You squint at the sentence, wondering if the newspaper is using some cheap new ink. But squinting doesn`t help.
Maybe it`s the glare that`s making these words so hard to read. It makes no sense.
You blink a few times to clear your eyes, and lean closer. Now it`s worse.
So you tilt your head back, hold the page at arm`s length, and lo, the words swim into focus:
” `You`re getting older!` ”
”Yes, you can bike away your tummy, you can liposuck your thighs. You can run marathons, too, but you just can`t hide from the age-old, old-age blur that begins soon after 40. It`s a nearly universal condition known as
`presbyopia.` It means `old eyes.` ”
There, there, now. This shouldn`t come as a surprise. Demographers have been reporting on the so-called ”graying” of America for several years. And smirking, trend-hungry young journalists have noted ad nauseam that the oldest members of the Baby Boom generation-the 76 million ”kids” born between 1946 and 1964-already have doddered into their 40s.
Ken Dychtwald, author of the book ”Age Wave,” predicts that by the end of the decade about one-fifth of the population-40 million people-will be over 65. And if current patterns persist, 20 million of those will have visual impairments that glasses can`t correct.
But take comfort in those vast numbers: Manufacturers large and small have begun to see the gold in all that old. As the nation`s eyes grow dimmer, the pages and dials and signs and colors around us will grow ever easier to see.
Consider:
– Shearson-Lehman, the investment brokerage, this year began printing stock offerings in a larger type size, while Forbes, the ”capitalist tool”
business magazine, retooled its graphics and typeface to make reading easier. Acts of corporate compassion, perhaps. Shrewd marketing, for sure. Americans over 50 are worth $7 trillion; they`ve amassed 77 percent of the nation`s financial assets.
– General Motors-maker of the Corvette, Trans-Am, Firebird and other legendary youthmobiles-has developed an electronic dashboard that projects the speed, turn signals and low-fuel indicator onto the windshield. The reflected image appears to float in space above the radiator and eliminates the need to refocus, a function that takes a second longer at age 50 than at age 20.
– Matsushita, the electronics manufacturer, has just come out with remote controls featuring liquid-crystal display screens that can be used to program both VCRs and audio systems. No more crouching and squinting at those little buttons to record Lawrence Welk reruns. ”You can do it from your easy chair,” said a company spokesman.
– Cadaco, a Chicago-based manufacturer of board games, has come out with large-print versions of its Bingo, Poker-Keeno and other games.
– Random House announced last month that for the first time it would publish large-type editions of new books by John le Carre, Donald Trump, Lou Grizzard, Robert Ludlum and other ”big-name commercial powerhouse authors”
like Judith Kranz and John Updike, according to spokeswoman Annik La Farge.
Once upon a time, large-print books were oversized, making them unwieldy for readers and bookstores alike. But La Farge said that Dell, Bantam, Random House and other major publishing houses have developed thin but opaque paper that allows for normal (6-by-9-inch) volumes whose pages don`t feel flimsy.
A spokeswoman for B. Dalton Co., the nation`s largest chain of bookstores, said that its stores stock the large-print books on shelves alongside the regular-print books, but that it is considering segregating them into large-print sections.
”This age wave is happening,” La Farge said. ”There is an enormous market segment for whom large print is a real service.”
Although you might not notice your eyes are going until middle age, they actually began to change back in grammar school. If you have normal sight, your ability to focus up-close started to decline at age 10, when you could
(if you wanted to) focus on frogs and arithmetic problems just 3 1/2 inches away.
At 17, your resistance to glare took a turn for the worse. It diminishes by half every 12 years, so that at 29 you`re twice as sensitive to oncoming headlights as you were when you got your first driver`s license.
On average, visual acuity-the ability to pick out details-improves slightly between ages 20 and 40. But by 50, it, too, is declining steadily; by 60, visual acuity is about 75 percent of what it was at age 20.
Americans over 50 buy 43 percent of all domestic cars, according to Anthony Yanick, senior safety engineer for GM. But marketing to them is tricky business. ”Older people don`t want an older person`s car,” said Yanick in a recent interview. ”Most think of themselves as 10 or 15 years younger than they really are.”
So the automaker is introducing its new ”head-up display” dashboard in its 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Pontiac Gran Prix. The display projects a constant digital speed onto the windshield, along with a low-fuel symbol and turn signals.
Certain Cadillac models now have ”electrochromic” rear-view mirrors that automatically mute reflection so that at dusk drivers can see more in the rear-view than just headlights.
GM also offers hand-held remote controls that fit on key chains and allow drivers to unlock the doors or trunk. ”On dark nights many elderly may have difficulty inserting keys into door locks because they can`t see objects clearly,” Yanik said.
