Criteria For Legally Blind
An estimated 1 1 million americans are legally blind.
Criteria for legally blind. A person is considered to have low vision or visual impairment if their best corrected vision is 20 40 or worse. In order to be considered legally blind someone must have vision of 20 200 6 60 in his or her best eye with correction and or have a visual field that is limited to 20 degrees or less in contrast with the 180 degree visual field enjoyed by people with healthy eyes. To be considered legally blind you have to have a level of vision loss that is in accordance with a medically diagnosed vision loss of 20 200 or less.
When it comes to what is legally blind in terms of a medical diagnosis the results of vision loss are determined by the central acuity of the better eye. Some conditions like glaucoma cataracts diabetes and macular degeneration can affect your sight to the point that you may be diagnosed. Definition of legal blindness states this about visual field.
Visual field how much you can see around the edge of your vision while looking straight ahead. The eye specialist called a consultant ophthalmologist will decide whether you meet the criteria for certification by measuring your. Part 2 of the u s.
This person isn t considered legally blind but they can have difficulty in. Under the new criteria if a person s visual acuity is measured with one of the newer charts and they cannot read any of the letters on the 20 100 line they will qualify as legally blind based on a visual acuity of 20 200 or less. Visual field criteria remains the same.
Visual acuity your central vision the vision you use to see detail. If a patient s best corrected va for distance in the better seeing eye was 20 125 1 using an etdrs chart he she is not classified as legally blind because one letter on the 20 100 line was read. How do we define who s legally blind.
