I was watching Ray, which depicts Charles as a young child suffering a progressive, degenerating condition leading to blindness. Wikipedia lists the probable cause as glaucoma. The movie shows a gradual loss of detail and narrowing of visual field (consistent with certain types of glaucoma); it also shows other symptoms (tearing, itching). A few questions:
Do we know for certain that his condition was glaucoma?
Why the tears and itching, and are they common symptoms of glaucoma?
It appears from the film that in adulthood, his eyelids were more or less closed all the time: did he have to keep them closed (could he open his eyes as an adult?) or did they permanently close themselves, and if so, why?
I don’t know if tear, itching, etc. are symptomatic of glaucoma, but he told Terri Gross on “Fresh Air” that that’s what he suffered from. There was no medical treatment available for poor blacks in the FL town where he grew up, but he did end up going to a state school for the handicapped.
According to this his blindness was likely caused by Trachoma but admits there is no definitive answer on this (for instance Ray Charles did PSAs for the Glaucoma Foundation).