What's the difference between blind and low vision?
They are not the same thing, even though people often use the words together. Legal blindness in the United States means visual acuity of 20/200 or worse in your better eye even with glasses, or a visual field of 20 degrees or less. Low vision is broader. It covers anyone whose vision cannot be corrected to normal with glasses, contacts, medication, or surgery, but who still has usable vision. The DriveAble Foundation serves people across this entire spectrum.
Can someone with low vision drive?
That depends on severity and state law. Most states require 20/40 vision in your best eye for an unrestricted license. Oklahoma is one of the more lenient states at 20/60. Some states issue restricted licenses for drivers in the 20/40 to 20/70 range, and a handful permit bioptic telescope lenses for driving. Once vision drops below the state minimum, driving is no longer legal. That is the moment many people lose access to work, community, and independence all at once.
What eye diseases can cause someone to lose the ability to drive?
The most common are macular degeneration, which affects central vision, glaucoma, which damages the optic nerve and peripheral vision, retinitis pigmentosa, which causes tunnel vision over time, diabetic retinopathy, which damages the retina in people with diabetes, Stargardt disease, a genetic form of macular degeneration that often appears in younger people, and optic atrophy conditions like ADOA. ADOA is what runs in my family across three generations.
What does it mean to be legally blind?
Legal blindness in the United States is defined as visual acuity of 20/200 or worse in your better eye while wearing corrective lenses, or a visual field restricted to 20 degrees or less. Legally blind does not mean total blindness. Most people who are legally blind still have usable vision. The 20/200 threshold is the line federal programs use to determine who qualifies for Social Security disability, Medicare, vocational rehabilitation, and other supports.
How will autonomous vehicles change life for the blind and visually impaired community?
For most of human history, blind and visually impaired people had to rely on someone else to get around. A family member, a friend, a paid driver, a paratransit van scheduled days in advance. Autonomous vehicles change that completely. A self-driving car that arrives on demand gives someone with low vision the same freedom of movement that a driver's license gives everyone else. This is the most important transportation development for our community in a hundred years.
Why does the foundation focus on the gap between 20/40 and 20/200?
Because nobody else does. People who fail a vision test are told to apply for disability services. Disability services then tell them they are not blind enough to qualify. The state defines them as too impaired to drive. The federal government defines them as not impaired enough to help. Millions of people fall into that middle space. Most are still working, still raising families, still trying to contribute. They don't need pity. They need transportation and the right tools.
That said, vision loss is our anchor, not our boundary. We also serve people who are legally blind, and adults whose driving is ended by other health conditions. Losing the ability to drive is a health problem with many causes, and it costs every one of them the same thing. No one gets turned away because of how their vision measures on a chart.
Why is transportation such a big problem for the blind and visually impaired?
Because the American economy assumes you can drive. Most jobs require a commute. Most communities are designed around cars. Public transit reaches a small fraction of the country, and rideshare coverage is spotty outside major metros. Research from the American Foundation for the Blind found that 38 percent of blind and visually impaired adults have turned down a job because of transportation. The unemployment rate for the community in the United States hovers around 70 percent. Transportation is not a side issue. It is the single biggest barrier to employment and independence.
