If you get even luckier, the specialist and their staff will speak to you at a regular volume and won’t assume that you’re deaf, because, if you’re blind then speaking louder has got to be helpful, right? If you arrived on your own, you won’t be asked where your carer is today. That’s if you’re really lucky.If you manage to get through this part of the visit you are then faced with the inevitable eye exam. This is where things get tricky. Heck, they can even get downright hostile.Usually, you’ve had drops of some sort squirted into your eyes so you already have strange sensations or, in fact, no feeling at all, depending on the drops of choice. You’ve probably already had the pressure in your eyes measured which is necessary but unpleasant.{{quote-A:R-W:470-I:2-Q: If I summon up the courage to try to discuss the probl with the specialist, he or she ses to be shocked that I can’t move my eyes in a given direction at will. Well, here it is guys: most of us really can’t. -WHO:Julee-anne Bell, Managing director of World Access For The Blind}}You are then positioned in front of a machine and directed to place your chin in the space provided. This is usually quite easy for most of us. Then the fun begins – “now, look straight ahead.”Every time this is said I feel the need to lift my head away from the imposing machine and rind the doctor that I’m congenitally blind. I’ve never used or had any real control over my eye muscles. But they know this, right? Surely they’ve read my file and are aware that I can’t see and I’ve never seen.However, I become less and less certain of this as I’m instructed with ever growing frustration on the part of the specialist to “look to the left.” And then, “look to the right!!”Usually, I mutter quite feebly that I can’t do these things. But this answer isn’t satisfactory. “Try harder! How can I be expected to examine your eyes properly if you won’t cooperate?” the practitioner says, growing evermore irritated.It feels a bit like I’ve been asked to predict the next week’s Lotto numbers or something. I can give it a go, but the chances of success are between a snowball’s and …well, you know where I’m going with this.If I summon up the courage to try to discuss the probl with the specialist, and I don’t always have the energy to do this, he or she ses to be shocked that I can’t move my eyes in a given direction at will. Well, here it is guys: most of us really can’t.If we’re congenitally blind, then we’ve never exercised the muscles around the eye sufficiently as to have gained more than a modicum of control over th. Why would we? We aren’t actively and consciously using our eyes and the muscles that drive th to engage in the task of seeing.The thing that frustrates me to no end is that the person conducting my eye exam is supposed to know this stuff! They’ve studied for years so you can’t tell me that it never came up, can you?I’ve found that the only way to get my eyes to go where you want th to, is to help me to relax and ask me to imagine my eyes looking in a given direction.Also, for those of us with our optic nerves still intact, you can stimulate th by having us move our finger in front and slightly to the left or right of the eyes, depending on which way you are wanting the eyes to move. I kid you not. It works.Now, we’re not going to be able to keep our eyes there for very long so you’re going to have to be quick about it and get a good look!I get that this is hard for you, but it’s almost impossible for us. If ophthalmologists could just show a little pathy, (Google it), and rber that purposeful eye movent does not come naturally to most congenitally blind people, we’ll all get along much better.
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Name: Julee-anne BellQualifications: BMus. (hons) MMus.StOrganisation: World Access for the Blind – AustraliaPosition: Managing directorLocation: BrisbaneYears in the profession: blind for 44 years, music teacher for 25 years and managing director of WAFTBA for four years. |
