Teaching Cross-Eyed People to See in 3-D

Susan R. Barry, Ph. D

I have been cross-eyed (strabismic) and stereoblind since early infancy. Since the first months of life, I looked at things with one eye and turned in the other. Three childhood surgeries made my eyes look straighter but did not change the way I used them. I continued to look with one and turn away the other. My crossed eyes may have been less noticeable after the operations, but I still suppressed the input from the turned eye and saw an abnormally flat, less detailed, and less vibrant view of the world. I did not see in 3D; I was stereoblind.

As I grew older, my vision became more troublesome. So at age 48, I consulted a developmental optometrist. I went to see her not to gain stereovision; that possibility was not even on my radar. Instead, I spoke to her about my unstable gaze. My view of distant objects was jittery which made driving difficult and frightening. I wanted to gain more competence and confidence for chauffeuring my children around town.

Over the next year, my developmental optometrist, Dr. Theresa Ruggiero, taught me something that most infants learn within the first months of life - how to aim both eyes at the same place in space at the same time. This required a great deal of practice using a variety of elegantly-designed vision therapy tools. To my astonishment, I began to see in 3D. Ordinary things looked extraordinary. Sink faucets reached out toward me, hanging light fixtures seemed to float in mid-air, and I could see how the outer branches of trees captured whole volumes of space through which the inner branches penetrated. Borders and edges appeared crisper; objects seemed more solid, vibrant, and real. I was overwhelmed by my first stereo view of a snowfall in which I could see the palpable pockets of space between each snowflake.
READ MORE

Posted in: