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BIOPTIC DRIVING –Rules of the Road

Seminars@Hadley


Presented byMaryellen Keith

July 13, 2016

Larry MuffetYou are listening to Seminars@Hadley. This seminar is Rules of the Road - Bioptic driving presented by Maryellen Keith, moderated by Larry Muffet. Welcome to seminars at Hadley. My name is Larry Muffet, I’m a member of Hadley seminars team and I also work in curricular affairs. Today’s low vision focus seminar topic is rules of the road Bioptic driving. Our presenter today is Maryellen Keith. Mary Allen holds a certification as an occupational therapy assistant and as a certified driver rehabilitation specialist. Since the year 2000 she’s been a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association and the Association of driver rehabilitation specialists. She holds professional certifications as an occupational therapy assistant from the AOTA and also it as a certified driver rehabilitation specialist. She is truly recognized as an expert in this particular field. Today Maryellen is going to discuss the qualities and abilities that make a good Bioptic

©2016 Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired of 28


driving candidate and she’s also going to tell us about the evaluation process, the optical devices and the training that enable individuals with low vision to remain behind the wheel. So let me welcome Maryellen and we’ll get underway. Welcome Maryellen, and happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Maryellen KeithHappy St. Patrick’s Day to you all and I just thank you for letting me be a part of this. Now for you all this is my first webinar so if I fumble a little on the Mike going from back and forth then you’ll understand. I’ve got a lot of information so I’m going to fly, so I might answer all your questions, so if we can just get those questions to Larry or however you want to do that, write them down and we’ll definitely give you time, 15 minutes at the end. If I haven’t answered a question I will be glad to answer that or if there is additional questions I would be glad to give you my email and you can email me and I can help you. I’m not sure what my audience is so if you’re already driving, if you’re looking to be a Bioptic driver, hopefully I can touch on a little bit of all of that. Next, Larry you can hit the next slide.

Everybody, the common question is, should visually impaired people be allowed to drive? Next question, next slide, I don’t have the ability to move my slides, so Larry… Okay. What is Bioptic driving? We’re going to go ahead



to the next slide Larry. I can kind of explain it as we go. Looks like there’s a delay. Bioptic driving, I’m just going to go through some common terminologies, of course the Bioptic telescope is the portion that a lot of times if it’s an Ocutech or it’s sitting on top of your carrier lens, it’s 10 degrees angled upper superior portion of the carrier lens.

We can fly to the next PowerPoint. Carrier lens, if you hear me talking about a carrier lens that is what the actual Bioptic driver drives looking through most of the time, it’s your regular vision that you’re going to use most of the time. Just some common terminology so we can go to the next one. Spotting or dipping, I’ll kind of use those interchangeably, you’ll hear that out in the field, it’s when you’re doing your head tilt, tilting your head down and looking through your Bioptic telescope. Other things that I might talk about is the arithmetic use of the Bioptic. It’s more than just going down the road and you’re not sure what’s ahead and then you spot. You’re really getting into a rhythm of using that Bioptic telescope as you would use your rearview mirror. They’re going down the road, glancing in that rearview mirror periodically the whole time you’re driving. Same thing with your Bioptic telescope but of course that’s going to depend upon how often you use it depending on your visual acuity and the driving environment. If you’re in heavy traffic you’re not going to be dipping into that every 4 to 6 seconds. It all depends. And multiplexing, sometimes you hear people talk about



that, it’s just the ability because you’re in your Bioptic for only two seconds, you can still catch peripheral vision on the side.

We can go to the next, all right, what is Bioptic driving? You’re driving down the road and you’re spotting through that Bioptic telescope in really short periods of time. You really need to get in and out of that scope with two seconds, max. And the speed is all – everything depends of course on your visual acuity and your ability to do so. We can go to the next slide, approximately 95% of driving occurs using your carrier lens, so you’re really only getting into that Bioptic viewing episode through dipping for detailed information.

Next slide. Back in the day roadsigns when they made them they were looking at standardized roadsigns that everybody who had 2040 vision could see. But now that the baby boomers are coming up in age you’ll notice some of your signage is getting larger. So probably 20 years from now, maybe all the signs will be like that, they are replacing older signs with the newer signs. We can go to the next slide. The advantages for Bioptic driving, it’s going to give you more detail for your signs, your signals but even more important, as you’re doing that with medic dipping you’re going to be able to spot the potential hazards farther down the road so that you’re not so surprised.



