Seeing the Reality of Elder Vision Loss

by Shirley McGee

I recently audited a Certified Senior Advisor class in Richmond, Virginia. One of the exercises, given to the students, was intended to give them a better understanding of challenges faced by the elderly. The instructor had ordered special spectacles for each student to wear, which would give them a vision handicap. Then they were each given a standard medical rubber glove, a rubber band, a mock checkbook and a pen.  They were then told to put on the glove and use the rubber band to secure their index finger to their thumb. Then they were told to put on the glasses and write out a check.

I was impressed by the instructor’s ingenuity and how quickly the exercise impressed on the students the different world in which so many of the elderly live. It’s tough to understand the limitations of a particular age when you have either passed it by it or have yet to live it. Try and remember what it felt like to be five and unable to reach something you wanted on the counter, or (perhaps more easily) a teenager struggling with the emergence of new hormones. As young working adults we are told the importance of honing a firm handshake, but it is unlikely you were taught how painful that firm handshake could be to retiree with arthritic fingers.   

As someone who has worked with the elderly for many years, I have become more sensitive to their world, and it was interesting to watch these students become enlightened as they struggled to write those checks. One student wanted to know why they had to wear glasses to distort their vision when everyone wears glasses to fix their vision now. Why wouldn’t the senior citizen just get glasses so he could see well enough to write out the check?

It is true that there are bifocals, trifocals and even a few highly specialized glasses that correct many vision issues; however there are a few things glasses just can’t fix. Macular degeneration is one. If it is caught early, and it is the right type, and it responds to treatment, then Macular degeneration can be fixed but there isn’t a set of glasses out there that is going to do anything for this troublesome vision problem. Macular degeneration (in the United States) is the leading cause of blindness in people over 55 and it affects more than 1.75 million people. No one knows the cause of age-related macular degeneration, either, but it often runs in families. It also has a greater occurrence in Caucasian women with light colored eyes, but obesity, smoking, sleep apnea and exposure to sunlight may increase the likelihood of developing macular degeneration.

Then there are cataracts, which slowly steal your vision away. Fortunately cataract surgery techniques have improved and success rates are high. However most people have to go through vision loss before the surgery is approved and scheduled. There is also diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma that the elderly often have to deal with, and I’m sure there are other less common vision handicaps that some people have. It’s important to realize that many of the elderly you meet and interact with have vision issues that their glasses cannot address. Don’t assume that just because a person is wearing glasses that she or he can see you. Often they cannot.

Below are a few simulations of various vision issues that often plague the elderly. Each is also compared to normal vision:

These images are not meant as medical advice or to diagnosis any condition. They are merely a simulation to help people who have normal vision better understand what those who do not might see. They do not represent all eye issues nor do they represent every form of the vision distortion associated with these particular diseases. If you have any distortions of vision, it is best to see an ophthalmologist and your physician right away. The sooner treatment is begun, the more likely you are to get a promising prognosis, and problems with your vision can often mask other issues 

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