Body system: EyeRegulation: 38 CFR § 4.79
This diagnostic code covers vision problems when one of your eyes can only see at 5 feet what a person with normal vision can see at 200 feet (very poor vision, but not completely blind). The VA rates this condition based on how well your other eye can see, ranging from 30% to 90% disability. The worse your good eye's vision is, the higher your rating - because losing vision in both eyes creates a much greater overall disability than having one bad eye with one good eye.
Rating levels
- 100% — You must have lost one eye completely AND your remaining eye must have vision of 5/200 or worse (which means you can only see at 5 feet what a person with normal vision can see at 200 feet). This level of vision in your remaining eye is considered legally blind, so you would essentially have no functional vision in either eye.
- 90% — You must have lost one eye completely AND your remaining eye must have very severe vision problems - specifically, you can only see at 10 feet what a person with normal vision can see at 200 feet (this is called 10/200 vision). Even with glasses or contacts, your remaining eye's vision cannot be better than this extremely poor level.
- 80% — You have lost one eye completely, and your remaining eye has very poor vision of 15/200. This means that what a person with normal vision can see clearly at 200 feet, you can only see when you're 15 feet away from it. Your remaining eye's vision is so poor that you would be considered legally blind even with corrective lenses.
- 70% — You must have lost one eye completely AND your remaining eye must have very poor vision of 20/200 or worse (this means you can only see at 20 feet what a person with normal vision can see at 200 feet). With 20/200 vision, you would be considered legally blind and would need to be very close to objects to see them clearly, making daily activities like reading, driving, or recognizing faces extremely difficult.
- 60% — You have completely lost one eye (anatomical loss means the eye is physically gone or surgically removed), and your remaining eye has vision of 20/100 (which means you can only see at 20 feet what a person with normal vision can see at 100 feet). This level of vision in your good eye is considered significantly impaired - you can read large print but would have difficulty with normal-sized text and detailed visual tasks.
- 50% — You have very poor vision in one eye that can only see at 5 feet what a person with normal vision can see at 200 feet, AND your other eye has moderately impaired vision that can only see at 20 feet what normal vision can see at 70 feet. This means you have significant vision loss in both eyes, with one eye being nearly blind and the other having substantial vision problems that would make daily activities like reading, driving, or recognizing faces quite difficult.
- 40% — You must have vision of 20/50 in your better eye (meaning you can see at 20 feet what a person with normal vision can see at 50 feet) while your worse eye has very poor vision of 5/200 (you can only see at 5 feet what normal vision sees at 200 feet). This rating applies when one eye is nearly blind but your other eye still has fairly decent vision, though not perfect.
- 30% — You need to have vision of 5/200 (which means you can only see at 5 feet what a person with normal vision can see at 200 feet) in one eye, AND your other eye must have vision of 20/40 (slightly worse than normal vision, meaning you can see at 20 feet what normal vision sees at 40 feet). This rating applies when you have one eye with very poor vision and the other eye with mildly impaired vision.