There is truly no exact definition of the term ‘blindness’. While a layman would think that that the term signifies no vision at all; the opinion of the medical fraternity differs as such cases are extremely rare. In medical vocabulary, vision loss is generally spoken of in varying degrees. Most often, people are believed to suffer from partial permanent vision loss.
As per research, approximately above one million people in the US in the age group of 40 year and above are affected by blindness and above 25 million adults in America suffer from vision loss. The visually impaired and the blind, together form 3.4 million of the American population. Studies further highlight that in comparison with the Whites and Hispanics, the Blacks seem more prone to blindness. However, as a race the Hispanics are believed to be leading in terms of people with visual impairment. The probability of blindness and vision impairment is believed to escalate particularly in those above 75 years of age.
Legal blindness is a term that in the US denotes visual sharpness in the better eye less than or equal to 20/200 or alternatively a visual field range below 20 degrees in diameter. The Federal government offers some special advantages to such patients. On the other hand, an individual is termed as being visually impairment if he or she has less than or equal to 20/40 vision in the better eye despite using glasses. Blindness and visual impairment project major problems for not only the concerned individual but also the nation as a whole. While a visual impairment of more than 20/40 can bar an individual from obtaining an unrestricted driver's license in several states apart from many other routine handicaps; the economy of the country also suffers drastically. Studies reveal that the federal government incurs an expenditure of more than 4 billion dollars on an annual basis with respect to benefits and lost taxable income on account of blindness and vision impairment. It is advisable for all those suffering from any degree of vision loss to take immediate medical assistance so that further damage can be prevented.
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Night blindness also referred to as Nyctalopia is a medical condition, wherein an individual is unable to perceive people and objects at night or in dim light conditions. Such a person is incompetent in viewing objects moving from bright light conditions to areas with lesser intensity of light; thereby making driving at night an extremely tedious task. People suffering from night blindness feel severely handicapped to handle things independently at night.