What Are Blindness and Visual Impairment?
There are many different definitions of the terms blind and visually impaired that are used for different purposes. Essentially, the word blind refers to the absence of vision or to the ability to determine only the existence (not the source) of light (known as light perception.) A visual impairment is any vision problem that is severe enough to affect an individual’s ability to carry out the tasks of everyday living. In a broad sense, the term visual impairment usually includes blindness. People are said to have low vision if they have a severe visual impairment even after the best possible correction (with eyeglasses, contact lenses, or surgery) but still have some usable vision. People with low vision are often able to learn to use their vision effectively—that is, increase their visual functioning—through instruction from professionals from the field of blindness and visual impairment, practice in visual techniques, and the use of optical devices such as magnifiers or telescopes. T
