Driving vision test, how hard?

Here I sit. Another person was going to give me a lift, and no show, no answer. Now that walking seems like i can do, I thought I would entertain the idea of gettinga drivers license. I am legally blind, so I would need a doctor to sign off on it. I was wondering, how hard is the vision part? I can see cars, lights, but can not read street signs or license plates. Ive been a back seat driver for quite a few years and I seem to do pretty well at it.

Man, seems without using the wheelchair, those who volunteered me a ride were saying so knowing full well they were unable to load my electric chair in their trunk. Now I can just hop in, these folks have excuses or never show up or answer the phone. Think I will try to bite the bullet and drive myself around. Mainly city driving, 35mph, 7 miles or so one way. No bus service in the county on weekends, otherwise I would take the bus.

I doubt you would be able to get a license if you can't read the signs. Here in oregon they make you look into this viewmaster type thing with pictures of road signs that supposedly simulates certain distances. If you can't read them, you don't pass. They may have special requirements for disabled people though.

My vision is 20/30 in one eye and 20/40 in the other. I never need to wear my glasses in my daily life, but I'm legally required to when I'm driving, since I can't read signs very well without them. There's a restriction printed right on my license about it.

I think it's different state by state. Here in Ma, we don't have to read simulated road signs (thank god) but the minimum required visual acuity is 20/40 out of one eye although I believe you can get a daytime only license up to 20/70. In some states I believe you only have to pass it the first time and then never take the test again. I am quite nervous myself whether I'll be able to pass come renewal time a couple of years from now due to decreased uncorrectable vision.

Cobb, if it's not personal, what is the cause of your vision loss? The frustrating part for me is that they cannot physically see anything wrong although the symptoms point to a retina/macular problem.

when i got my learners permit in MA, i had to look into a wiz-bang machine and do color recognition and the direction of the arrows

I have problems with them from my muscular disease. After batteries of tests they ruled out RP with a flash EGR. With photographing the eyes, they found one was near, the other far sighted. At that one has a dislocated lens the other is slightly tilted. Furthermore a field test showed a limited field with one eye and unable to measure the acuitity. So, legally blind with glasses. I think here in VA you can drive day time only if you see 20/70 with some type of field, otherwise need a doctor to sign off. I think my mom said last she got her eyes checked the machine has half the letters on one side and half on the other. This was in the early 90s.

What are you eyes doing? You loosing your center vision? ? Outer vision? Resolution? Colors?

As a child my left eye was turned until corrected by surgery at age 8 but hence, little vision ever developed and the acuity of that eye is 20/300 or thereabouts. However my right eye was fine, 20/20 even 20/15 after being corrected for nearsightness until a few years ago when I first realized I had a vision problem in that eye. The problem is mainly center vision related. The center has a blur spot very bad in low light, better as the light increases. It would remind you of looking thru a spot of grease. Also straight lines are curving, particularly when viewed at an angle. Also quite a bit of color perception loss, particularly for small objects. When reading the resistor color codes (I work in electronics), I have a had time telling, greens, browns and reds apart unless I look at it under a microscope so it is really blown up. With larger objects, traffic lights, etc., I seem ok still, in the color perception area. I've had quite a few tests done including I forget angio something or other where they inject dye and take pictures of the retina but all appear normal. One doctor says he sees a slight cortical cataract but others say it is not bad enough to cause the problems I'm describing. What is scary is that my father is legally blind without a determined cause although his started as a small child and they wonder if the measles caused it. I could still see 20/20 at age 35 (I'm 42 now).

Doing fine work at my job is tough now including soldering and I use magnfication tools a lot although I don't like them. I basically can still read most things ok although I need a lot more light then I used to and have to hold them closer. I do not like LCD monitors as their native resolution is too small for me and they do not look good when viewed at other then the native resolutions.

