A Distorted View on Driving

All my blogs so far have been academic based so I thought I would include one about the driving aspects of Irlen syndrome.

Not being able to perceive what is on the page can be mortifying when you are striving to learn but what about being in charge of a vehicle and not being able to judge the distance of the car in front of you or the oncoming vehicle in the next lane of the motorway.

Recently along with Jackie Willis (a driving instructor in Norfolk) there has been an article about driving with Irlen syndrome. Whether knowingly or unknowingly people are on the roads.

Over the years as a screener and also the admin of a support group I have heard many accounts of what has been happening. Many people still drive regardless of feeling unsafe or unsure.

It seems that gradually the driving instructors are starting to gain awareness and incorporate it into their lessons with questions and observations. This needs to extend so far in the transport world.

Scary stuff knowing that a lorry has such a blind spot, added to driving in a foreign country (steering on opposite side) let’s just put all the distortions in the pot.

Terrifying Isn't it!

This is one account:

"I was having several different types of perceptual problems while driving and

consequently found myself getting into accidents quite frequently. The types of

problems that I have experienced while driving include: tunnel vision, difficulty with

accurately judging distance, problems with discerning and processing motion,

certain optical illusions such as the appearance that two separate lanes of traffic

seem to cross over into each other and the appearance that turn-offs on the

interstate seem to sometimes disappear from certain angles. When I experienced

difficulties with processing motion it was usually significantly worse during the

daytime than at night.

Sometimes I would notice that when it was a bright sunny day it was very

difficult for me to be able to accurately judge distance between myself and other

cars ahead. It did not look like a motion which happened smoothly and gradually,

but rather it looked more like a motion projector with several missing segments in

the film strip thus creating a choppy sense of motion and lessening or expanding

distance between me and the car in front sort of like a jumpy effect, the cars

appeared two hundred feet to about twenty feet away in a matter of less than a

second and I had no explanation how this could have happened.

At night I experienced not being able to see roads accurately and not knowing

where the turns and curves in the road were. Winter conditions

presented extra problems because my vision seems to become more

tunneled and roads were concealed by the snow so that made it even harder for

me to discern where the roads were going.

During the summer season in the daytime I was usually in much better shape as far

as visibility was concerned. However the tunneled vision caused a lot of problems for me especially

when I was trying to make turns or lane changes because it was very difficult for

me to see what was around me with limited visual awareness.

My peripheral vision has come back again,

as well as my ability to accurately judge space and distance between myself

and other vehicles has improved significantly also and I am not experiencing

nearly as many problems processing the motion of other cars and how fast I am

approaching them".