About the Book
Living with Achromatopsia

What is it like to have achromatopsia? What is it like to go through life with very poor visual acuity, inability to see color, and the most severe form of light sensitivity that can be experienced by the eyes? To have a vision disorder which causes one to experience varying degrees of visual impairment, depending upon the factors of illumination which vary from one place to another? Readers of this book have the opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding regarding this rare and challenging vision disorder.

This 163-page spiral bound book (2nd edition), which was published in 1999 and substantially updated in 2004, consists entirely of comments from persons who know firsthand about living with achromatopsia. Adults and teens with achromatopsia and parents of children and teens with achromatopsia tell about how this vision disorder has affected their lifestyles, their relationships, and their approaches to different activities. They tell of their experiences in connection with work, school, recreation and sports activities, and much more. They tell about the problems they have faced and the ways they have dealt with these problems -- i.e., the coping strategies, adaptive devices, support systems, and special resources that have played important roles in their lives.

Following are titles from the Table of Contents page of Living with Achromatopsia:

The book, Living with Achromatopsia is NOT in print at the present time. To accommodate those who need to read this very important book, I am making a copy of it available in PDF format.

Before downloading this book, you must agree to the following: that the book is for your own personal use and that it is not to be reprinted for sale or for distribution. You may print a copy for yourself, a relative, a teacher, your doctor, or any other individual who is directly concerned with achromatopsia.

If you wish to have a bound copy of this book, take the PDF file to a copy center that has a Xerox DocuTech printer. For a fee, the copy center will print a copy of the book, with the pages back to back. Ask that the print setting be made as light as possible so that the type does not become bloated in appearance. For an additional fee at the copy center you can purchase front and back covers for the book (I recommend 110LB card stock but most copy centers can only provide 60LB card stock, which is adequate). I also recommend spiral binding of the completed book, as this allows it to be opened and read more easily than other binding methods allow. Most pages have 1/2" margins, which allow for binding while allowing maximum space for text. If you find that sample pages from the DocuTech printer do not have this margin width, have the technician adjust his machine.

A printed copy of the book can also be stored and read in a standard 3-ring binder after the pages have been punched to fit the 3-ring binder.

If you have access to a good PostScript laser printer that can print duplex pages (pages back to back), you can also print this PDF file very quickly on such a printer, later binding the book as you wish. Again, the pages should have 1/2" margins. If they do not, check Acrobat Reader print settings and adjust them until you get the 1/2" margins desired.

The copyright of this book remains with the author, Frances Futterman. This book is NOT to be distributed in any fashion which violates the user agreement stated above.

To download a copy of Living with Achromatopsia click on the following link: Living with Achromatopsia.