Because the surrounding retina does not see as well as does the macula, a person with macular degeneration has to use larger texts or magnify the text with a magnifying lens or strong reading glasses. Macular degeneration makes lipreading and reading of finger alphabet difficult. A person with macular degeneration should remember to ask people to talk more slowly, to pronounce words carefully and to stand facing the light. Then it would be easier to see the lips. It would be still easier if people who talk to the hearing impaired use a contrast pen to accentuate the lip margins.
Retinal degeneration is often diffuse , in many parts of the retina.
There are numerous types of retinal degenerations with very strange names. Although the diseases are different the vision changes are closely similar. There is patchy loss of retinal function, later the poorly functioning areas become larger and confluent. Eventually only the central retina functions, the person has tunnel vision . The first symptom is often night blindness , difficulties seeing in twilight and in the dark.