Hello everyone, sorry for a long pause here, I’m immersed in another project taking all my time!
I wanted to touch on one thing that I can’t get off my mind. Through my learning journey about CVI and the way it affects me, the point about reducing clutter keeps coming up.
Yes, I can confidently say it helps but…
Definately not always. And sometimes reducing clutter is impossible.
People seem to think that reducing clutter is a solution or a cure. This is NOT true. Imagine a page in a book full of letters. This is clutter. Can you erase some or all of the letters? Nope. Impossible. That way nobody would understand the words.
Or music notes on a staff? Are we able to eliminate any aspect ? No. Because then nobody would understand what the page says. Not even typically sighted people.
And even if, we’re able to reduce visual clutter - ( clearing the space of unneccessary stuff for example, ) it doesn’t always help. The person’s type of CVI might be severe enough that they cannot even see more than one thing at a time. (If any). That means, two things in the same space, are clutter - for that person!
Also, clutter doesn’t have to be visual. It can be auditory, emotional and even physical. Think of a time when you were very stressed and a million emotions and questions came up in your agitated mind. If a person with CVI feels like that, but still is in a ,,clutter free” space - this is still clutter! But you cannot take thoughts away like materialistic stuff.
And, if a CVIer is in a loud environment, you only can reduce that clutter to a certain extent. You cannot tell people to stop talking alltogether, or a phone not to ring, a dog not to bark …. You can’t silence the world completely. This is also clutter.
Not to mention if the CVI person is having physical pain. Headache, stomachache etc. etc. etc - physical clutter! If only you could tell aches and pains to go away right?!.
Which brings me on to the next point. I hear this sentence way to often from parents or caregivers. ,, He/She can use their vision when they want to”
This is NOT true!!
Don’t you think that the person with CVI (or other visual impairments) always WANTS to use their vision? We would use it all the time if we could. The right thing would be ,, He/she can use their vision when they are able to”. So, somedays we just have to be blind. It’s a bit like when you are sick and can’t go to work. You want to go to work, but you can’t for the day!
Closely related to this is the claim ,, you looked at it so you must have seen it”. Nope
Looking and seeing are two different things. Looking is when the eyes physically move to a target. Seeing is when the brain is able to process the information correctly after looking.
So it’s best to not assume we see something, even though our eyes are looking at it, even fixed on it :)
I haven’t been able to put this into words until here, so it’s a bit of a rant.
We have come a long way, but we still have SO much to learn about CVI, even myself!
Just a few things to have in mind. Until next time!!
Dagbjört <3
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