Is someone considered legally blind?

Question

with an eyeglasses prescription of -5,5 and -5,75?

Answer 1

You can't tell by the prescription. Legal blindness is based on the visual acuity with glasses which you did not provide. Unless the person also has an eye disease which impairs vision, simply needing glasses is not blindness. Someone who doesn't need glasses can be legally blind while someone else with glasses of -20.00 could have normal vision.

It is not possible to be "legally blind without glasses" as the first answer implied. The legal definition includes the phrase "best corrected", which means that only vision with glasses is considered.

Answer 2

The definition of legal blindness is not based on vision without glasses. The U. S. Social Security administration states that "we consider you to be legally blind if your vision cannot be corrected to better than 20/200 in your better eye." So, if you cannot read the big E on the chart and your vision cannot be corrected (i.e with glasses, contacts, etc.) then you are considered legally blind.

Answer 3

If their BEST CORRECTED visual acuities are better than 20/200 then this person is NOT legally blind. So the numbers that are written above refer to the correction that is needed for someone to have 20/20 vision.

Without this correction the person is legally blind. For instance, this person would not be allowed to drive without glasses or contacts.