Next slide. The benefit is once you’re trained properly, a visually impaired driver will be able to detect and identify detail or movement of objects from a vector of distance. The word is once trained properly. I have a couple pictures for you that don’t have the ability to look at pictures, it’s just a picture of how the ophthalmologist or optometrist would position the Bioptic right above the pupil of your eye so that when you tilt your head down you’re going to be up to target the information.

Next slide. I just got a couple pictures of your different types of lens, different types of Bioptic lens and it all depends on your ophthalmologist and optometrist, what they prefer, what they feel is going to serve you best. Next slide. Ocutech, I would say the Ocutech and the Beachers are my two favorites as a trainer. I just think both of those are really good, I like the Beacher for my individuals that are macular degeneration. And sometimes even aging I think it’s easier to look through binocular leave versus just having the ability to do one eye.

We can go into the next slide. Those are just some more pictures, Larry we can hit the next slide, too. The newest Ocutech that’s been out for a little while, it is really nice, really sweet. It’s the sport and it is later, you’ve got a letter visual field, plus it’s lighter, I think it’s like 1 ounce and it



has a range of colors for young people, so you can get them in different colors and stuff so it’s a little sporty. Common diagnoses that are out there, macular degeneration, Stargardt’s, diabetic retinopathy, albinism, nystagmus, which kind of goes hand-in-hand with albinism or achromatopsia, histoplasmosis, rod-cone. Of course there’s other eye diseases.

We can hit the next slide. Some poor ones, you want to make sure you have peripheral vision so glaucoma because it’s so progressive and you get that cloudy vision, it’s usually not a candidate. And then pigmentosa is usually not a candidate because you have more tunnel vision. Anything that you lose your peripheral vision usually isn’t a candidate. We can go to the next slide. There we go. Just going to fly through some of these, members of the Bioptic team, that’s your optometrist and ophthalmologist. Either one of those will be the ones who are dispensing the scopes. They’re going to look at the evaluation, your eye health, ocular motor, depth perception, saccade, all of those.

We can go to the next. They’re also going to evaluate your nystagmus, they’re going to do your visual field, color vision, had the next slide. Glare issues, they are actually even going to look at some mental status and just making sure that that person has the cognitive ability to do this. Next slide. Then once we also – they are looking at that,



they are the ones who are dispensing, had the next slide. They are dispensing the Bioptic, a lot of them will do homework, they’ll do training in the office. Then they’ll send them on. Each state varies in training. Indiana we require training here so they would send them on to an occupational therapist or a driver rehab specialist and then we’re going to evaluate where your facilitators with the license branch. The DMV is of course in every state, the one who is the license authority. We do monitor yearly exams and renewals. You can hit the next slide. That’s kind of like Indiana we do special drive tests.

The typical Bioptic driver, this is the typical, pretty much got to have stable vision, meet the state requirement, every state is different, you need to have color vision which I say color vision but with achromatopsia some of them have no color. I don’t know if that’s such a true statement anymore because you’ve got your red contacts in there, that helps. And different filters and stuff. Normal head neck and I’m ability, definitely got to be cognitively intact, free of visual attention deficits. You can hit the next slide. And the reason is driving isn’t a luxury anymore when you’re a Bioptic driver, you really have to be on top of it. Can’t be impulsive, no impulsive tendencies, if my previous drivers were pretty aggressive or fast drivers they had to learn that they’ve got to slow down because they have to take that extra time to scan to be safe. So definitely able to accept constructive criticism and that’s



really primarily… The previous drivers, because we all have those bad habits. If you’re a fast driver and like to fly up to that intersection and brake hard, you can do that with a Bioptic because you have skills that you have to learn and you have to take that time to scan. You have to be open to us correcting some of your bad habits come to complete stops and those kind of things.

Definitely have to be highly motivated, dedicated, they are hard-working and goal oriented. This is not a short process, I don’t care what state you’re in, it can be lengthy, anywhere from six months to a year. From beginning to end. You know what Larry, Indiana, their criteria, every state is different. Ours is with the best corrected vision, with your carrier lends you can be up to 20/200. With the Bioptics they have to be able to achieve 20/40 with their Bioptic telescope. Indiana we require 120 degrees of visual field. Indiana is one of the top states four Bioptic driving and we are a model state for other states, Arizona and Kentucky, Alabama all followed a lot of Indiana’s criteria.

