Interview 4: Doctors and volunteers

Doctors and volunteers

Me: So say something about yourself first.

Volunteer: I work as a volunteer in a special school. I go to the school at least twice a month. I like spending time with the visually impaired children. I find they are fairly kind. In fact, they make no difference with other children except for their eyes. Moreover, I find some of them are quite clever and even cleverer than the ordinary children.

Doctor: Strictly, I’m not a doctor yet. I’m just a medical intern presently. I have been paying close attention to amblyopia or weak sight. Medically, amblyopia refers to the distant vision, which is lower than 0.8 and which cannot be rectified. It is mainly caused by functional factors, but there are not obvious organic pathologic changes with the eyes. A number of reasons will result in amblyopia. Except the congenital amblyopia, some eye diseases will also lead to amblyopia, including far sight and near sight. Astigmatism is a kind of low vision caused by refractive factors. It can be rectified to the normal and sound stereopsis by wearing glasses. However, if the refractive effort is not rectified timely, and the children are accompanied with the blurred vision for a long time, their visual functions will not develop well, which will also lead to amblyopia.

Me: So an amblyopia sufferer is able to see, but not clearly?

Doctor: Yes. They are not blind completely. A completely blind person sees nothing, but an amblyopia sufferer is able to see. Many visually-impaired persons are amblyopia sufferers.

Volunteer: No wonder I have found some students in the special school read the Braille with eyes rather than touching with hands. They fix their eyes close to the paper and read bit by bit.

Me: Which is faster, touching or reading?

Volunteer: It depends. Their memory of the Braille, their vision conditions and their hand-brain coordination ability and reaction ability are all involved.

Me: What do you think is the biggest difference between the visually-impaired people and the ordinary people?

Doctor: I think they live a harder life. However, it is not absolute. Some of them have accomplished something that cannot be done by ordinary people.

Volunteer: I agree. Meanwhile, I think they are not provided with equal opportunities as we are. Many employers will not employ them due to their vision problem. However, most of them have a family and usually a healthy child. Like other children, these children should be brought up, which costs much, so the visually-impaired people have to bear the same expense as ordinary people do. We are always worried about the future of the students in our school.

Doctor: Surely, there will be certain inconvenience in their life. However, it is not as bad as we imagine. They will work out their own solutions. They perceive the world with their other organs.

Interview Summary: there are many reasons of visual inpaired. Doctors and volunteers are trying to help these people, in my view, it is not enough, eventhough they will give some professional support. In the daily life, many ordinary people still do not quite understand, so that they still ignore the visually impaired.

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