As someone with a progressive low vision condition, I have been answering the question “so what can you see?” for the majority of my life. Honestly, this question is really challenging to answer because I am not always sure how I am supposed to see something, or I may not realize how much my vision has changed until someone points it out. My experience with low vision is more than just decreased visual acuity or meeting the criteria for legal blindness, and this is true for many people with vision loss that cannot be corrected by glasses, contacts, or surgery. Here is a list of guided questions that can help with learning to explain usable vision or creating a “vision statement” that explains how individuals access visual information.
What can you see in this environment?
In my day-to-day life, I encounter very few items that look like an eye chart or the other materials used for vision tests at the eye doctor. While knowing visual acuity can be helpful, I often find it more useful to ask questions about how someone accesses different things within their environment. This can include the home environment, the classroom environment, community environments, or other places/locations they visit often. Fluctuating factors like lighting, temperature, noise levels, fatigue, and visual clutter can also further contribute to how someone accesses information in their environment.
Some examples of environments and situations to consider include:
- Watching TV
- Looking at the board during class or a presentation during a meeting.
- Navigating a playground at recess or a busy cafeteria
- Going to the grocery store.
- Engaging in hobbies.
- Visiting community centers or places of worship.
- Navigating the workplace.
- Going to a friend’s house.
- Using a kiosk.
- Locating signs at an airport, bus stop, or other public transportation.
To share an example, I struggle with reading handwritten text on a whiteboard due to glare from lighting and markers being faded/poor contrast, as well as handwritten text on a projector. I have to be standing 12-18 inches from the board in order to see what is being written, even though I should theoretically be able to see it.
Related links
- How To Make Classroom Videos Easier To See
- How To Make Things On The Board Easier To See
- Mainstream Technology and Low Vision: Televisions
- School Cafeterias and Low Vision
- Preferential Seating and Low Vision
- Common Classroom Accommodations For Low Vision
What makes it easier to read text?
When I was younger, I often had no idea that I could not read standard print because I assumed that text was blurry for everyone, or I would not notice small symbols or low-contrast pictures that appeared invisible to me. Learning how to use strategies like large print, screen magnification, display customizations (e.g. dark backgrounds for text) and other tools like text-to-speech help me tremendously when it comes to accessing text.
When I am conducting an assistive technology evaluation, I find it useful to ask people how they currently use their computer, tablet, phone, or other devices so I can figure out if this is working for them. For example, I might have a client that leans in close to the screen to read small print, or another client that uses browser zoom or pinch-to-zoom to read everything. When possible, it also helps to know the minimum font size that someone can read comfortably, as well as details like preferred fonts, colors, and line spacing.
Related links
- A to Z of Assistive Technology for Reading Digital Text
- How I Document Accessibility Preferences With Low Vision
- Dear Elementary School Teacher
- How I Use My eReader For School and Online Classes
- High Contrast and Low Vision
- Windows Magnifier and Low Vision
- Zoom Magnifier and Low Vision
How do you view things in front of you?
This is different than asking someone “how far can you see?” as people may have intact peripheral vision but have issues with their central vision. For example, some people may find it helpful to close one eye, hold screens or pages at an angle, lean close to a screen, or prefer smaller text sizes that fit in their visual field. Visual clutter can also play a role in how someone accesses information in front of them, as they may find it hard to locate an item if there are lots of other items in their visual field, or may have difficulty identifying objects.
I discovered as an adult that visual clutter makes it much more challenging for me to see items, even if they are directly in front of me. For example, if I am looking for an item in a messy drawer, it is often easier for me to move my hands around or listen for sound cues instead of visually scanning the space to look for something.
Related links
- iPhone Accessibility Settings For Occipital Stroke
- How To Make iPad Accessible for Low Vision
- Low Vision Accessibility Settings For Android Phones
- Low Vision Accessibility Settings For Windows 11
- Low Vision Accessibility Settings For MacBooks
What about items that are around you/next to you?
Instead of having trouble with central vision, some people have intact central vision but limited peripheral vision that can make it challenging to see items around them. People with visual field deficits or issues related to peripheral vision may bump into items frequently, position their head/body to face objects, or change the font sizes of text to make it easier to see.
When navigating school hallways, I would often miss out on seeing posters or items on the wall, or bump into other students, lockers, or items that were not directly in front of me. This also made it challenging to look at large monitors up close, as I would only see part of the screen.
