Visual Perception and Impairment. Presenting for Every Audience

Abstract

People’s perception of the world is enormously influenced by the things we see all around, including in the media. The eyes act as our guides, to show us which direction to take. Much of our reasoning depends on what our eyes perceive and the way in which they do so. If we are able to distinguish between objective appearance and our subjective visual perceptions, our visual awareness will grow. In physiological terms, vision depends on light rays entering the eye and being focused by the lens onto the retina. The retina is covered with light-sensitive cells which convert the light into electrical signals in the nervous system. The brain reassembles these electrical signals to form the image that we are subjectively aware of. Modern life presents us with so rich a visual environment, particularly through media, that much of what we perceive is not specifically attended to by our minds. A lot of what we see carries no particular meaning. Visual awareness is more than just this relatively passive act of perceiving images, since other factors play a role in how we generate visual meaning. For example, our previous experience, pre-formed ideas, wishes and concepts all affect what we perceive as the “evident truth”. Culture also modulates how we perceive the world. Think of the difference between an arm raised by a traffic policeman to signal the need to stop before an accident occurs and the same gesture performed by a far right extremist.