Macular Degeneration

Went on a field trip with my daughter's English class today. Her English teacher is blind, they are going to read The Miracle Worker soon and the field trip was to the schools for the blind and the deaf in Indianapolis. I learned a lot and I know the kids learned a lot from the experience too.

I enjoy learning about new things but I have a special interest in learning all I can about macular degeneration because my mom has it. It tends to run in the family and there's a chance I could develop it some day.

I learned today that there are many ways that low vision is experienced and that most people who are legally blind are not totally sightless. They may have only peripheral vision, they may have tunnel vision, or they may not have any clarity of vision, just to name a few.

I'm most interested in understanding how people with macular degeneration see the world. I searched the internet and found a free macular degeneration simulation program you can download to your computer. Install and run it. Click on a picture and then right click on the image with your mouse to change the options. You can see what the early, mid and late stages of it look like as well as wet vs dry macular degeneration. If you do a Google search for macular degeneration simulation you will find links to many site that have examples of how macular degeneration affects vision.