Vision Impairment and Disability

There are numerous individuals in the country that are faced with the inability to see or have a severely limited sense of sight. This can be due to genetic problems or a variety of other causes. One of the leading causes of blindness is diabetes.

According to the EEOC, vision impairment is a disability if:

• It substantially limits a major life activity
• The vision impairment was substantially limiting in the past (basically, the individual has a record of a substantially limiting impairment)
• An employer regards or treats an individual as having a substantially limiting vision impairment

Major life activities are activities that an individual can be expected to perform on a daily basis. Seeing is one of those basic life activities that can be performed by an average person with little or no difficulty. As such, a person without the ability to see can have his or her major life activities limited, particularly if the individual hasn’t always been blind.

If a blind person can move about with the use of a white cane or a service animal, that person still meets the ADA’s first part of the definition of “disability.” This is true even if the person in question can work with assistive technology or a reader and can use the sense of hearing to do what others use their eyes to do.

An individual with a record of impairment that at one point substantially limited a major life activity in the past and who is currently regarded as having such an impairment also has a disability and is covered by the ADA.

Contact an Indianapolis Social Security Lawyer

If you or a loved one has a vision impairment and is concerned about working since life has been altered, contact the Indianapolis social security lawyers of the Charles D. Hankey Law Office at 317-634-8565 to discuss your situation and to determine if social security disability applies.