The need for corrective lenses is an extremely common issue, often resulting from refractive errors like myopia (nearsightedness) or hyperopia (farsightedness). These conditions mean the eye does not focus light correctly on the retina, leading to blurred vision. Determining whether this common physiological issue qualifies as a “disability” is not a simple medical question, but one that depends entirely on the legal and official context being applied.
Legal Framework: Defining a Disability
The concept of a disability is formally defined in legal statutes, primarily through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States. Under this framework, an individual has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. The intent of this definition is to provide broad coverage to individuals who face significant limitations in daily life.
Major life activities include tasks like walking or speaking, and the operation of major bodily functions. The act of “seeing” is considered a major life activity that a physical impairment, such as a refractive error, can limit. The law requires that the impairment substantially restricts the activity compared to most people, but it does not need to prevent the activity entirely.
The definition is structured to ensure that the question of whether an impairment is a disability is not overly demanding or subject to extensive legal analysis. This foundational legal standard sets the stage for evaluating vision loss before any corrective measures are introduced.
The Impact of Corrective Devices on Classification
The factor determining if common vision problems qualify as a disability is the use of corrective devices, specifically ordinary eyeglasses and contact lenses. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) established a unique rule: when determining if an impairment substantially limits a major life activity, the positive effects of ordinary corrective lenses must be considered.
The term “ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses” refers to lenses intended to fully correct visual acuity or eliminate the refractive error. If a person’s vision is corrected to near-normal levels with these devices, the resulting corrected vision is what is legally evaluated. Because the use of glasses or contacts typically restores vision to a level that is not substantially limiting, the vision impairment generally does not meet the threshold for a disability under the ADA.
This legal treatment of glasses and contacts stands in contrast to all other mitigating measures, whose positive effects are explicitly ignored when assessing a disability, such as low-vision devices, medication, or hearing aids. This distinction ensures that common, fully correctable refractive errors are not routinely classified as disabilities, while still protecting individuals with more profound, uncorrectable impairments.
When Vision Impairment Meets the Disability Threshold
While simple refractive errors are typically excluded, vision impairment qualifies as a disability when it remains substantially limiting even with the best corrective lenses. This occurs with conditions that are progressive, severe, or uncorrectable by ordinary glasses or contacts. The most common benchmark for a severe impairment is the definition of legal blindness, which has specific measurable criteria.
Legal blindness is defined in the United States as having a visual acuity of 20/200 or worse in the better-seeing eye after the best possible conventional correction. Alternatively, a person may be considered legally blind if their visual field is restricted to 20 degrees or less, often described as tunnel vision.
A less severe, but still qualifying, category is low vision, which is generally visual acuity between 20/70 and 20/400 with the best correction. These severe impairments are considered disabilities because they substantially limit the major life activity of seeing, reading, and performing daily tasks, even when mitigating measures like corrective lenses are employed.