Re: Medical Disabilty/Contracting/Jobs

["Fred Ridder" <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

I don't mean to be argumentative, but your description of
macular degeneration is exactly backwards. The macula is
the central, high-resolution area of the retina, and when it
degenerates it causes blurriness and eventually total loss of
*central* vision, while peripheral vision is largely unaffected.
Macular degeneration is a particular devastating form of vision
loss specifically because it takes away the ability to read, and
even to recognize faces because much of our visual pattern
recognition ability is specific to the central vision area.


>From: "Pro TechWriter" <pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com>
>To: "Al Geist" <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>
>CC: Techwr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>Subject: Re: Medical Disabilty/Contracting/Jobs
>Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 17:23:08 -0400
>
>Hey Al:
>
>Knowing you, I am sure you did not intend to hurt anyone's feelings or be
>insensitive at all. Most people don't understand the terminology for
>blindness (or deafness either) unless they know someone who has this issue,
>or unless they have been educated about it.
>
>Having worked for the Texas Rehabilitation Commission years ago, I learned
>some things that a lot of people don't know about disabilities. Well, it's
>also my experience, but I'll get to that in a minute.
>
>One misconception is that "legally blind" means "can't see at all."  This 
>is
>usually not true.
>
>Without vision correction, I am classified as legally blind, because I have
>a vision range of about 6' from the end of my nose without glasses or
>contacts. "Legally blind" starts at about 20/200 vision. My vision is 
>20/450
>in one eye, and 20/475 in the other--uncorrected. With contact lense
>correction, it is about 20/40 or so. I do, however, work at my computer
>without my vision correction sometimes, but I sit close to the monitor :-)
>
>Some relatives in my family have macular degeneration, a form of blindness.
>They can see directly in front of them (as if in a tunnel) but do not have
>any peripheral vision. They can work at a computer very well, but cannot
>drive a car.
>
>It's a matter of degree, I suppose. I think there are assistive devices 
>that
>will allow people with "low vision" to do documentation quite well, using
>magnification and voice recognition technology, or even dictation that
>someone else transcribes. I would think that a talented technical writer
>could work around vision issues.
>
>Anyway, I hope the explanation helps someone.
>
>Best,
>PT

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