Guest Blogger

Hi. My name is Robert Kingett. I’m a blind journalist in Chicago. I’m writing to share my experience as a visually impaired young adult living at Friedman Place, one of only two supportive living communities for the blind in the country. As a 23 year old, there were a lot of obstacles in my life. […]

If there’s one major disadvantage to being visually impaired, it’s that getting behind the wheel is nothing more than a pipe dream. If you’re reading this blog post, chances are good that you’re familiar with the dream. Driving is a luxury that folks with similar circumstances will never be able to experience. While I do […]

While dry macular degeneration accounts for 80-90 percent of patients seen in retinal practices, according to Janet Sunness, M.D., head of Hoover Low Vision Services at the Greater Baltimore Area, about “3.5% of the U.S. population age 75 and older have geographic atrophy. In people older than 90, the percentage is 22%.” Geographic atrophy is […]

Geographic atrophy (GA) is an advanced form of dry macular degeneration. While it does progress much slower than wet macular degeneration, the vision loss can be just as severe resulting in a large scotoma or grey, blurry or black spot right in the middle of one’s vision. Other vision changes include blurred vision, the need […]

Last week, I went with a friend of mine to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, which happens to be one of my favorite restaurants. We got there late – about 8pm or so – and the place was packed and noisy. More to the point, though, the place was dark. Dark not only from the […]

I should really be wearing glasses. And yet, I don’t. I used to wear them. From the time I was very little to the time I left elementary school, I wore glasses every day of my life. Then I became a self-conscious, pubescent monster as I entered junior high, at which point I refused to […]

So much focus is given to the different symptoms of macular disease and how it affects one’s vision, but less on how a diagnosis of a chronic retinal condition affects one’s emotions and emotional well being. The day one is diagnosed with AMD or any chronic eye condition is a day that is not forgotten. […]

Many people with macular degeneration or other forms of low vision have someone who is considered their main caregiver – it may be a wife or husband, an adult child or other family member or close friend. My mother-in-law is the main caregiver of my father-in-law who has wet macular degeneration. They are both in […]

When I was in high school, I once said to my mentor that if I could go back and do my life over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. To this day, my former mentor is still blown away by that statement. But it’s really true; I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t go back to being “normal”. The fact that […]