Interview results
Roos
Roos has the Stargardt's disease and also had a macular pucker in both eyes for which she had surgery. Both eye disorders result in the following symptoms in their entirety: no longer central vision, blurred vision in the distance. She also has -3 glasses prescription, but glasses have no practical addition for her. Roos has an aversion to light, tortuosity and this sometimes results in double vision and finally reduced contrast. Roos has 5% vision.
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In daily life this affects her because Roos cannot make eye contact, she has difficulty recognizing people, and cannot read text without aids. She cannot see any details anymore. Cycling is a difficulty, although she still does it.
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Roos has several 'tricks' she uses to make her life more easy. Some tricks for reading for example:
Both her computer and phone have a function that turns text into speak. This makes it easier for her to read her texts and emails, but also articles for her work.
Mieke
Mieke has the Stargardt disease and has between 5-10% vision left. Mieke was born with the disease, and grow up not knowing her sight was different, however, after her sight got worse, people around her noticed there was something wrong. Then Mieke was diagnosed with the disease at an age of 13, when she had about 16% vision. With the disease, this vision slowly decreases.
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With Stargardt disease they have a blind spot in the central vision, which is why they have learned to only look with their peripheral vision.
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Both Mieke en Roos had tools during high school such as A3 books and a magnifier.
This is, however, very intensive.
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The laptop of Mieke and Roos also have a 'zoom function' that magnifies the text on the screen.