Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking the sense of sight. There is a distinction between being totally blind and legally blind; the category of the legally blind includes many people with some degree of vision, even if only sufficient to distinguish light and dark. Blind people themselves refer to those with the sense of sight as "sighted". Other people included in discussions of and services for the blind are:- The Partially-Sighted
- People with Low Vision
- The Visually Impaired
- The Color Blind
Causes of blindness
The most common causes of preventable blindness in the world today are cataracts followed by trachoma (caused by chlamydia trachomatis) and onchocerciasis (river blindness). Prior to the disease's eradication, corneal scarring caused by smallpox had been one of the commonest causes of blindness. Other causes of blindness include Vitamin A deficiency, other childhood diseases, and congenital problems.
In developed countries, the occurrence of blindness and visual impairment is significantly higher among seniors than among children and youth. The most common causes of adult visual impairment include age-related Macular Degeneration and Diabetic Retinopathy.
Another kind of visual impairment, cortical blindness, is the result of brain injury affecting an area of the visual system such as the occipital lobe. People with cortical blindness can, despite having perfectly normal eyes and optic nerves, still be legally or totally blind.
- The Blind and the Deaf
- Children
- Education
- History
- Law
- Literature
- Medical
- Organizations
- Technology
- Tools
See also: