Vision Impairment is loss of vision to a significant extent which limits the ability to see. It may occur due any trauma, or during development of fetus or many other conditions, which cannot get corrected by already established methods like – medication or surgery.
In the US, Vision impairment may be described as ‘partial vision’, ‘low vision’, legally blind’ or totally blind’ depending on the degree of vision loss. Vision Impairment disturbs the normal daily life activities. Loss of 1 eye vision equals 25% of vision impairment and 24% of whole impairment. Total loss of 2 eyes equals to 100% vision impairment and 84% of whole impairment.
Communication is the act of sending, receiving and understanding any message. Often hearing and seeing are important in interpreting communication successfully. People suffering from Vision impairments face the following problems while Communicating:
- They are unable to start any communication as they cannot see whom they are talking to and where is the other person.
- They get annoyed at sudden noise or sound.
- They easily lose patience as their interaction and understanding takes longer time than normal. So they get frustrated easily.
- They cannot trace mood and emotion of other person as they cannot trace non-verbal cues like – Facial expressions and body language.
- They feel difficulty in understanding language spoken in unclear and unusual tones.
The following tips will help you to deal with Vision impaired people better:
- Before greeting say who you are.
- Before any action like shaking hands, guide yourself by the activities of the sufferer.
- Avoid using visually descriptive words like – ‘I see’, ‘You see’. If you utter, then try to remain neutral as if nothing went wrong.
- Inform that you are ending a conversation.
- Let him know when you are leaving.
- Explain any unusual thing happening around. Be it a sound or any event.
- Explain him your reason for laughing if he is unaware.
- Give them information about the physical environment around them, if any obstacles are present around.
- Do not move around or change your place frequently.
- Speak always in a natural tone without showing your sympathy.
- Start your conversation by speaking names. So that it clarifies to whom you are talking.
- Introduce other persons so that he knows who all are around.
- Be clear in saying any directions like – left/right, etc.
- In danger use words like- ‘Stop’.
