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About Me & My Sight

I am a lawyer working in London, specialising in tax law (trust me it is way more interesting than it may sound!).

I am registered as blind (legally blind) and I live with a genetic eye disorder called Cone-Rod Dystrophy (CRD). My vision started to deteriorate when I was 4 years old, so it’s been part of me for most of my life. Lots of people ask me about my eyesight condition, so here is my best (non-medical) brief explanation of my sight impairment.

CRD affects, and basically kills, the light sensing cells (the Cones and Rods) located in the retina at the back of the eyes. The Cones and Rods are responsible for capturing images from what your eyes look at, enabling you to see. The Cones are mainly responsible for your central vision (the vision used to see in front of you, read, recognise faces, and see detail). The Rods on the other hand provide you with your peripheral vision (the vision at the corner of your eyes), night vision and the vision to see broad features of objects and their outlines.

CRD begins by destroying the Cones, so as you can imagine, given the function of the Cones, there is a quick and dramatic loss in ‘useful’ vision early on. Not content with destroying the Cones, with an abundance of ambition that would make the likes of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan proud, CRD then focuses on progressively destroying the Rods leading to sight loss.

My Cones are dead and my Rods have taken a big hit. So I have a massive blind spot in the centre of my vision and I can’t see anything in front of me. I can’t read or recognise people so I rely on my ears to process things which are read out to me, and recognise people by their voice. As my Rods are also damaged, my peripheral vision is limited and I have poor night vision so I use a white cane when I am out and about to help me navigate this wonderful world.

They say a picture paints 1000 words, so I’ve tried to illustrate, in picture form, the difference between what a sighted person can see and what someone with CRD might see when looking at the same thing. Given the subject matter of the picture, some of you may actually think that the view in the second picture on the right looks infinitely better….

A side by side image of Kaleem - the legally blind guy - illustrating the symptoms of CRD. In the elft hand side, Kaleem wears a 3-piece suit with a flower on his suit lapel. You can see the photo in detail including the lapel flower, the buttons on Kaleem's suit and the background of the building and the blue sky. On the right hand side is the same image. However there is a big roundish blind point obsuring at least 60% of the image. In addition, the portions of the picture which are not obscured by the blind spot are extremely blury and undetailled. Eg.. on a side by side review, in the left hand photo you can see the buttons at the bottom of Kaleem's suit and all of the details. In the right hand side all you can see is the dark colour of the suit. Similarly, in the right hand picture you can see Kaleem's facial features in full, but in the right hand picture the part of the Kaleem's face which is not obscured by the central blind spot is undetailled and you cannot see his eyes or hairstyle or any specific details. All you can see is the fact that Kaleem has brown skin and dark hair. The background is not very clear and there is a noticable lack of colour distinguishment in the right hand phot.
  • thelegallyblindguy0@gmail.com
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