So that's my life eye story. I've asked to be put on salary at work as the salaried people qualify for company paid long term disability which is more then what the government gives. Of course I have no idea how hard it would be to get long term disability company or government, whether not seeing well enough to do your job or get a driver's license is sufficient or you would have to be declared legally blind. I've heard lots of mixed stories from people in their experiences in attempting to qualify for long term disability. According to my last social security statement, I would qualify for government $1600 a month. If I did not have to pay taxes on that, I could move somewhere cheaper and maybe survive, perhaps back to Vermont where I grew up.

I'm sorry about your vision loss. The only good thing about mine is I don't take any of the senses for granted. Today I went bike riding and cherished every moment of watching the farmers hay the fields, etc.

I can sure relate, about 13 years ago I needed glass's for the first time. Within a year I needed several prescription changes, this caused my Dr. to send me to a Specialist. Turns out I have Keratoconus. It is a degenerative eye disease that causes a thinning and bulging shape to the cornea. A side effect is a bad Astigmatism. This causes shadowing of letters, lines to not seem straight etc. I am past the point where glass's help, I am now wearing hard contact lenses. Almost like having new eyes again for awhile. Sometime in the future I will probably require a cornea transplant.

Geepondy it sounds like you are going through much the same as I experienced. You might want to try a google search. It is often not caught till latter stages.

Michael

Ouch, sorry about that. I think the center vision lost is called macgular degeneration. NOt sure what causes it. I think they make something call a brita lens that helps. May want to visit a low vision clinic. I cant think of the name of the lens, but it takes a center image and spreads it out so you can what is in front of you from the edge of your retina. See I need the reverse, like looking through the other end of a telescope.

The only thing that it has caused me to give up is scuba diving. The pressure at depth could cause the eye to implode. So instead I became a skydiving instructor.
Job wise the hard contact lenses allow me to remain aircrew. Hopefully this will continue till I am ready to retire. As I am only 40 I can still serve another 15 years.
However, as Geepondy mentioned I enjoy each day that I have. In a way it is a wakeup call that you never know what life has in store for us so you had better make the most of it.
When I see some of the injuries, medical problems, and maiming that others are experiencing, it puts it into perspective.

Michael

Here in California, for renewal at least, you read one line, 5-6 letters, that are about 1" high. You do this from about 8 feet away covering one eye at a time. IMO it's ridiculous.......

Yeah, having a vision problem makes for an interesting life. Going into the wrong sex bathrooms, misreading signs, door or room numbers and life in general. I woke up one day my lamp went out with no night light. I opened my eyes at 3 am and thought I had finally gone blind as I could not see anything in my dark room. Other times i open my eyes to see poka dots on the walls then they go away. Or lines like hanging threads from the celling. Sometimes colors are off.

Think one could cheat at a driving eye test?

I knew a commercial carrier co-pilot who did that on his twice a year medicals. Just memorized the chart.

-Bill

I will admit I am not the brightest crayon in the box. I talked to my mom and dad today. Dad said he used a driving school to help him. Hes not disabled, just didnt get his license til he was 36 or out of the navy since highschool and rode a moped around for a few years. He said he got his learners permit too and practiced driving. TOld him I would need to as well since i hadnt drove that much or often.

Driving schools will help you like that?

The vision test varies from one state to another but basically you at least need corrected vision good enough to read signs. If your corrected vision is good enough but your uncorrected vision isn't, they generally put a flag on your license saying you're only allowed to drive with your glasses on.

If your corrected vision is too poor to see signs, there's all kinds of other things that you might also not see, so driving is probably not a safe thing for you to be doing. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

You kind of hit on what my concern was. Seeing well enough even if i cheat to get a license. Reading signs and seeing aperson, bike, car, etc is another story. I dont have to read ambulance, police, etc on the side of a car to know waht it is, just move or pull over if its behind me. I may need to get with the guys at the shop or hang out in trucker forums to find out what illertate folks do to get by who cant read signs, etc.