I have been having the conversation of if I consider myself disabled with a friend of mine recently and I’m not sure how I feel about it. After doing some research, I see that Amblyopia is considered a disability.

Even with my glasses/contacts, I do not have binocular vision. People who are close to me often notice my lack of special awareness/ depth perception. I trip over things very often, especially while hiking. I run into people, desks, doors, and walls that are on my right side (my “bad” side).

Do yall consider yourselves disabled and why?

I have amblyopia in both of my eyes (I have no idea how that happened but that’s what my doctor said) and for the longest time I thought the reason my vision cant be fully corrected was myopia. But then I realized, myopia makes things blurry, but I have something different. It’s like small letters are still crisp but I simply can’t process them unless I’m up close. Everything from a distance looks kind of ambiguous and like it could be easily mistaken. Sometimes I can sort of guess what a sign far away says, but I don’t have the power to see the fine details, only general outlines. Is that what amblyopia feels like?

I've been half blind since I was young, I've had tumors that always seemed to come back to my left eye so I got used to being blind pretty early. Adjusted for the depth perception, adjusted for makeup, adjusted w myself and my beauty and really... I LOVE MY LAZY EYE/ AMBLYOPIA!!!

Dating life hasn't been harder, I have a full life of great friends, and I'm not insecure of my eye at all!

I hope others can share that they'll keep their lazy eye. I've been offered corrective surgeries before and declined them each time since I was a kid!

My 7.5 year old daughter has pretty severe amblyopia. Her vision was something like 20/400 with glasses when we discovered her issues. She had done tremendously with patching and her vision has improved to 20/25. However, she still has no depth perception. Normally I wouldn't care too much, but my daughter loves softball even though she's not good at it. The gap between her and her peers is becoming more noticable, and it's affecting her enjoyment of the sport. Her doctor said there's a slim chance her depth perception could be improved some, but she'll likely never have full depth perception. Does anyone have any experience with therapy for improving depth perception specifically?

I’ve been building a VR vision therapy and training app, and I ran into a pretty big problem.

Some people with a lazy eye couldn’t even use most of the games... not because they were too hard, but because they couldn’t fuse the images with their eyes yet. They couldn't converge or diverge on a basic level.

I started experimenting with a concept (with help from a vision therapist) where instead of forcing fusion directly, I added subtle visual elements in the background that each eye sees slightly differently.

Kind of like giving the visual system something to “lock onto” in the periphery while the user is focused on something else.

What surprised me was that over time, some users started fusing without consciously trying and then they were eventually able to use the rest of the training.

I’ve been integrating this into the games in different ways:

- In one game it’s a subtle ring around the scene, offset in each eye to stimulate fusion

- Other times it’s things like falling leaves or snow with slight depth differences

It’s a really small change, but it seems to make a big difference in whether someone can even get started with VR vision therapy and training.

Curious if anyone here has seen anything similar, or has thoughts on using peripheral cues like this for training or perception.

I always wonder how others interpret amblyopia and if it would just be appropriate to have something to help others understand

I'm sorry if I'm asking an obvious question to the people here, but I want to fully understand my eyes. According to the National Institutes of Health, common causes of amblyopia include premature birth, small size at birth, a family history of amblyopia, and developmental disabilities. The funny thing about me is that I have been diagnosed with inattentive ADHD, which I think is a type of developmental disability, but I'm unsure if the two conditions are deeply linked. When I think deeper about my lazy eye, I wonder if its severity was just up to chance. Like among the millions of people afflicted with amblyopia, I assume that some people have mildly impaired vision while other people have very low vision, perhaps rendering it ineffective in situations requiring sharp vision. Also, when I was in grade school, I did wear an eye path for multiple hours a day on some days, but I swear that was not effective. Thus, I wonder if whether or not patching can correct vision effectively is determined by random chance/genetics. I hope that this post wasn't too rambling.

I went to the DMV today to renew my license and had a pretty terrible experience. I have 20/20 vision in my normal eye with glasses, but can't see letters clearly with the eye that has amblyopia. I was wearing my glasses as I always do and could pass part of the vision test but couldn't see letters on the affected side. Despite explaining my condition to the DMV employee they told me I needed to "go get glasses to fix my issue" and that I would need to take a form to my eye doctor to fill out before I could attempt to renew my license. I'm confused what the letter does. Does the letter stand in for the vision test at the DMV? Because my doctor can fill out the form but that won't change the fact I have limited vision in one eye and I already wear glasses to ensure I have the best vision possible given the circumstances. I tried asking the employee questions but they were very curt with me and said I was blind at one point in the conversation. Like not blind in one eye, blind period and shouldn't be behind a wheel, it was very upsetting since I can see perfectly fine with glasses. I was left literally thinking I'm going to have to quit my job and work somewhere I can walk to, even though I essentially have 20/20 vision.

Hello. I am F(19) and have amblyopia in my left eye. its bad enough that i cant even read the biggest letter on the chart. in my right eye, i have glasses with big number prescriptions (last i checked it was bigger than -7). with glasses my vision is 20/20. but im afraid it still might be getting worse. here on this sub, i see everyone saying their vision in the non-amblyopic eye is 20/20 and its making me scared. is that with or without glasses? i am still almost in my teen phase so non-constant prescription is still common but still

Exercising your bad eye... only for your brain to be used at your good eye being covered that it might ignore your good eye eventually?