Related links
- High School Hallways and Low Vision
- Ten “Odd” Things I Do With Double Vision
- How To Create Accessible Classroom Posters For Students With Visual Impairments
- How I Decorate A Bedroom For CVI
- How I Decorate My Dorm Room With Low Vision
- Mainstream Technology and Low Vision: Tablets
Do you have floaters or other vision changes that impact how things look?
Some eye conditions and injuries cause people to have solid or translucent floaters, blurry eyesight, double vision, flashes of light, or visual snow/static that makes it difficult to make out objects or text, especially in different lighting conditions. While I have had double vision for the majority of my life, I didn’t realize that I experienced visual snow until a neurologist mentioned it. Understanding double vision and visual snow has made it easier for me to adjust screens and learn how to minimize glare so that I can see things more easily.
New floaters and vision changes can be a sign of an ocular emergency, injury, or another neurological condition, and should be addressed promptly to minimize long-term impacts to usable vision.
Related links
- Two of Everything: Living With Double Vision
- How I Take Math Tests With Double Vision
- Disability and Classroom Accommodations For Chiari Malformation
Does light impact how well you can see?
I wear tinted non-polarized glasses because I am sensitive to bright lights and develop eye strain quickly if I have to look at a bright screen or a bright space without my glasses (I wear polarized sunglasses outside). I often adjust lighting when possible to make things easier for me to see, experimenting with different light colors and intensities. If a space is particularly bright, it is much harder for me to see what is happening.
One of my friends described their light sensitivity by saying that when they walked outside, it was like someone threw a white sheet over their head because their eyes were not able to adjust to bright sunlight well. This explanation resonated with me, as I often struggle to adjust to bright lights or spaces as well.
Related links
- Lighting And Low Vision
- How Tinted Glasses Help My Light Sensitivity
- Reduce Glare In The Classroom For Low Vision Students
- Modifying Assignments To Remove Flashing Lights
- Smartphone Accessibility Settings For Photosensitivity
- Ten Ways To Reduce Eye Strain From Screens With Technology
What makes your vision change, or harder to use?
In this context, fluctuating eyesight or fluctuating vision refers to vision clarity or vision performance that changes frequently, which may be described as having good or bad vision days, or more frequent vision changes/fluctuations throughout the day. This can be an issue for individuals with “stable” vision conditions that find it more challenging to use their vision in specific settings, or for individuals that have vision conditions that change over time.
Examples of factors that may contribute to fluctuating eyesight for visually impaired individuals include:
- Fatigue and eye strain, especially after performing visually demanding tasks
- Allergies
- Weather
- Heat or changes in temperature
- Indoor lighting
- Sunlight or bright lights
- Nighttime or dim/dark lighting
- Pain levels
- Illness
- Environmental layout
- Overstimulation or sensory overload
- Hormones or other internal experiences (e.g. hunger, anxiety)
- Additional disabilities or chronic illnesses that impact vision
- Availability of vision breaks or other opportunities to rest eyes
My doctors and teacher of the visually impaired would use the term fluctuating eyesight to specifically refer to these short-term vision changes that impact how I use my “baseline” level of vision, which separate from the vision changes I experience from a progressive condition. Unlike the long-term changes, these fluctuations vary from day to day and there are ways I can either predict them or help minimize their effects on my usable vision.
Related links
- Disability Accommodations For Fluctuating Eyesight
- Modifying Assignments To Remove Flashing Lights
- Reduce Glare In The Classroom For Low Vision Students
- Disability and Classroom Accommodations For POTS
- Activity Ideas For Vision Breaks
How do you navigate an unfamiliar place?
Can you navigate an environment by yourself, or do you need assistance from someone or something else? Some people may prefer to feel the edge of a wall when walking or walk with another person, while others may use mobility aids like a white cane (blindness cane) or guide dog. A lot of people I meet that have been newly diagnosed with low vision use a family member or friend as a human guide to describe visual information. I strongly recommend talking to a certified orientation and mobility specialist (COMS) to learn more about independent travel and navigation for individuals with visual impairment. Other tools such as prescription optical aids may also be an option for independent travel. For those in the United States, I recommend connecting with the state unit for visual impairment services to get contact information for specialists.
