The Blindness of Harry Potter

[brokenquill92]

Exactly how bad is Harry's eyesight it seems to switch from slight myopia to full on blind without his glasses

[teflonbilly]

I'd bet that without his glasses, Harry has 20/300 - 20/400 eyesite or possibly even worse, pretty damn bad.

Not blind, not be a long shot, but almost incapable of seeing anything productively beyond the length of his arm without his glasses. And I'd say that he was not able to read anything farther away than a foot away without his glasses.

TB

[jaffaninja]

That sounds about right, I think. I've always wondered about this myself so thanks for that!

[physicssquid]

I always thought that Harry was extremely short-sighted, needing glasses so he could see long-distances. I got the impression that anything that was closer than three feet away from his face merely lacked defining lines, and anything further, was just a blur.

[blackroses77]

I thought the scene in PoA when Harry lost his glasses after being hit by the whomping willow was pretty accurate as to how well he was able to see without his glasses.

[Chameleon]

Hmm. I think Harry has much worse eyesight than me, which says something... It has been worsening since I was eleven year old. I can't even manage to go anywhere without glasses. First thing I do in the morning.

[G. Novella]

Ugh, tell me about bad eyesight! Mine are horrible, an 8 in one eye, and a 9 in the other >.>

[RandomPasserby]

I was thinking about this the other day, because I dug out a very old pair of glasses and decided 'hey, let's see how much worse my eyes have gotten' and popped them on. Couldn't see a thing.

Actually this is more about Harry's glasses than Harry's eyesight.

Presumably it took Vernon and Petunia a long time to actually get Harry glasses. Why take notice of a child you hate being unable to see the board? It was only because my mother wears glasses that when my teacher mentioned I had to get up and walk to the board to see what she'd written there I went for an eye test. If the teacher didn't mention it and Vernon and Petunia didn't care it could mean Harry struggling for years until it literally became impossible for him to read the board and a teacher pushed the point.

Secondly, what are the chances his prescription was kept up with? I ended up with a new pair of glasses every couple of years because my prescription had changed. It definitely changed a lot between 11 and 17. Even people who are less blind than I am have that issue.

And yet we never hear or see Harry's glasses needing to be changed because he can't see anything. We don't see him thinking 'hey, I wonder if the magical world has glasses that are better' or Madam Pomfrey going 'And you need to see somebody about those glasses, they're ruining your eyes'.

So my question is mostly how come Harry could constantly see clearly even though he's wearing glasses that must be quite old?

[Kitty279]

Good point. You'd think he'd get problems over times and would need a new prescription. Or did Poppy take care of it without the reader being told?

That reminds me of the 4,x glasses (can't remember the exact number) I got when I was about 8, specificially for reading. The ophtalmologist insisted I need some. Only problem - I could barely see anything at all with them, never mind reading, got eyeaches, headaches and started crying when I was wearing them. Finally my mum decided enough was enough and they ended up somewhere in a drawer and I never wore them again.

Oh, btw, 10 years later I made an eye test for the driving license - 1,0 on both eyes. These stupid glasses would have ruined my eyes because they were far too strong. Even in my 30's I couldn't see anything properly with these things. Might have to look if they still exist and give it a try one of these days.