Dec. 20, 2006
 
COMMENTARY: WV Should Change Licensing Requirements for Low Vision Drivers
 
By Lisa Mathews
Special to Huntington News Network
 
I am currently working on a letter-writing campaign to the House and Senate to pass an amendment to a Bill that would give visually challenged individuals the right to be screened and trained for low vision driving and I need help getting this message out.
 
Delegate Jonathan Miller has agreed to support a review of the amendment and has been a tremendous help and continued source of commitment to this cause. I am trying to get word out across the state regarding this issue. Also, the elderly who were too frightened of losing their driving privileges could then come forward as they would not have to fear losing their independence in that low vision training and rehab would provide them the opportunity to maintain their license.
 
Between 1985 and 1998, at least thirty-two (32) WV residents with known central vision loss who completed formalized programs of adaptive driver education training, followed by comprehensive driver testing -- including an on-road driver's test -- were granted restricted driving privileges in West Virginia.
 
All of these individuals who were graduates of the West Virginia Rehabilitation Center ’s former Low Vision Driving Program became employed following acquisition of driver licensure.
 
However since 1998, when the WV legislature passed amendments to 91 CRS 5 (Denial, Suspension, Revocation or Non-Renewal of Driving Privileges) of the WV Code, other low vision applicants whose cases were suppose to be have been reviewed by the WV Division of Motor Vehicle's Driver License Advisory Board have been categorically denied access to driver training, testing and licensure altogether.
 
Ironically one of the amendments to 91 CSR 5 was specifically designed to permit any applicant whose vision could not be corrected to a visual acuity level of at least 20/60 in one eye to be considered for driver licensure; if they had been evaluated by an ophthalmologist or optometrist as being able to safely operate a motor vehicle.
 
I have a son with known low vision who is now of licensing age and wishes to drive. He maintains 3.0 grade point average, in regular classes, in our local WV school system, and has part-time employment at a local restaurant for which he must rely on friends, his father, or me for transportation. He continues to remain hopeful about the future but a major stumbling block for him is his lack of opportunity to try to obtain a drivers license for his future employment and psycho-social endeavors.
 
Below is a list of bullets which provide an overview of driving with mild to moderate central vision loss and why current vision regulations for driver licensure in West Virginia need further amendment and proper implementation and enforcement by our State's Division of Motor Vehicles.
 
I’m writing this to help get word out and make people more aware of this issue at immediate hand. It is of importance in the time factor, as the legislative session will be starting again in January.
 
You may contact me via email lisacmathews@yahoo.com .
 
Facts about driving with mild to moderate central vision loss
 
• Forty-four (44) States currently allow restricted driving privileges to individuals presenting mild to moderate levels of central vision loss, ranging from 20/70 through 20/200 inclusive.
 
• States bordering West Virginia grant restricted driving privileges to persons with mild to moderate central vision loss (Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia @ the 20/200 level, and Maryland and Pennsylvania @ the 20/100 level respectively). According to reliable sources, all of these neighboring States also allow the use of bioptic lens systems for visual accommodation purposes.
 
• Bioptic lens systems -- more commonly known as bioptics -- enable a person with central vision loss to decipher detail, color or activity of distantly positioned objects or forms when desired or needed during the driving task. Bioptics consist of a pair of standard eye glasses and an attached and superior mounted miniature telescope. A trained user can accomplish synchronized vertical spotting type of tasks (downward -upward head and eye movement) in one second or less for desired distant detail viewing.
 
• Ironically , residents of States that allow the use of bioptic lens systems drive legally into and out of West Virginia on a daily basis as guaranteed by the “Full Faith and Credit Clause” of the U.S. Constitution. Yet our in-state low vision residents are denied such driving privileges because our State's driver licensing authority does not permit nor recognize the use of bioptic lens systems during driver testing or driving.
 
• Currently thirty-nine (39) States allow driving with bioptic telescopic lens systems, prescribed by eye care specialists.
 
• Approximately 88 per cent of West Virginians -- including low vision constituents who reside in cities or towns where public transportation is not available or affordable -- need access to an independent means of transportation, namely a driver’s license to meet job, school and other basic survival needs.
 
• In 2003 the WV Academy of Ophthalmology expressed support for a comprehensive drivers license bill, including the option to use bioptic telescopic lens systems.
 
• To date 120 professionals representative of nineteen (19) States and one (1) Province of Canada have attended and benefited by short term "Understanding the Bioptic Driver" staff in-service training offered at the West Virginia Rehabilitation Center . Center staff have also participated in on-site staff training of driver examiners and supervisory staff in the States of KY, MD, OH, OR and VA. Yet offers to train in-state DMV staff since 1998 have been declined.
 
Lisa Mathews lives in Bunker Hill, WV.