horn Players simply because I couldn't read my music but with practice, and a little amplification with the help of my computer I quickly put away the music months before anyone else in my class would be ready to play in a concert and played from memory.
I am a slow drawer who zooms in at 800% to work out details in a 1000x1000px canvas.
I am a Spriter with a contract with an Indie Game Maker who again, zooms in for a ridiculous amount just to place each pixel where I think they need to go.
I am a musician that learned by ear when the pages could no longer be seen.
I am a programmer that can take a simple line of code and enlarge it to take up the entire width of my monitor just so I can work on it.
But I enjoy every moment of it.
Eventually I wrote a program with a bit of help from my father to read aloud for me so I could keep up with Chatrooms if I set the program to the window, tab, or skype room that I needed to pay attention to. Anything that was added to the page would automatically be read. It helped to compensate because the one that read words as you passed over them with the mouse that's built into a window's computer didn't exactly work very well in a fast paced Chatroom. I still have the .jar program somewhere on one of my many flashdrives though I haven't used it in years. I'm sure I'll find it again eventually. The only downfall is that it read caps in well.. Caps... Excited people yell a lot apparently. I stopped using it mainly because I stopped going into chatrooms because people yell too much. >~<;
Even now that I have a really good but really expensive pair of glasses I still have problems seeing with them. They have an anti-glare coating but not an anti-reflective. They constantly reflect lights from behind me into my eyes making it hard to wear them and they constantly give me headaches. I rarely wear them at the computer because I can't stand the reflections that after about 5 minutes cause me to have to force myself to go cross-eyed and back so that I can focus my eyes again. I have an Astigmatism that causes my eyes to go out of focus when I wear something to try and make them focus. It's even worse with this new pair than it was with my first pair that I got tricked into getting 3 years ago. To be honest, I'm so used to not having them that I'd prefer to go "blind" than wear them.
I am 19, and like my Grandmother, I will probably never be able to drive alone even with these Glasses. It'd be too much of a danger to other people on the road. Being behind the wheel scares me though so I doubt I'd want to anyways.
However that doesn't stop me from walking everywhere.
It doesn't stop me from getting the home cleaner than anyone else could manage.
I know the floor span and placement of furniture of this entire house, and it's quite a large one. However, even though I can't see what's left on the floor after it gets picked up unless I'm crawling on it, I can still vacuum in the dark without a single candle and still manage to get the floor almost as clean as the day it was put in. I'd been scolded for vacuuming with no light source because I won't be able to "see the floor I'm trying to get clean", however I don't really think it will make a difference. I only "trip up" if one of the cats decides to run between my legs.
Navigation wise, I'm not exactly sure how to describe how I do it. I suppose it's a mix between Memory and Vibrations in a sense. I don't go anywhere during the winter unless I must but I typically won't go anywhere without anyone when I have to deal with snow. I don't do very well in snow unless I recall my younger years of digging through giant piles to make forts. I prefer to be barefoot because I feel the vibrations of things coming and going and I can feel what I'm walking on. I can only see a mass blurr of colours when I'm without my spectackles and I can't always see the red or white light that indicates Hault or Walk so I don't do very well with Traffic Lights. If I go outside by myself, which I probably wouldn't recommend but I'm either very stupid or very stubborn, I prefer to stick to back roads unless I'm with a crowd. As you mentioned, some use the clicking method. I don't use it myself but I can still tell where I am based on the sounds that are around me.
I can't see for crap but If I hold close enough I'm obsessed with reading.
With enough practice of anything you can get pretty good at it, sight or no sight. It takes a lot more time But that doesn't stop me from doing what I want to. Or course it means I Have to be harder on myself to keep up and -try- to get better at art but for not being able to see what Im doing half the time I think I'm doing rather well concidering I didn't get into digital art until after I personally realized the need for glasses then repeatedly kept tricking the doctor until they placed one I didn't get a chance to see up close first... But they really do help in all honesty even if they do give me headaches.
I'm considering getting a bigger computer monitor in the future though so everything will be bigger so I don't have to strain so hard without assistance.
You mention that you're an Artist and a Writer so Visuals are Important to you.
Artwise it can be helped with a bigger screen and a lot of zooming if the blindness isn't just a lack of sight rather than a failure of focus in your eyefluids as you're describing. If you can make out Shape and Colors you can keep on going.
Writing wise, there's a program that I mention that's built into your windows computer that can read what you put your mouse over. If you can type without looking at the keyboard then you won't need your eyes at all, just your hearing and already creative imagination. If you still need to look then I suggest working on typing without looking so you can prepare for the worse when it happens.
I will ask though, has your doctor said you have any high level of pressure in your eye, probably caused by extra fluid? I know that your eye producing extra fluid and not getting rid of the old stuff can gradually bring our eyes out of focus worse and worse as time goes on as well as cause Headaches and Migraines due to the pressure.
I will admit that if that's the case, in the near future as our tech gets better of these procedures get cheaper, you might be able to get a temporary fix, depending on how fast the fluid is produced you could possibly get it drained somewhat to bring the eye back to a normal 20/20 or close focus shape. It's not a common known procedure but it can temporarily fix a very severe problem caused by a large amount of excess fluid. I say Temporary though because if it's caused by an overproduction of fluids then it can potentially warp out of shape again over time. It really depends what's causing the overproduction whether it's an overactive gland that will never stop or just a hormonal one that's overproducing while you're in the mothering stage of your life.
This wouldn't fix my problem because mine's a problem with the way my eyesockets shaped themselves as I was growing and it stopped getting worse when my body stopped developing but if yours a gradual thing because of Extra Fluids it could be a future fix if you can find a way to afford it when the procedure gets cheaper.
I do apologise if I'm giving false hopes but I'm going on given information and a bit of guessing. ^^;
This got way too long... |
