due to nystagmus and atrophy of th optic nerve, i am legally blind (20/100 in the left eye and 20/400 in the right and the nystagmus makes it actually worse than that when it’s acting up). i can’t get my driver’s liscense or even a moped liscense (equivalent to a driver’s permit that allows a 15 or 16 year old to drive a car with a 21-year-old’s supervision) without at least 20/70 vision in one eye. so, i was wondering, could i mprove the vision in my left eye by covering the right? if so, i’m assuming it would improve to 20/80 at best to fully compensate for “lost” vision in the right eye. (since 20/100 is like 1/5 of 20/20 vision and 20/400 is like 1/20 of it, 1/5+1/20=1/4 which translates back to 20/80. this is probably totally off-the-wall, but it’s my best guess.) so, would this work? how long do you think i’d have to cover the one eye to make the other adjust? and once i took the patch off, would my right eye be weaker? would my left eye stop being extra strong once it realised my right eye doing its job again? i wouldn’t do it anyway unless i knew it would give me 20/70 in one eye tho’… just curious.
The visual acuity you have in any given eye is a function of the condition of the eye itself, and the amount of incoming light. Closing one eye is not going to improve the resolution or focus ability of the other - the only thing that can change that is eye surgery. You can temporarily improve visual acuity by squinting, but in your case, I don’t see that as a long term option - especially for motor vehicle licensing. One thing you should be aware of is that our sense of depth perception comes from resolving two visual signals separated by the distance between your eyes (parallax). When you close or cover one eye, you no longer have the necessary information to resolve relative distances - you compensate for this simply by knowing that when an object gets bigger, it is getting closer to you, but it’s not safe to rely on that when operating a vehicle. Try catching baseballs with one eye shut to see what I mean.
-Fuji
This type of therapy is done for amblyopia but that is totally unrelated to your condition. I can’t comment further on your question because I think it requires medical expertise–but if you are legally blind, don’t you have an ophthamologist that you can ask this of? I certainly wouldn’t try it without a doctor’s advice. You could possibly make things worse in the eye you cover.
Also you can’t do math on those vision metrics.
Fujilasik surgery, or any such surgery won’t help me because my visual impairment has practically nothing to do with the cornea like nearsightedness and farsightedness do. i think pretty much anything that can be fixed with surgery like that can also be fixed or at least compensated for with lenses. and i wasn’t talking about driving with one eye covered; i was talking about covering the eye for a period (like a few days, weeks, whatever) and then uncovering it once my eye had improved if it actually would. then i’d get my permit. but, for now, i think i’m just gonna cheat on the eye exam… or get prayed over at church.
Exactly how does one cheat on an eye exam?
The only reason I have ever heard of for covering one eye is for correcting eye dominance problems - particularly in military personnel who require one eye for sighting and one for tracking when shooting a rifle. The dominance should be close to equal. In your case, if the weak eye is your dominant eye, then correcting dominance should effectively improve your vision, however, I have never heard of that technique actually improving visual acuity (resolution ability) of a particular eye.
Speaking as a motorist, and given that you have acknowledged the fact that you are legally blind, on behalf of everyone else on the road I respectfully request that you not push the license issue unless your vision is really good enough to ensure your safety and that of everyone around you.
If you see objects as stationary, Would you really want to have a driver’s license? I know I wouldn’t want to be on that road. Get the surgery to help out first…then maybe you can qualify.
Well yes and no IMO. I can only see out of my right eye as the other looks normal, but I had the lens removed after a childhood accident at around age 5. I can drive and have fairly good 3D depth perception and it’s not just judging an object “bigger or smaller”. I can catch baseballs, frisbees etc in flight just fine.
I asked my opthamalogist this exact question once. IE “Why can I see 3D with only one eye” and he indicated that the accident happened young enough that my brain re-wired it’s input to compenstate for the missing eye and still give me 3D vision. I realize there are limitations to to this and I am extra conservative when parking as my ability to judge distances down to the inch is not as good as in people with full binocular vision.
Fuji i can cheat by having my mom go up to the DMV with a pen and little notepad on which she can copy down the chart which i will then memorize. as far as me endangering people on the road, i don’t think i can really hurt anyone being on a moped going at maximum speeds of 25 mph. and if i do get a moped permit, i’ll only ride on certain backroads that hardly anybody ever travels. i’ve actually figured out how to get to quite a few places on these roads, including Food Lion, CVS, Burger King, Taco Bell, a litte diner, Dollar General, TCBY, Piggly Wiggly, Papa John’s Pizza, Apple Bees, and about five different gas stations.
Frixxxx where do you get the idea that i see objects as stationary? it’s quite the opposite sometimes. look up “nystagmus” eithe on www.dictionary.com or www.google.com if you don’t know what it is. and since i’ve been visually impaired since i was 3 without anyone compensating for or even acknowledging my disability, sometimes i don’t even notice when the nystagmus is acting up.
also, there are ways i can control it if it is bothering me… such as clam myself down if i’m nervous, stop daydreamimng if that’s what’s causing it, look at myself in a mirror, etc.
I did research your condition and this sight stated that “most individuals with nystagmus perceive objects as being stationary.”
I wasn’t trying to be mean or hurtful in any way. 
Here’s the site I recieved that specific statement:
http://www.spedex.com/resource/documents/veb/nystagmus.html
well, i don’t know; they could be right. there are like 3 different types of nystagmus. thankfully, i only have the one that makes the eyes move left to right. some people with nystagmus have eyes that move up and down, or up and down, AND left and right. THAT would suck.
i just read your article on nystagmus. they are correct, but you understood it wrong. what it means is that nystagmus can make
stationary objects look like they’re going back and forth when really the eyes are the things moving. after living with the condition for a while, you somehow learn to see stationary things as being stationary even when your eyes ARE moving.