Blindness: Types and Tech | God's World News
Blindness: Types and Tech
Citizen Ship
Posted: July 26, 2017

When we think of blindness, we usually think of being unable to see at all. But people experience other kinds of blindness too.

• Color Blindness. Red means STOP. But someone with color blindness might not know when a traffic light changes colors. Color blind people have trouble noticing differences between colors, especially green and red.

• Night Blindness. People with night blindness cannot see well in dim conditions. They also have a hard time seeing when dark changes quickly to light or light to dark. That happens a lot when a person drives at night and another car’s headlights come near.

• Sun and Snow Blindness. Have you ever been temporarily blinded by the sun or snow? When someone’s eyes are exposed to too much ultraviolet light, the cells on the surfaces of their eyes swell up. But the “blinded” person can still see shapes and objects moving.

• Face Blindness. Someone with face blindness, or prosopagnosia, cannot recognize faces. This kind of blindness isn’t a problem in the eyes. It’s a problem in the brain caused by diseases, brain injuries, or strokes. People with face blindness have to learn to use other clues to identify people.

Tech that Helps

Mr. Regan has a medical condition called optic nerve hypoplasia. Like him, hundreds of millions of people cannot get help from normal glasses. People with eye diseases can lose their sight completely. Others have very little vision. For some, vision gets worse as they get older. But blind and nearly blind people still need to do the same things you do every day. Technology helps.

• Have you ever touched braille on a sign in a public building? Blind people can read this raised language with their fingertips.

• When it comes to using computers, blind people have lots of helpful tech to choose from. Screen-reading software does just what it sounds like—reads words on a screen out loud. For partially sighted people, screen magnifiers can make items on a screen look bigger. Dictation software types out words they speak. Refreshable braille displays are devices with pins that pop up and down. They allow blind people to read electronically.

• A South Korean company called Dot has been working for three years to build a watch for the blind. Before now, watches for the blind have made noises to let the wearers know the time. But that can be too disruptive. (Imagine sitting in class with a watch that beeps a lot.) Dot’s new watch displays four braille numbers that change as time ticks by. A blind person just has to touch it to know the time.

Citizen Ship, May/June