Now these are the ones I’ll probably fly through, we require a certificate of vision, we have to send this all over to the DMV, they get that report, they’re going to send that person a letter and then they get a learners permit so they can go and be trained. You have to have training. Indiana Bioptic program, usually they have to be a certified driver,



we have specialists and we do the eval and redo a clinical and a behind the wheel only on the initial evaluation. We can hit the next slide.

I hope everybody is doing good as I’m flying through here. I just have a lot of information, trying to touch on a lot of different things for you. We can go ahead and go to the next one. Funding sources and most states are going to be private pay or vocational rehabilitation and of course Workmen’s Comp. When they come in for evaluation we just need all the documentation from your doctor, go ahead and hit the slide because I touched on all of this. You can go back and look at that, each state is going to be different, some states are actually saying that they are a Bioptic state but ours is 20/200 and some are only 20/70 but if you’re 20/70 you might not even need a Bioptic if your previous driver, so each state is definitely different. We can go over I already talked about this, we’re going to go up to where it says eval.

The evaluation process as an occupational therapist or a driver rehab specialist, you would come in that day and we can keep going until you hit eval, Larry. You come in that day and we’re going to do a history. We’re going to figure out what you’re having problems previously when you are driving, was at stop signs… Larry I just went totally… Hey guys I’m totally sorry, my whole screen went blank. We’re



back here at the evaluation process and anyway sorry about that. We can hit the next slide Larry.

Evaluation process is that the CDRS is going to look at your history, your vision, stability, what problems you had when you were previously driving. We can hit the next, we’re going to go pretty quick through here. Past driving history, what problems you are having, new versus experienced driver. We’re going to review your vision information from your doctor. We’re also going to do some pen and paper stuff, we’re going to do almost everybody probably in every state is going to do a trails AMV. It correlates with driving, it correlates with a lot of research done on multitasking and the ability to scan and stuff. You’re going to do some visual perceptual, some roadside identification.

We can just go on Larry and there’s like a picture of each of these so they might do a roadside quiz, they might see if you can detect the traffic shapes because when you’re in the Bioptic you need to know what the shape is. We can hit the next. Also they’ll also do one without color, they might do a black and white or color it just depends every office is different. Definitely want to know what the color of the sciences. We all know oranges construction so if you spotted and couldn’t read the wording, you know it’s orange, construction and you know to start scanning to see if there is a flag where the road ends or other pertinent



information. Traffic light placement, do you know that red is at the top and yellows in the middle and greens at the bottom? We can hit the next. And the arrow placement, we can go on through the pictures there. And then they are going to have you with your Bioptic, they’re going to have you spot things in the clinic. We can keep going, do some visual scanning, stationary spotting skills, every office is different, they may have roadsigns on the wall or a scanning strip. They will all be creative on what they’re having you look at.

We can hit the next slide. Then they’re going to take you out. Most places are probably all going to do a passenger assessment first. In the state of Indiana we do not do behind the wheel. You do not drive the first day because most of my individuals don’t have a drivers license and we’re really just assessing their skill in the Bioptic telescope. We’re looking at their ability first what they see in the carrier, we need to get an idea of what they can and cannot see, how far they are seeing. Then we’re looking at the four basic tasks across the board in every state, identifying still objects while you’re stopped. If we’re sitting in the car how far can you see that poll, that building, that sign. And the other one is identifying moving objects while you’re stopped. Maybe while sitting in the car, I’m seeing how far away you can spot may be the cycler or the pedestrian. I’m just getting a feel, identifying objects while moving. Now they are moving and you’re



stopped, are you able to see the traffic lights, the signs or the parked cars and from what distance? Really what we’re determining, we need to see the driving environment through your eyes and everybody is different. We need to see what you’re seeing or not seeing and how we can help you. And the last one is just identifying moving objects while you’re moving. We’re looking at your ability to move smoothly in and out of the Bioptic. How far away are you able to identify the color of the traffic light? If it’s a bright sunny day and you don’t have a filter are you able to tell the color of that light? Are you seeing the stop signs, the speed limit signs, the caution signs? Are you struggling more with the speed limit signs? Are you catching the caution signs or is it the flip of that? Did you identify that pedestrian or the bicycler? Road construction, those are the hardest signs so don’t get discouraged.

