to ask about glasses? yes off the back of another thread but im curious now!

[BritFish]

i wear glasses, and the other thread [about OP feeling smug about her friend's child having to wear glasses]
made me wonder, do people see needing glasses as some sort of impediment?
okay um...sort of...on par with a lisp or hearing problems?

not explaining myself very well.
but i never saw wearing glasses as a 'problem'
and i dont get why people get so het up about the fact they need glasses either. fair enough if you dont suit them/prefer contacts etc, but some people get so worked up!

disclaimer: this of course not about people who can barely see at all or blind.

YY metatron. I cannot get on with contacts, they make my eyes so bloodshot. I am used to wearing specs, but it did make me sad to see my beautiful DS's face being covered up, especially as he will always need glasses/contacts.

I've worn glasses since I was eight or nine. Turned to contact lenses in my 20s but had to give up a while back as developed very dry eyes. Doesn't really bother me except for being really expensive whenever I need a new prescription. And no, I don't consider it an impediment, because it is something that is so easily fixed.

Agree re. the bizarre thing about hearing going if you aren't wearing your specs though - I've always thought it's because you feel isolated and cut off from the world?

So far ds seems to be taking after dh in not having any sight problems. Fingers crossed he stays that way - only because it will avoid expense/hassle/glasses being broken (my Mother got fed up with me breaking mine and made me wear the dreaded NHS horrors).

I have worn glasses since I was 6. All day everyday
I used to hate them (until very recently) but now I feel tney are part of me. I dont mind them now really

I have never tried contacts as I know I wouldnt get on with them

If I didnt need to wear mine anymore I would be thrilled but nobody I know would recognise me

DS has had glasses from age 3 and I was a little upset at the time. I remember my short period of time as a child wearing very uncomfortable NHS specs with wire round the ears and was pleasantly suprised when I found out not all kids NHS specs make them look like the Milky Bar kid. I also worried about the upkeep of them and trying to encourage a 3 year old to take care of them. This worry was justified as we have become regular friends of Specsavers during our weekly visits to get the damned things fixed. I don't worry about him being teased as I see so many kids with glasses now and he's the kind of lad who can hold his own. If you asked me honestly, I'd still prefer it if he didn't need glasses, less hassle, less looking like a little politician on his first day of school rather than a kid, but it is what it is, no one makes a fuss and i's easy to pick him out from a line up . I found many reasons to duck out of wearing glasses when younger and my eyesight's a mess so don't want DS to end up the same way.In the end I just had to remind myself there could be a lot worse wrong with him. He's healthy and happy and that's the main thing.

I'm sorry I haven't read all the threads. But I have a couple of points to make on glasses.

Firstly, I had them as a child and in those days you didn't tend to get "diagnosed" that early unless you were really bad and it wasn't till I was about 8 or 9 that other kids started to get them. That was hard - but I believe its changed now a bit.

Secondly, sure its an impediment technically, if you were dropped in the middle of the jungle without them, your ability to dodge predators and danger would be less and you'd be more likely to be eaten by a tiger.

Thirdly, someone compared it to hearing problems etc. I believe things like hearing aids and hearing problems are still more stigmatised, sadly, for want of a better word. I think one of the reasons is that there is some percentage (and I can't for the life of me remember what percentage but about 30 or 40%) of people with hearing problems also have some other kind of special educational need not related to that hearing problem. Secondly, its more likely to have a knock on effect to speech and other communication problems, whereas glasses do not. And thirdly, it generally is more of a hindrance in the classroom than a sight problem, assuming the sight problem has been corrected - but a classroom is a very different learning environment for a person who is having hearing difficulties, depending on how well they are being addressed.

These are all observations I have made from personal experience.

I was very vain and had glasses at eleven, wonderful! I loved it, even had braces (not train track) and loved them. Now I would like laser eye surgery!

"do people see needing glasses as some sort of impediment?"

