Lending Central Vision (Strategy:001)

One of the quirks of living with hemianopia is that I’ve had to adopt little tricks to stop myself colliding with people. A favourite strategy is what I call my Lend-central vision. Instead of walking like everyone else, I tilt my head slightly to the left whilst my body continues to walk straight ahead. That way, part of my central vision picks up what most people would normally see with their left side peripheral vision; the bit that I’m missing .

It means I’m steering myself forward using what’s left of my central vision, plus my right peripheral vision. It also means that I’m avoiding colliding with people using a partly out of focus scene. Odd as it sounds, it works — I hardly ever bump into anyone these days. If I’m carrying a symbol cane or a white stick, that helps too: not just for safety, but because it saves people wondering why on earth I’m walking around with my head cocked at an angle.