Click to the next one. Everybody is going to give you – the ophthalmologist, the optometrist a lot of times they’ll give you really great homework. Our Dr. Richard Windsor here in town, they give wonderful homework. When they come to me they are so good with their Bioptic. They have things like this they give you to put on the wall and spot, they do a great job of retraining. We may give you some additional homework while you’re waiting to get that letter from the DMV or maybe you’re struggling. We may tell you to go bird watch, take these to a sporting event, basketball, hockey. You want to get so good, so



professional with these Bioptic things before you’re driving. That is the key. Maybe do a walking program. Spotting life and signs and cars, but your lane marking. I would say my low vision drivers know lane markings way better than my sighted drivers, because they have to rely on them.

And we’re going to go into the most important part, we can click the next one, training. I think this is the most important thing, it’s really difficult because so many states don’t require training. If estate doesn’t require training and you’re part of vocational rehab and they don’t feel you can get training then they are not going to pay for it. I think that’s really sad, I belong in the group on Facebook called Yup, they let blind people drive. The big thing on there is individuals on different states that are struggling because they’re not passing the road tests. I believe that’s because they are not getting trained properly, there is so much that you need to learn and we’re here to help you learn it differently than when you were cited.

You can go to the next slide. I’m going to touch on some basic things, wetting your tastebuds on things that we would teach you. It’s spotting versus reading. We all know when you look at that magnifier and you’re trying to read, you don’t get the whole sentence that everybody else is getting, you’re only getting a couple words. The higher the magnification the less words that you get and



that’s how Bioptic driving is. When you’re dipping in that Bioptic, you may only catch one or two words off that sign. You need to be really savvy on your signs. A previous driver, if you see the word ice or the word bridge you’re going to immediately know that’s probably ice on bridge, going to be slippery as I’m going across the bridge, you don’t need to see every single word. One of the hardest signs is right turn lane only, that’s a really hard sign. Construction signs are wordy all over the board, they are not consistent, I think they are the hardest signs.

We can go to the next one. We’re going to teach you to spot read. We’re going to teach you to target the middle of the sign because it’s got is pertinent information. You’re going to focus on the largest wording. We’re going to hit the next because remember Indiana has 30 hours of behind the wheel training, I think 30 hours for a previous driver is really right on top of it. I would say most of my drivers are really doing well at 25 hours and then redo the road test. For instance right lane must turn right. Think of that sign, it’s that white square with the black lettering and if you target the middle, the word must is larger and its bold, so immediately if you see the word must it’s either right lane must turn right or left lane must turn left so you know immediately I’m in the right lane I need to look at my lane markings and make a lane change can I get over there and do that and if you’re catching that from a good distance back because you’re intermittently dipping and



not waiting until you’re on top of it you may have time to make that lane change or you may have to make a right turn. At least you’re not going straight and being in the wrong lane.

We can hit the next slide. I just have a picture of a right lane must turn right. Other things we may teach you. It’s hard sometimes in a Bioptic telescope to see the shape of the sign. Like your school zone versus your pedestrian. Pedestrian, one person, you target that sign if it has two people at the school zone, one person is pedestrian. If you know it’s a school zone then you need to be looking for the 25 mile an hour. The great thing on most states that 24 hour mile an hour school sign has a yellow strip at the top. A lot of my individuals when they go to dip down are catching the yellow strip and they know automatically it’s a decrease speed so they are starting to slow down and as they approach they may be able to catch that it’s 25 or 20 or whatever the school zone is. Other major problems that you’re going to face is of course your traffic lights. Skills that you’re going to teach with that. We can go to the next one I can talk about all this together. Yellow is going to be your easiest, red, it all depends if you’re achromatopsic, red might be more difficult. Maybe it’s the lighting on the background, the casing of the light. They are experimenting with casings.



When I say casings I’m talking about the portion in the back of the light. Years ago it was yellow, now they’re trying to put black around it to make them stand out for the baby boomers and the low vision clients get to piggyback on that. Green of course is always the hardest. Green lights blending with green trees and blue sky. The number one thing that all Bioptics think is I can’t see the color of the light at the intersection, so they want to brake. You don’t want to brake. You can’t brake because that light could be green and you don’t know what color it is but the guy behind you see is green and he could rear end you. Or he’s trying to figure out what you’re doing. So the strategy that you’re going to learn is called coast, scope and clues or environment. You’re going to approach the intersection, you don’t know what color the light is, let off the gas and coast and dip into your scope, hopefully you can catch the color of the light but you may not. You’re going to come out of that scope because you’ve only got two seconds and come out of that scope and look at the environment, what’s the traffic pattern, maybe you see cars going across, that’s a cue that your light is probably red or you’ve got brake lights. It doesn’t matter, if your light is green the brake lights override that because they are stopping.