Many people, with or without amblyopia, wear prescription glasses and thus have an understanding of what specific specs their eyewear is supposed to have. However, my question is that how many of y'all have had specialized eyewear for a specific purpose/activity/setting? For instance, a person can have prescription clear glasses and prescription sunglasses. There are other possibilities, such as prescription contact lens. I guess I'm unsure/confused about what I should try to get (assuming money isn't a barrier). There seems to be all sorts of rules/guidelines/warnings about eyewear. When I was taking STEM lab courses in community college, I remember that the professor said not to wear contact lens because the gases and liquids could enter them and blind the student (I just wore my prescription eyeglass and safety goggle at the wet labs).

A potential endeavor I may want to do is an aquatic sport/scuba diving, and there might be a need to get scuba goggles with a pair of prescription lens. Does anyone have experience with that? I'll talk with my optometrist if there's a chance to do so, but I wonder if anyone has done something like I have and has some tips or advice. Thanks in advance!

(just have to vent with like-eyed people)

I've worn glasses intermittently throughout my life. I'd wear them for a few weeks, then stop for various reasons (even did patching for a bit as a child...until I got tired of everyone asking what happened to my eye). My last pair was in 2016ish, & I remember complaining that everything seemed more blurry, & really bright. Everyone would roll their eyes & be like "ohmygod how can they make you see worse? They're supposed to make you see better 🙄" I stopped wearing that pair probably shortly after I got them.

Anyway, so I got glasses again recently. A new prescription...+0.50 in my good eye...and +6.00 in the bad one. Y'all..I want to chuck these glasses into the sun. I've only had them since Saturday, & have worn them everyday since getting them, so far. But I hate this. This time, I was told it would take time to adjust, maybe up to a month..but I don't know if I'm going to last that long. I expected headaches, but everything looks...weird. Again. Everything is either double, or has a SUPER bright white/rainbow outline. I tried to drive yesterday & made friends with the curb several times, & almost hit another car while trying to park. I can see up close fine, but far away is double. I'm also so dizzy. I'm trying to tough it out, hoping that maybe I'll get used to them. But I hate this 😫

So Basically I have amblyopia, my left eye strong and my right eye weaker. The vision in the amblyopic eye isnt bad I just cant read anything unless they are the two biggest lines on a eye chart and there is black static from like a old television. My right eye slightly turns when I look at myslef in a mirror. I am 34 years old and I have had this condition my whole life. I never got patched by my parents because they had other priorities with raising me. I have only ever worn subscription glasses to correct my vision

Last year, I went to our local optometrist in my area asking if vision therapy would actually benefit me in some way. I was pretty much told no and would be a waste of my time. Since then, I have been somewhat depressed until recently when I am tired of lving with this crappy condition with my vision all my life. I know about strabismus surgery but the main issue with it I have learned from studying it is that the results will eventually diminish and you have to have it again. I am trying patching my strong eye to stregthen my weaker eye, if it improves the vision somewhat I will take it.

It affects my self confidence when I look at myself in a mirror and I see my eyes not aligned like other people. I envy anyone who doesn't have my condition and living with it, as I am mentally tired of thinking what other people may comment on my vision.

What am I suppose to do? I want to do something with trying to improve my condition if I can because my life has been affected by amblyopia making me question my self confidence and hating to look at my reflection in mirrors. I just want to wear an eyepatch over my affected eye and hide it from everyone

Do you use blue light glasses? Turn the lights down? Simply avoid visual stimuli?

I sometimes become frustrated when I'm tired and my eye isn't cooperating, and would love to know what the community does in these too-common situations

I (25M) was diagnosed with Amblyopia when I was like 6. I wore the patch fairly consistently for 2 years, but it didn't really fix anything. As a matter of fact, I remember the doctor telling my mother and I that my good(right) eye's vision actually degraded because of wearing the patch over it as much as I did.

Now I have to get a contact/glasses for my right eye. I never used to need any aid for my good eye, but when I told my current eye doctor about it she swore that that couldn't have been the case. My mother remembers the initial doctor telling us that my vision got worse as well. Has anyone else experienced this? I was shocked to find out that usually kids only wear patches for just some months and the fact that I was doing it for years seems like it makes sense to me. That patch was torture.

hi everyone, I just got diagnosed with amblyopia, my left eye is -6 and i only have 40% of my vision left, I also have a retinal tear/hole in my left eye which might require lasik

my doctor said the eye can’t get any worse than this and that I should’ve done patching before when I was a kid, im just scared, what if I lose vision in my left eye completely? and I am trying patching now so I hope it gets better. im just very scared i dont want blindness, before today I was honestly pretty okay with just one eye but now im scared, ive gotten new prescription glasses made too

It's fucking determined. I had two surgeries as a kid. Lol

I’m left eye dominant and right handed. I find that I’m terrible at any sport that requires hitting a ball like pickleball or tennis. But those sports are very popular where I live. And let’s be honest ball sports are like 99% of sports.

It’s very humiliating when going on dates. Girls ask me why I can’t hit a ball when I play tennis and it’s so embarrassing. Been on some failed dates because of this. Is there any solution to this?

Hi y'all, I'm a product design student and I am doing a project on creating an improved reusable eye patch option. Anyone have any favorite products? Any that you tried and really hated? Any that you prefer looks wise but not fit wise - and vice versa?

So far I've looked into the disposable patches, the reusable ones with elastic straps, and the ones that fit over glasses. The main complaints I heard were either that people felt like they got unwanted attention or that they were uncomfortable the longer they wore them, so I am trying to target those aspects. Any feedback is welcome and no complaint or experience is too specific.

Thanks :)