Blindness: implications of the term

Abstract

Sudden and severe loss of sight can be an overwhelmingly distressing experience for the sufferer and, equally, those close at hand. This is particularly true when the individual has enjoyed normal or near normal vision for most of their life and as a result has taken their sight completely for granted. Although, a slow, progressive deterioration in sight can be compensated for to a large extent by minor adjustments to expectations and behaviour, there eventually comes a point at which the individual realizes that their visual impairment is severely handicapping them in daily activities such as shopping, cooking, feeding, dressing, house-work and mobility; not to mention leisure activities and hobbies through which they might otherwise obtain some respite from the irritations of visual impairment. It is when there is little pleasure left in life and nothing other than the repeated experience of frustration that the person is likely to come into contact with one or other of the helping professions, possibly for the first time in their lives.