If all is clear and you don’t have traffic patterns and you don’t have brake lights then you can maybe because you’re coasting you’ll have more time to get into your



Bioptic again and see what color that light is. That’s a strategy you would learn is the coast scope and clues. Traffic light you can have all kinds of confusion, I’m not going to go through all of these but we can go through the next slide. Flashing lights for instance I had a girl, I’ve never had a problem with flashing lights in the day but we’re driving at night and she couldn’t tell me if it was yellow or red, the flashing light because she couldn’t see the box, she had achromatopsia, it was a light out of the sky. We had to learn a strategy to learn how to read the flashing lights. Maybe you’re targeting in a Bioptic – when you’re using your Bioptic you’re instructed to target down the middle of your lane so that you catch the appropriate light but maybe you didn’t, maybe you veered off and you caught the light to the left. Your light may be green but that light that you’re catching may be red.

There’s all kinds of different strategies you would learn for traffic lights. We can go to the next one. Sometimes it’s lights close together, I’ve had clients that you have three lights in a row and they are targeting the middle light, the middle traffic light and not the first traffic light. We can keep going Larry. I have pictures of some lights that are close together that you can have an idea of what I’m talking about and there’s other strategies. Say for instance I think the number one problem that all of my even cited drivers is what lane to be in when I come up to the intersection. You can go to the next slide Larry. And



that is if I’m going straight, what lane do I need to be in? Sometimes cars are parked over the arrows of your lane or the lane markings are poor or if you’re low vision, you just may not catch it in time because you’re using your Bioptic and trying to figure out what color the light is and now you’re approaching the intersection. My strategy is this, it’s not foolproof for everything, sorry I just went blank again. If you are going straight and you only have two lanes, I would pick the right lane because 98% of the time the right lane is going to go straight. If you have three lanes, I would pick the middle lane to go straight and most of the time the middle lane is going to go straight, sometimes that right lane ends up being a right turn only and the left is a left turn only.

And you can hit the next one Larry. I can talk about it as they’re looking at the picture, lights and curbs are really difficult in the beginning until you get it because you’re going down the road, use to targeting down the middle-of-the-road and all of a sudden the light is on the curb, you need to learn to turn your head in the direction of the curb. If the curb is going to the right you need to turn your head to the right and get down in that way you can catch for the latest. I just have a picture of where the light, if you see where the little arrow coming down is, that’s where a normal Bioptic driver would target straight down the lane, but if they turn their head to the right, they are going to pick up the traffic light that’s on the curb to the right. We



can go to the next picture. That’s just another strategy. I think what I’m trying to show you is there’s so many different strategies that the training portion is very important. Stop signs are always – somebody always runs a stop sign in the middle of training and their strategy is to be up to spot those. You may not catch it in your Bioptic when you go down but maybe you can catch the white post line that goes across the road. Maybe you can catch the oncoming traffic, the backside of the stop sign. A lot of my individuals will catch that before they catch the stop sign on their stop sign that’s hidden by a tree. And I always teach everybody of course to count their stop signs versus trying to read the little sign underneath if it’s all way or a two-way stop.

We can go to the next one. It’s really important to have the training with the Bioptic telescopes to be successful and we can skip this, a lot of times my new drivers have a hard time with their lane position and there’s no room for error. There’s a lot I just want you to now, if you have a nystagmus and you’re having trouble keeping your wheel steady you can overcome that, there’s different ways you can do that. If you are out there and you are trying to do Bioptic driving and you’re having trouble with lane position please email me, I have a lot of different strategies that you can try. You can put on reference poles, you can – tape. In the old days they use to put hood ornaments on,



nystagmus clients do have a hard time and sometimes other clients have a hard time with lane position.