Some people do, surprisingly a lot of adults seem to! I find it shocking as I suffered a lot of abuse from other children when I got glasses but never thought that fully grown adults would be sneery or rude about them. Sad thing is that I think a lot of people see them as something which makes people ugly.

i think also hearing aids do not reproduce sound as it is normally heard, it sounds fake...

My dad avoids wearing his and doesn't give a stuff how he looks (anyone who has seen him in his ear-flap bedecked hat would attest to this). He also manages to lose them alot and get them eaten by dogs.....which so far hasn't happened to my glasses!

another thing i don't like about glasses is cycling in the rain...very quickly can't see where i'm going. It is a nuisance, but i'm jus tnot brave enough for laser surgery (and currently not monied enough)

It was seen as a bit of a drawback when I was a child- something you could get teased about, the mark of a nerd. SO I resolutely refused to wear them and ended up with a squint and sight problems instead.

I was very relieved to notice that things seem to have changes: dd wears them, and several of my nephews and nieces; none of them seem to have encountered any negative attitudes.

I've been having problems recently and went for an eye test - looks like glasses might be an idea. Never worn them before and they look like a right hassle. And a bit paranoid that I won't get ones that suit me and I'll look wierd.
So I've been putting it off and really should bite the bullet and get some. Nervous of the cost and getting a hard sell though...

Sloany - most people who need hearing aids (about 90%) are over 60, no link to any other impairments at all. And there's precious little link to any learning difficulties in younger people who are deaf, certainly nothing like 30-40%! Yes if you're prelingually deaf then your speech may be crap but people shouldn't be allowed to assume that means you're stupid (or assume that if you have hearing aids that you can't speak).

Most people I know who have been prescibed hearing aids but don't wear them don't because they hurt or squeal, because they haven't been fitted properly and the person won't/thinks they can't/thinks it won't help if they go back to have them adjusted. I've had hearing aids for nearly 20 years so friends and family keep trying to get me to talk sense into such people... and certain useless audiology clinics...

I wear glasses. occassionally contacts. i don't like wearing glasses. nothing about vanity. just a pain.
ds wears glasses and i don't mind them on him as much.

They are first thing on put on the last thing I take off every day.
Although I do take them off for (as my optometrist once said 'the 4 S's - sleeing, showering swimming and sex).

I do not find them a style hindrance but I do with that I could see things without them. I wish I could wear big smoky eye makeup, play waterpolo without dorky goggles, join the secret service like I wanted to etc.

But wearing glasses is who I am. Even if I now have a dint in the side of my head from frames - does anyone else who wear glasses all the time have dints wear the frames sit near their ears?

Notcitrus - I have now found my source. I have an NHS leaflet that was given to me when my child was "diagnosed" as moderately deaf by the NHS (he's not by the way - normal hearing) which says that 32% of children (yes, agree with your point about 90% of hearing aids being in older people) that are hearing impaired have other learning difficulties. That's where I got it from.

To add to that, which is one reason why when they eventually realised his hearing was fine said they wouldn't recommend hearing aids, because there was a social stigma attached, partly due to that factor. They said that at the point they discovered the full range of hearing in his left ear. The following Monday they discovered full hearing in his right ear but by then I had already decided to relive them of their "service".

Have also worn glasses since I can remember! Interesting tho... I was at an SEN conference and the lady their was talking about the acceptability of impairments. That some are more acceptable than others (she herself has a physical impairment/CP), she said that people saw hers as a problem, but asked how many of us wore glasses. Many of us raised our hands. She pointed out that we had an impairment, albeit one which was considered socially acceptable and easy to fix. It did make me think. Not that I have an impairment oh woe is me, but that perhaps we should not stigmatise others because we consider their impairment to be more challenging. She said that in many ways the environment is disabling, so since she needs a walking frame, stairs prohibit her accessing a building, but ramps etc mean she can access the building just like anyone else. And it's true, if I am forced not to wear my glasses, I am severely limited (i.e for swimming), it's just that most of the time it is not even an issue, whereas access to buildings often is. (my mum is registered blind, and often feels that people treat her badly when they realise she cannot see well, tho she has recently had a transplant that has allowed her to see her grandchildren for the first time!!)