Dealing with poor vision
Tagged: Disability eyesight
- This topic has 7 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 2 months ago by Michael B.
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7 January 2017 at 2:33 pm #143974
Hi all, I have fairly bad vision that’s hanging me up really badly. I’ve had poor vision for all my life with a blind left eye no peripheral vision and I have nystagmus which means my eyes shake all the time and trying harder to concentrate makes them shake a lot more.
I just sharpened an 11 ppi saw by mostly feel which went well, but I can’t set it. I do have my eclipse set set to 12 which means I can only see it if I really strain. I ended up with a terrible headache and had to stop.
I’m wondering if others are in the same boat as me and how you cope. My shop has excellent lighting which I have recently had an electrician install a full length LED light strip above my workbench which is great.
I was thinking of trying to find those things jewellers wear that might work.
Another problem I have is keeping to my line while sawing. I can only see my line when I’m about 10″ away so I find myself probably standing too close while sawing which I have actually just discovered what is causing my cuts to bow in. I don’t know what to do there.
I’m not going to give up. There has to be a solution.
9 January 2017 at 2:20 pm #144026Brett,
That is a tough situation and I admire your “stick toit tiveness”. While I do not have your sight issues, due to retina and cataract surgery in the last 2 years, my eye sight has changed significantly.I have one eye near sighted while the other is far sighted. It has been corrected with glasses but just barely and am always taking glasses on and off and putting on other glasses so I can see at an 18″ range but not close up.
I do have so cheap set of close up lenses that fit into a head band that helps. The other thing I will do is close one eye and let my near sighted eye control things but, like you, I loose depth perception.
Not sure where you live but if your sight can be “corrected” with glasses, you can get a pair of Rx glasses at Walmart for $40. At that price, you can get a pair for arms length range and another for close up.
Good luck and hang in there….
9 January 2017 at 5:04 pm #144034Hi there Brett, maybe it’s the name Brett that’s the problem, lol.
I live in Melbourne Australia. I have distance and reading glasses. You know what though I’ve never actually tried using distance glasses in the shop, mainly because I feel that I’m always going to be wanting to do closeup layout and never thought of actually changing them during my work. I’m going to give that a go.
One thing about my eyesight though is that even though I have distance glasses, it’s the shaking of my eyes that makes it hard to focus on detail, especially for long periods of time. If you could imagine your eyes twitching uncontrollably all the time and then when you try study something they get faster it can be a real bummer. They can’t correct my eyes unfortunately, actually they won’t even touch them of fear they will make things worse.
Last night I ordered some cheap headband things you might be talking about with magnifying inserts that I’m hoping will help. I ordered a couple of different kinds so will be sure to share my findings.
9 January 2017 at 5:07 pm #144035And everything’s worth the struggle. Whenever I achieve something I feel rewarded that “I could do it”. We all should feel this way no matter our disabilities.
I’m a programmer, but because of my eyes I learned to program without looking which is advantageous.
10 January 2017 at 1:09 pm #144075Brett,
Please report back on how things are going and what is working for you and what doesn’t. There are probably more of us out there that would like an update.
Best to you in the future.
13 January 2017 at 6:01 am #144160Man I have struggled with the vision issues but I have no problems like you guys have. I will tell you that one of the best craftsmen I ever knew was legally blind. He made the smallest violin in the world, it was about the size of a penny. He had worked for hours on the cheek piece and when he went to glue it in place it shot off on the floor, he looked and looked but couldn’t find it.
He had a bench set up with sides all around painted white, he put bright lights all around it and had a big magnifier over his project so he could see. (Maybe you could think of a way to enhance your work space)?
I asked him what he did and he just shrugged and said “I just made another one”,he was the most calm and peaceful person i ever knew. So keep at it, practice will enhance other senses and you will be better craftsmen than people with great sight because you will have to work harder to compensate for your limitations.I’d recommend getting a pair of safety glasses with a lens ground specifically to focus at the precise distance range that you need. Optometrists these days commonly prescribe lenses like this for people who spend a lot of time on computers and call them midrange or computer lenses. They aren’t too good for walking around or (God forbid!) driving.
Hi Brett,
Nice to see a fellow Aussie on these forums. I’m also a programmer by trade, but dabble in electronics on the side. My work place has a basic electronics workshop, which includes a magnifying lamp and some head mounted magnifiers. The magnifying lamp is really handy when soldering PCBs and fiddly cables, as everything is well illuminated and the detail is much clearer.
Such a lamp might be useful on your workbench. The one in our workshop is a 3 diopter magnification from Altronics, and they also have a 5 diopter model. Here’s a link to their site: http://www.altronics.com.au/search/all/?sr=magnifier+desk+lamp
They also have other types of magnifiers and tools which might help. -
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