We can keep going Larry. Nystagmus a lot of times they call it ping-pong steering, their eyes and their hands mimic, so their hands are constantly moving. If you ever hear that. We can keep going, I’m going to go up to where it says Claire I think because I went through a lot of this. I have pictures so you can go back to look at the – tape being… You can make hood ornaments for your car and then what you would do is you would drive with those and one day I would just take them off and you would need them anymore. Glare, I don’t have anything up here so I’m just going to talk. Glare is the biggest factor with whoever is driving whether you have macular degeneration, achromatopsia, histoplasmosis, it doesn’t matter. Glare is there, it doesn’t disappear, it doesn’t go away. It just depends on the time of the day and the weather and Larry you can keep going. As a driver evaluator we have to be so in tune to different strategies to help you. You’ve got the slide in some filters, there’s multiple different colors, those are going to be the best thing. Sometimes they help pop the light out, they help decrease the glare because with glare comes fatigue. Your eyes may be watering, squinting, you may get a headache, you might not see the color of the traffic line, it might affect your lane markings so it’s really important to get the right some filters to help you. And I have clients



who this time of the day may use an amber with brown, but in the middle of the afternoon they might like one with gold. Achromatopsia, I’ve had them double up at certain points of the day. It’s very – you’ve got to be very creative, you really got to work back and forth with the optometrist, the ophthalmologist they may be able to find a different shade of filter. I had a doctor ride with me early in the morning, we were driving straight son, I had an achromatopsic girl that I tried every single filter with, I couldn’t find the right one. She sat in the back, the doctor, with about 30 different shades of sunshades. My client was the passenger, I drove and she just tried different filters on the same set of lights to see what ones would work. You really have to be creative.

Hit the next one. Glare, you can wear hats, that will decrease the glare. You can do also black cloths on your dash will decrease the glare bouncing off the window. That’s always good. I have nothing on my screen, so Larry can just keep going and hopefully I’ll find something. Glare is – old days accommodation for your speedometer was always hard for a person to read their speedometer. We use to do bright colored postiest and we would put those on the speedometer so they could see if maybe mark 25 for a school zone and mark 40 or maybe something for the interstate. Technology is wonderful, in this day and age we can get apps on our phone for speedometers, like a digital speedometer for your phone



or if you bought a new car, get digital it’s much easier to read and see. If you don’t have that luxury of getting a new car with digital you can go to Amazon and get a digital speedometer that hooks into your cigarette lighter and it’s awesome. Larry you can just keep going, I’m not getting the PowerPoint on my end so I’m just talking the top of my little head. Those are some things that you would be trained on. Some other… We could probably just stop.

I really want to emphasize that if you’re in a state that doesn’t require training to really be a successful Bioptic driver, there’s so much I think that they attached there on the site, I give you a reference sheet for some reference, the low-vision Center of Indiana has three great websites, they have an achromatopsia website, it’s in there Bioptic driving USA if you haven’t been on there. And they have a Bioptic driving website. They really got a lot of great things on there. I also give you Bioptic training, so I gave you an outline of everything a trainer would go through when they are training somebody. I want to emphasize that even if your state doesn’t require it to try to find somebody to do at least 10 hours of some training. I know it can be expensive if you don’t have a [paired source 00:40:36] but it is really important. We also deny driving also. I find that’s really beneficial. Your doctors will work with you, for instance I had a girl who did great during the day, I took her out for night driving, we’re driving along and



she was a very mild achromatopsic so she couldn’t see the color red, she was so mild we really didn’t do a red contact for day driving. I don’t need the PowerPoint Larry, Larry is texting me. We’re good. Night driving, first time out she’s looking down and she could not tell me the color of the lights in her Bioptic because she couldn’t see, it was just a fluke thing, I’ve never had anybody like that, she couldn’t tell me the color of the light at all. We went back to the ophthalmologist and we got bright yellow sun filters, flip the man behind her glasses and put a red strip underneath her eye. So now at night she is driving down the road, dips in her Bioptics, sees there is a traffic light I had, now she’s got to tilt her head backwards and it brings the red strip in her view and she can tell if the light is red or green. There is lots, don’t get discouraged, lots of different things we can do to help you be successful driving. I’m going to allow questions at this time, I’m sorry that the PowerPoint locked up on everybody but hopefully this is my first webinar, hopefully I did okay. Anyway. Larry do we have any questions out there from anybody?

Larry Muffet Yes we do, Allen said do insurance companies have higher rates if they learn you are a Bioptic driver? What’s the effect on your insurance rates?

