Keratoconus and Registered Disabled

[keckers]

Newbie here, though I have had KC in my right eye since 1981. Vision in my left eye is pretty good (for a 53 year old) with no KC.

The KC stabilised in my right eye and I now no longer attend an eye clinic, I had a Scleral lens but was causing more damage to my cornea and was advised not to use it. Each time I go to the Optician for an eye test I seem to be the centre of attention as all the student Opticians are brought in to stare at my distorted cornea. Is the condition that rare? Good news is I only need to pay for one lens as the other would be useless anyway and is usually just a matched glass.

I printed off the Factsheet 2: Keratoconus at Work from the website and presented it to my HR department at work. They sent me off to the Occupational Doc to be checked out. One conclusion the Occupational Doc came to was that I shouldn't ever again work at heights as I have no binocular vision and no great perception of height, especially when coming down a ladder. The Occupational Doc suggested I should be covered by the DDA and also suggested I should be using at least 21" TFT panel screens instead of 17" CRT screens.

They are now hopefully getting things sorted out as the stairs now have a yellow edge painted to them, this I find a great help.

As an Audio Visual Technician I use Adobe software which has lots on small detailed palettes, so the 21" TFT panels will allow me to size things up a bit.

The Health &Safety Manager has however suggested I should 'apply' to be 'Registered Disabled' as this can offer me further protection at work.

Can anyone advise how I can become 'Registered Disabled'?

Or is this an area I should avoid?

[rosemary johnson]

Hi, and welcome.
There is no such thing as "registered disabled" any more.
We now work under the Disability Discrimination Act, which has a definition something along the lines o "any condition which has a dignificant and long-term effect on one's ability to carry out day-to-day activities."
In practice, for most people with most disabilities, it is a matter of getting a docotr's letter and filling in the appropriate forms about what one can't do for each occasion this is neccesary (such as blue badge car parking, bus passes, whatever).
What does dtill exist is registration as either blind or partially-sighted.
The register of Blind/OS persons is maintained by the local authority in whose area you live, and to go on it requires a long and multi-part (ie. lots of carbonless copies) form, to be filled in and certified by the appropriate medical professional, normally your hospital consultant.
If you have KC only affecting one eye and the vision in the other isn't too bad, my guess is it would be hard to persuade the medics to register you - though I do gather it is a bit of a postcode lottery and the consultants' views do tend to differ on these matters.
I'm registered PS, mainly sown to a combination of visual acuity and low contact lens wearing times - plus pointing out rather strongly to the hospital that, at the time, my vision wouldn't let me continue working in the type of jobs I'd been doing the last 20 years without needed specialist adapted equipment, and I couldn't get a place on the courses to learn to use the special adaptive equipment without a registration number, and meanwhile was trying to live on fresh air and sunshine!
I'm glad your Occ Health and being supportive, anyway, and that the large TFT screen helps. I've got a laptop (that I@m typing on now) with a TFT screen and am immensely glad I invested in it.
Rosemary

[Lynn White]

Hi

I back up what Rosemary says and do have to point out that if you have normal vision in one eye, you are really no different, occupationally speaking, to the great many people out there who have poor vision in one eye for very many reasons. The lack of depth perception was well spotted by the doctor, but it does not suffice to be considered partially sighted.

[Karl R]

You no longer have to be registered as disabled anymore.

I am covered by the DDA under the terms of disability despite having Intacs surgery last year as prior to this I came under the definition of disabled. However my consultant would not register me a partially sighted prior to the surgery as he felt that as bad as my vision was at the time it was not bad enough to warrant partially sighted.

From what you have said your employer has done/will be doing these can be classed as reasonable adjustments and would as such be recognition of your disability.

[Andrew MacLean]

Welcome to the forum

I used to be registered blind, but even before that I never had 'binocular vision'. As a child I used to get different sized images from each eye, so learned to turn off one eye and turn on the other. This was not considered a disability, and probably would not be in the present climate.

The straightforward answer to your question is, if you qualify for registration, your Ophthalmologist is the one who signs the certificate which then goes to your local authority who do the registering. The question of whether you qualify is dealt with above.

all the best

Andrew

[keckers]

Many thanks for all the advice. This has cleared things up for me. I have never considered myself disabled and over the years have adapted to the lack of perfect vision in one eye. I still drive as I satisfy the current requirements but drive with one eye closed in bright sunlight. My Optician had offered me either a patch or a scleral lens with a black spot in the middle??