Disabling Senses: Sight
- SJ Williamson
- May 5, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 27, 2025
This is one of the blog posts in which I'm focusing on our senses and how they can be disabling. Each week will focus on one of the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing), and this week I'll be talking about sight!
Light
For those who don't know, I have some pretty extreme photophobia. No I am not "afraid" of light. My eyes are just extremely sensitive to bright lights. Those cars that have almost neon-bright headlights? Hate 'em. Going into the office with fluorescent lights early in the morning? Impossible... or you'll see me wearing my big sunglasses indoors. #Fashion am I right? My phone and computers have red light filters installed (Shout out to Twilight, which I've lovingly used for years). All my apps are on dark mode and if they don't offer dark mode, I probably don't use it. I also tend to have my tech on the lowest possible brightness setting indoors. My advisor sometimes needs to remind me to turn up the brightness when I show her something on my laptop. My T.V. isn't "smart" enough to be as dim as I'd like it, though it is on the darkest setting and on low contrast for when I use it. I'm sure some people can relate to these reactions to bright lights. My eye doctor disagreed.
My photophobia was so extreme that the eye doctor I saw last year told me to reconsider my longing to get Lasik when I graduate because apparently a common side effect of Lasik includes short-term or long-term (over a year!) photophobia! By getting Lasik, I'd be increasing the risk for worsening my photophobia, which is already bad if I am wearing sunglasses inside apparently. I qualified for genetic testing when I met this doctor, because my extreme photophobia and my grandma's Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic disease that makes you gradually lose your eyesight. She was legally blind for as long as I had known her before her passing in 2021. Memories of her included the comically large TV remote, her magnifying glass, and her iconic oversized sunglasses, which I have a pair similar to and wear when needed. She was a lover of pigs as well as bacon, much like myself.
My genetic testing showed I am a carrier for the genetic composition that causes Retinitis Pigmentosa, but I don't have it. Thank God; I'm an artist, writer, and gamer, all of which rely on my eyesight. But it still leaves no explanation for my eyesight sensitivity and health problems. I'm not sure if and how my photophobia will progress as I age. I plan to use my eyes to the fullest until I no longer can. My safety measures help lengthen my time with okay eyesight, I believe.
Contrast
In addition to adjusting to bright lights, I also have to monitor contrast. While brightness lightens a whole picture, contrast increases the difference between light and dark in a whole picture. Even if I turn the brightness of a screen to the lowest it can go, it might still be too bright for my sensitive eyes. This is also true in dark mode. The next step is to decrease contrast, so what's light becomes darker, closer to darkness than to light. I do this as well on my computer screens and TV. It helps me be able to watch more shows (and read more closed captions) and play videogames for longer periods of time by hurting my eyes less. It also helps to have an orange-toned, dim lamp on in the same room if I am playing videogames or watching TV so the contrast of the screen isn't too severe.
Some other ways to decrease contrast might include changing background colors to something closer to dark colors; instead of white, maybe having a background the color of salmon or mint chip ice cream will work better for those who are sensitive to contrast and brightness. I'm not colorblind myself, but I believe contrast is also responsible for whether or not colorblind people can see color combinations well, too. Colors can also be harsh on our eyes (think neon yellow or glow in the dark green). I personally tend to like darker shades and cooler tones compared to brighter, warm colors.
What do you think? What do you think?
Near-Sighted Problems
In addition to these uncommon eye sensitivities, I am also near-sighted, which is common enough for 30% of the world population to also be. I've had glasses since I was 5, and now, my eyesight is past -7 and I have astigmatism. Long story short, without corrective lenses, I am legitimately handicapped (this TikTok shows an example of what it might look like to have eyesight as bad as mine). It's why I hope to one day get Lasik, as I have some kind of allergic reaction to common materials in contacts (that was a dream killer when I was in tenth grade). Despite my concern about photophobia, I rather have to wear sunglasses all the time than corrective lenses. Sunglasses are far cheaper and maybe I can get some more stylish ones instead of using huge ones that fit over my corrective lenses. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if it's good for me soon.
My poor eyesight has made me care more about visual design and accessibility than the average person. When I teach my students about writing styles and visual document design, I incorporate small samples of what I call "fugly fonts" and good design choices. I explain reasons for why MLA style is 12 pt black Times New Roman font that is double-spaced, cited in alphabetical order with the dates at the end of the citation and all surrounded 1-inch margins. I show them the differences between serif and sans serif fonts, texts of different sizes and styles, and of course, incrorporate color, brightness, and contrast. We have discussions about colorblindness, dyslexia, and near-sightedness and how they might impact someone's perspective of certain content. My number 1 rule:
If you put a visual aid that the audience cannot read/see/understand, it is worthless.
Sight
As you can see (ha ha, get it? SEE), there's a lot more to eye sensitivity than just being near or far -sighted. Brightness and contrast as well as genes and medical conditions add to the complexity of what it is like to have sensitive eyes. What's good for some eyes is disabling for other eyes. And boy is it annoying at times.
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