For those with advanced macular degeneration of any form (Age-Related, Myopic, Stargardt’s, etc), there may be areas in the center of their visual field where what they are looking at is ‘missing.’ They are often called blind spots; the ‘formal’ name is scotoma.
You may have seen images where a big black ‘blob’ is shown in a photo, but that is not the experience of most people with the advanced stage of macular degeneration. This is not to minimize the impact of advanced macular degeneration, but to hopefully dispel some of the misinformation out there and to help explain the experience to others.
Here is how 2 people with 2 different types of advanced macular degeneration describe what they see.
Sam with Stargardt’s Disease
Sam of The Blind Life YouTube channel has a video where he describes and simulates what he sees with Stargardt’s Disease. He shows how the brain can fill in areas from a nearby image. He also describes how he has learned to use his peripheral vision to see what he wants to see.
Sue with Geographic Atrophy
Sue has advanced dry AMD/geographic atrophy. I asked her to watch Sam’s video and write how it relates to how she sees things. She agrees that is pretty much how she sees with AMD as she describes in her journal page Filling in the Gaps.