What is blindness or visual impairment?
When prospective parents are reviewing the medical information of a child with ophthalmic issues, one of the first questions they usually ask is “Is the child blind?” In truth, most people have a very specific definition of blindness. Ask the average person on the street to define blindness, and they might say “When a person can’t see anything – just darkness.” However, that answer only accounts for about ten percent of the people who are legally blind. Being legally blind generally means that someone has a visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with the best possible correction. People who are legally blind can have vastly different visual acuities, ranging from the ability to read large print, to seeing light only (commonly termed light perception), to seeing nothing at all. For this reason, throughout this article, the term visual impairment (VI) is generally used rather than the word blind. VI is a more general term that accommodates the wide range of vision possible for
