Requirements for Blindness Disability Claims

You won’t qualify for disability benefits solely because you have a visual impairment. You need to show three things:

• Your impairment makes it impossible to work at your current or most recent job.
• Switching jobs or career fields isn’t an option.
• Your work-stopping impairment will last 12 months or more.

When Social Security evaluates a blindness disability claim, they’re looking for two specific criteria:

• You have a visual acuity of 20/200 or less with corrective lenses.
• You have highly limited peripheral vision in your best eye.

If you don’t meet the Social Security’s definition of blindness, there are other ways you could still qualify for disability benefits with vision disorders.

You would need to show that you meet Social Security’s requirements for disability with a different visual impairment and other health issues that make it impossible to work.

The SSA uses a few different tests to determine whether your vision impairment is severe enough to deserve SSDI or SSI benefits.

Tests that might be part of your evaluation include:

• Hand motion and counting fingers tests
• Light perception measurements
• Testing with specialized lenses
• Visual evoked response testing
• Snellen chart and other visual acuity tests
• Humphrey Field Analyzer (used to measure and diagnose visual field loss)

It’s always tough to get a disability claim approved.

All of us at Geary Disability Law work hard to give people in Green Bay, Wausau, Oshkosh, Appleton and across the Fox Valley the best chance at successfully winning benefits.

There’s no cost for an initial case review to see what you can expect from the disability claims process.

Get your FREE evaluation now.

Can You Work and Qualify for Disability in Wisconsin?

If your visual issues and your job allow it, it is possible to work a limited amount while you’re applying for disability.

Working can complicate your claim, however, so get a skilled Wisconsin disability lawyer to review your situation.

The first thing you need to understand is a measurement known as “substantial gainful activity (SGA).”

SGA means if you earn more than a certain amount of money each month from a job, Social Security may decide you don’t need disability benefits.

The SGA threshold is different for non-blind people and people with blindness.

If you’re legally blind by Social Security’s standards, you could earn $2,830 per month and still collect benefits as of 2026.

If you don’t meet the SSA’s standard for blindness, but do qualify for benefits due to visual impairment and different health issues, the SGA limit was $1,690 per month.

Social Security gives more leeway for blindness because it has long recognized visual impairment as uniquely challenging for working and particularly costly for people trying to get the accommodations needed to work.

You should also understand the following about SGA and seeking disability benefits:

• Social Security looks at your gross pay, not the income you take home, when determining if you exceed SGA.

• Any additional compensation, like bonuses and tips, counts toward SGA.

• Certain expenses, like the cost of accommodations your employer makes for you and extra expenses you face in order to work with blindness, can be deducted from your countable income.

• Working too many hours or holding a job that the SSA deems mentally or physically demanding could affect whether they approve you for benefits even if your income is under the SGA limit.

• People applying for SSI have to be particularly cautious about exceeding SSI’s limit on assets and countable resources you can own.

Always be careful to report income and expenses if you work while receiving disability for blindness or another vision impairment.

Social Security could stop your benefits if you work too much or make errors when reporting your work activities and earnings.

Down the line, the government may even determine you were overpaid and ask you to give money back.

Wisconsin disability attorney Tim Geary and his team can help you navigate around the pitfalls in this process.

CONTACT OUR FIRM TODAY.