Abstract

Social Security Benefits paid to the blind in the State of California cost tens of millions of dollars annually. In order to ensure that only the truly deserving receive benefits, strictly enforced criteria have been devised. Qualifications for disability based on blindness are determined by the Department of Social Services and the Disability Evaluation Department (1979). Qualifications include bilateral total ophthalmoplegia, visual field loss in which the widest diameter subtends an angle no greater than 20° and loss of central vision where visual acuity in the better eye after correction is 20/200 or worse.

© 1986 Optical Society of America