Maryellen KeithLarry, that’s probably a question everybody asks and guess what, it can’t affect it because that would be



discrimination. Your license for your insurance for your car and all that they don’t really need to know that you’re a Bioptic driver. The only time that somebody knows that for the Bioptic, the doctors will tell them they should ensure there Bioptic telescopes but as far as being a higher insurance rate they don’t have the right to do that, that would be discrimination.

Audience MemberThis is Audrey, I’m legally blind, I have no peripheral vision on my left side, I didn’t know if that was an option for this program or not?

Maryellen KeithWhat state are you in? Do you know what their visual - like Indiana you have to have 120 degrees, so it just depends on where your peripheral vision cut off is because sometimes if you don’t have any on that side, it wouldn’t hurt to still meet with your doc, because like I said each state is different. Our state you have to have 120 so they may not, as long as you have temporal you may be able to pick up that whole hundred 20 degrees. It really just depends on what state you’re in. I wouldn’t not pursue it, I would definitely go to the doctor and see if you are a candidate.

Audience Member



I’m in upstate New York, that’s where I live and I’ll have to speak to my doctor and see what he thinks. Thank you.

Maryellen KeithNew York was one of the first or second states to be a Bioptic state. If I remember right they’re pretty good on their things, they are pretty close to Indiana.

Audience MemberI still have a driver’s license, it’s good to 2018 but I lost my vision in a stroke that I had, that’s when my vision went. I still do a little bit of driving so I’m not completely out of the loop as far as knowing how to drive.

Maryellen KeithI kind of missed of the question on that, I got the portion that you had a stroke and you were still driving, but I think I missed the most pertinent portion in the beginning.

Audience MemberI’m just saying that I still have a driver’s license and that I do a little bit of driving once in a while with my husband and my daughter. They allow me to still get behind the wheel as long as there with me for now until I figure out how this Bioptic thing works. I appreciate your time thank you very much.

Audience Member©2016 Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired of 28


This is West, one of the questions I’m wondering about is teaching an old dog new tricks situation. I never learned to drive as a kid and now I’m 52, should I even be thinking about picking it up where is this something that is just too hard to learn at such an advanced age?

Maryellen KeithWest, you will make an excellent driver. First, I have so many individuals that have been 50 and 55 that came to me that thought they could never drive because of their vision, and all of a sudden they found out Bioptics are out there, this is something I can pursue. Think about it, you’re not a teenager so you’re not going to be impulsive or wilds and I definitely would encourage you, yes you can learn to do this. You can do this.

Audience MemberMaryellen you’re breaking up a little bit but we got that last part there. A couple other questions in the text box. Catherine wants to know is the process for new low-vision drivers very different from that of previously licensed drivers and she would also like to know if you’re interested in listing your contact information in the text box for her. And Carly has a question about the resource list. Will make sure to post that with the archive when we get the recording posted on the website will make sure that we have the slides and the resource list listed with that. Maryellen are you out there?



Okay we seem to have lost communication with Maryellen, if you have any additional communications go ahead and put them in the text box, will make sure that when she gets reconnected we can do that. If not if we don’t have any other questions perhaps we’ll start moving towards our adjournment, but we do have some more time on the clock so I would certainly entertain more questions. We have a question from West, he says do cops tend to pick on Bioptic drivers more? We seem to have lost our presenter so I’m going to go ahead and start wrapping up and hopefully we’ll get her back in here before I do that. I wanted to let everyone know that this seminar like all of Hadley seminars will be archived on our website and available for your use anytime around the clock.

Also each Hadley seminar is now made available as a podcast you can download to your computer or mobile device. If today’s seminar has got you interested in this or related low-vision topics please check out the seminar archives and also check out Hadley’s course list. Maryellen and I both thank you for your participation today, your questions were outstanding and greatly contributed to the value of today’s seminar. Hadley values your feedback, please let us know what you thought about today’s seminar and please give us suggestions for future topics.



One way you can do that is by dropping us an email at [email protected]. I’m going to release the microphone and ask Maryellen to jump in and ask if she would like to make any closing comments. Okay, I want to personally thank all of you for taking the time to be a part of this seminar today and for asking questions and being an attentive audience, I certainly thank you for that. Hopefully we’ll have you back for the next low-vision seminar. Thanks everybody.

[End of Audio– 49:36]


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