Robert's Story
adult, bilateral cataract
I was born with cataracts in both eyes in the early 1940s;
my father and three other relatives also were born with
cataract. However it hasn't held me back very much: I'm married
and have two grown-up children (and they didn't have cataract),
and I've had a successful career in science and computing;
I'm now retired.
I had cataract surgery at the age of 2 and a half. Of course
it was much different in those days – a procedure called
‘needling’. The surgery gave me the sight I've had
ever since: about 6/60 in both eyes. I have a greatly reduced
field of view and a severe squint, so my two eyes can't work
together (but there's no double vision – the seeing just
switches from one eye to the other). I attended schools for the
blind and used braille throughout school, but learnt to read
print with a powerful hand magnifier in my teens, changed over
to using this for all my work when I went to university, and
have worked that way ever since. I'm not very keen on large
print and in fact the only thing I routinely use it for is my
notes when giving a talk. I've always enjoyed trying to find
ways of making the most of the limited sight that I've got.
I use a monocular for reading departure boards at airports and
railway stations, and for looking at the moon and the
stars.
In my teens I became very interested in amateur radio and
electronics. I taught myself enough theory to pass the City
& Guilds Amateur Radio Exam in order to get an amateur
transmitting licence when just 16. I studied science at
A Level and went on to get a degree in physics. However, while
at university I got very interested in computers and
programming, so my first job was as a systems programmer with
a computer manufacturing firm – at first I was a member
of a team which was programming operating systems, and later
a member of a team programming language compilers.
I enjoyed that work very much, but eventually decided that
I'd like to move into computer applications in science and
engineering, and so got a job at a government research
establishment. I did various things there, but eventually
specialized in the study of options for future air traffic
control systems. This involved building computer simulations
of parts of these systems, and doing lots of simulation runs
to collect statistics and make comparisons between the
options. I became very successful in this field, and presented
papers at international conferences in several European
countries and in the USA.
So, given my partial sight, what things can I do and not
do?
I can't recognize people by looking at them (even when
close to them) and can't see facial expressions – I think
this is because my brain had passed the stage of learning
these skills by the time I had my eye surgery. For me, not
being able to recognize people visually is the greatest single
disadvantage of my eye condition. I sometimes don't see people or things because of my
small field, and bump into them as a result. Obviously I can't drive, but don't mind that too much.
In fact it means that I walk more than most drivers, which
keeps me fit, and which I enjoy very much. My print reading is too slow for things like novels,
but scientific materials are very concise (with equations,
graphs, tables etc.) so I can manage these. I was always in work between leaving university and
retiring, and so could always provide for my family. I can do simple DIY: some decorating, putting up
shelves, etc. At a house where we used to live, I planted and
looked after apple and plum trees (but can't recognize weeds!).
I used to build hobby electronics projects, but that has become
much more difficult than it used to be because the components
are so much smaller nowadays. I can do the things with computers that fully-sighted
people can do, but do use my own screen colours: white text on
a black background instead of the usual black on white.
I cook some basic family meals, and even made marmalade
this year!
Last updated: 18/11/09
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Childhood Cataract Network
