Road Worrier
From a tweet by Marian Call:
@mariancall
Just heard a gorgeous radio piece on a legally blind astronomer. Reminded me of my weekend cooking with a blind filmmaker.
My reply:
@amyalkon
We're pretty sure we have numerous legally blind drivers on the streets of Los Angeles.
As a matter of fact, you probably do. Just not drivers of anything that requires a tag or a license, such as motor scooters.
A classmate of mine in high school, Adam, was "legally blind," but not blind in the strict sense of the term.
He wore glasses so thick he could probably see the future, but he wasn't "blind" as I understood the term. He could read printed pages, see the blackboard, and navigate his way around school. But as far as the law was concerned, his activities were as restricted as a blind person's would be.
So, a "legally blind" astronomer is perfectly within the realm of possibility. Least you envision someone trying to grope the stars in the sky at night.
Patrick at February 5, 2016 5:46 AM
envision someone trying to grope the stars in the sky at night.
I like that!
Amy Alkon at February 5, 2016 5:49 AM
I think my father is legally blind. But he is still allowed to drive with the proper eye wear. With current glasses the term doesn't really mean much.
Ben at February 5, 2016 7:01 AM
As far as driving goes, I am classified as legally blind if I am not wearing my glasses
lujlp at February 5, 2016 7:36 AM
Yeah, legally blind has a pretty wide range of visual abilities in it. I have 2 co-workers who are both legally blind, but both can actually use a computer. One is so bad he needs a cane to get around and can only see under 1" in front of himself, so he has to have his forehead against the screen to use a computer (I'm talking unix sysadmins and software developers). The other can see well enough to get around, but he's bad enough he can't drive. He does inline skate, though he has told me that can get hairy at times. His tale of the last time he was able to drive (he has glaucoma) he got in a crash because he was driving in San Francisco, and hit a VW beetle.. while he was going up hill and it was sky blue.
These 2 guys are a couple of the hardest workers I know. The latter of the two moved his family to our Austin office and took over as the head sysadmin there. Has 2 kids, very active with them... just can't drive so his wife is on the hook for all transportation needs.
Then there's my aunt. *sigh* She became classified legally blind about 10-12 years ago. Pretty much entirely her own fault. Abuse of drugs/alcohol most of her life (at least a couple car accidents in there), didn't bother going to an eye doctor as problems started cropping up, etc. The day she got said classification, she was almost giddy as she used my mom's computer to look up what gov't assistance she qualified for. She never really did work any job for very long and now she finally had a real excuse (in her mind) to never have to work again. I think I had worked more in my life by the time I was 30 than she had by 60. She's always basically been the black sheep.
The even sadder thing about my aunt is how she plays it up. She often pretends to be unable to see as well as she can, but slips up now and then so that if you spend enough time around her, it becomes obvious. It's been interesting to see relatives who haven't seen her in years that only hear from her about how bad it is who start out doing everything they can for her, then, within a few days admit that, yeah, she can clearly see better than she makes it out to be.
Miguelitosd at February 5, 2016 9:15 AM
The way some people drive in my state (Maryland), we probably have plenty of those, too.
mpetrie98 at February 5, 2016 10:00 AM
"Legally blind drivers on the road."
Yep, saw lots on them on the roads today here in Jersey; they cannot see that their cars are covered with several inches of snow.
Snow that flies off, hitting the cars behind them, as they drive "blindly" down the road.
charles at February 5, 2016 12:03 PM
This might, however, explain why drive-thru ATMs are labelled up in braille.
the other rob at February 7, 2016 4:37 AM
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