Let’s face it: chances are if you’re reading this that you aren’t blind. If you are blind, you may be reading this via a screen reader or another application. In 2015, 2.3% of American adults were reported to have a visual disability. While this ranges from outright blindness to other issues, this translates to a not-insignificant amount of the population suffering from visual impairment.
If you have perfectly-good eyesight and have ever wanted to place yourself in their shoes, now you can. Davis Vision has put out a Vision Loss Simulator which can be operated on a desktop web browser, a mobile 360-degree experience or a full VR application. The VR implementation especially allows people to learn what being visually-impaired is like.
The vision loss simulator doesn’t just focus on outright blindness, either. Glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and more are all represented in the Visual Loss Simulator. While there are a few notable omissions- like color-blindness- this is still a fairly remarkable application for those who want to better understand the plight of the visually-impaired.
If you are visually-impaired, do you think tools like these accurately represent your condition, or could allow you to more easily explain it to others? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