Related links
- How To Be An Effective Human Guide For People With Vision Loss
- Ten Things To Know About Going To College With A Blindness Cane
- Seven Places I Don’t Take My Blindness Cane
- Services Provided By State Department/State Unit for Visual Impairment
- Smartphone Apps For Orientation and Mobility
- Accessible Maps and Wayfinding Tools For Low Vision
What is the best way to support your usable vision?
I prefer to access visual information as independently as possible, but this does not mean that I do everything alone— I often get help from others, either in the form of directly asking someone for help or using tools that others have designed. Some people may prefer to have others offer help, while others may prefer to ask for help on their own if they need it.
Some strategies that come to mind for supporting my own usable vision include:
- Large print text in size 24-pt font.
- Screen magnification or pinch-to-zoom to enlarge text.
- High contrast colors or color-coding information.
- Wearing tinted glasses.
- Not having people approach me from behind or standing outside my peripheral vision (when practical/possible)
- Having an option to have text read aloud, either by a human or text-to-speech.
- Single column layouts.
- When using a human guide, having them walk on my left side.
- Using other strategies and compensatory skills to access visual information.
While it can be challenging to explain things I can’t see, it is also helpful to make a list of environments or examples where visual information is difficult or impossible to access. For me, this includes things like:
- Pencil lead on white paper (it looks like invisible ink!)
- Flashing or flickering lights, as well as strobe light effects.
- Items that blend into the background, e.g. black cat on a black couch or purple text on a purple background.
- Content that appears blurry or pixelated at 200% zoom.
- Nonverbal gestures like waving or raising hands.
- Faded markers on a dry-erase board.
Knowing this information is tremendously important for self-advocacy and learning to self-advocate, and one strategy that helped me explain this to others was to edit pictures that simulate low vision and how I perceived different accessibility barriers. I share more in a post linked below.
Related links
- Learning to Self-Advocate With Low Vision
- Elementary School Classrooms And Low Vision Accessibility
- Middle School Classrooms And Low Vision Accessibility
- How To Create Accessible Workspaces For Chiari Malformation
- A to Z of Assistive Technology For Low Vision
- Ten Spooky Inaccessible Assignments For Low Vision Students
Bonus: WHO categories of visual impairment
The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the following categories for classifying different types of visual impairment, or vision loss not corrected by glasses. While these categories do not take into account the various ways that visual impairment can affect someone’s usable vision, it can be helpful to be aware of them when developing an understanding of how vision loss can impact someone. These include:
- Category 0: No or mild visual impairment – presenting visual acuity better than 20/70 (6/18)
- Category 1: Moderate visual impairment (low vision) – presenting visual acuity worse than 20/70 and better than 20/200 (worse than 6/18 and better than 6/60)
- Category 2: Severe visual impairment (low vision) – presenting visual acuity worse than 20/200 and better than 20/400 (worse than 6/60 and better than 3/60). A visual field worse than 20 degrees in the better eye but greater than 10 degrees would be placed in Category 2 even if the central acuity is not impaired.
- Category 3: Blindness – presenting visual acuity worse than 20/400 and better than 20/1200 (worse than 3/60 and better than 1/60). A visual field worse than 10 degrees but greater than 5 degrees around central fixation would be placed in Category 3 even if the central acuity is not impaired.
- Category 4: Blindness – presenting visual acuity worse than 20/1200 (worse than 1/60) with light perception. A visual field no greater than 5 degrees around central fixation would be placed in Category 4 regardless of central acuity.
- Category 5: Blindness – irreversible blindness with no light perception
Some individuals may prefer to use the term blind to describe their own experiences with visual impairment, even if they meet the criteria for low vision. Others may prefer terms such as low vision, legally blind, visually impaired/visual impairment, or vision impairment/vision impaired.
Related links
More tips for learning to explain usable vision
- Many Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI/TSVI/TBVI) use a functional vision assessment/functional vision evaluation to describe a student’s usable vision or how they use their residual vision. This is used to develop a more in-depth understanding of usable vision, though these can be useful when researching different access strategies.
- Visual impairment is a spectrum, not a binary, and no two people with the same diagnosis will perceive visual information in the same way. That said, I have an entire post about my experiences with double vision that can be found at Two of Everything: Living With Double Vision, as well as a post that discusses Chiari malformation visual impairment at How I Explain My Brain With Chiari Malformation
- Wondering how I answer general questions about my eyes in a non-medical setting? Read How I Respond To Questions/Comments About My Eyes
Published June 3, 2020. Updated September 2025