In this blog post I am going to explain why I recommend getting a North Dakota Optometrist to complete a vision certification letter to submit to the North Dakota DMV in lieu of taking their vision test when obtaining or renewing a North Dakota Driver’s License, because of what I experienced recently.

When I was in elementary school I began wearing eyeglasses. Later, in high school, I began wearing contact lenses. Though my eyesight was better with contact lenses, there were some problems. My peripheral vision and consistent spacial reference (lack of distortion) was better wearing contact lenses, but contact lenses become progressively less clear with age, or when becoming dry, or getting dirty with sweat and other contaminants. Due to the aforementioned reasons, when wearing contact lenses, I almost always had worse vision in one eye or the other because of the less-than-perfect condition of a contact lens.

Ever since I was 15 years old and I first got my learner’s permit to drive in Florida, I usually had difficulty with one eye or the other when trying to pass my DMV eyesight test, mostly due to a contact lens being in poor condition. This was back before inexpensive, disposable contact lenses were available, when contact lenses were expensive and you needed to try to make each contact lens last an entire year. I went through this same eye test difficulty every four years in Florida, then in Arizona, and then in Idaho when renewing or changing my Driver’s License.

When I was about 45 years old, renewing my Idaho Driver’s License in a small town that wasn’t busy, I was a little more familiar with the women working in this Idaho DMV office because I had also been there for a motorcycle driver’s license test & endorsement, commercial driver’s license test & instruction permit, and concealed weapons permit. I was talking to these women explaining that because I wear contact lenses, they become less clear for different reasons, that I was always having trouble with the DMV eyesight test. One of these DMV women said that she had this same problem. She told me that some people just get a certification letter from their Optometrist stating that they meet the eyesight requirements.

Finally, in my early fifties, due to the severe allergies that I was having while working in North Dakota that affected my eyes, I stopped wearing contact lenses, and I began wearing eyeglasses again. I went to an Optometrist in Dickinson in April of 2023, to get a new up-to-date prescription for eyeglasses. During this exam, I became a little aware, that my right eye was not capable of being corrected to 20/20 as easily as my left eye was. When I received my new prescription eyeglasses, I found that I could see very well in my left eye, but not as well in my right eye, but I could see pretty well overall.

In May of 2023, I went to renew my Idaho Driver’s License with my new, up-to-date prescription eyeglasses. The eyesight test at the Idaho DMV involved looking into an optic viewer, in order to read off a single line of six black letters, such as “E O F L T Z”, once for the right eye, and once for the left eye. For my left eye, I was able to read off each of these letters with ease. For my right eye, I had to pause for a second, blink, pause, then I could read these letters correctly.

Unexpectedly this past summer, I had to sell my house in Idaho, and become a full-time resident of North Dakota. When it became time for me to renew my automobile insurance, using North Dakota as my primary residence, I needed to change my Idaho Driver’s License to a North Dakota Driver’s License. I had to send away for a certified copy of my Birth Certificate from Florida, before I could apply for a North Dakota Driver’s License, this was needed in addition to my Social Security Card and two items proving North Dakota residency, such as a lease agreement and a utility bill.

In December I made an appointment to change my Idaho Driver’s License to a North Dakota Driver’s License at the Dickinson Driver’s License Office, which operates through appointments only. To transfer a current Driver’s License from another state, there is no driving test or written test required, just provide the necessary documents and take a vision test.

The eyesight optic viewer device at the North Dakota DMV on the outside did not look much different than anything I had used in Florida, Arizona, or Idaho when renewing or changing my Driver’s License. However, when I looked through the viewer, I soon found out that it was much, much different and more complicated. It looked something like this:

1.  8987PXLE       7898XMNO       4789LXYO
2.  2988YXLE       7798XMNY        6782PXYY
3.  4984MXLE      8899LMNO       3489EXYO
4.  3987DXLE       6898ZMNO       4782TXYO
5.  8487YXLE       5898OMNO       3789YXYO

The problem I had, was that I could not see what was in the Center Column.  I could clearly see what was in the Left Column, and I could clearly see what was in the Right Column, but not the Center Column.  Did I automatically, immediately fail this eyesight test?  I didn’t know, I had no idea.  I could tell that something was supposed to be in the Center Column, maybe?

(After this ND DMV process was over.  I sat down outside and I tried to look up on the internet what this was.  Supposedly, the Left Column is just Left Eye, the Center Column is Both Eyes together, and the Right Column is just Right Eye.)

I was able to read what was in the Left Eye Column, and the Right Eye Column, but not the Center Column, it was like there was some kind of interference or obstruction in the way.  I didn’t know or understand what was going on.  I was confused.  Apparently, being able to read everything with the Left Eye only, and the Right Eye only, was good enough to prove that I could see out of both eyes with sufficient clarity.

Afterward, I spent 2-3 hours trying to understand what happened.  Why couldn’t I read the Center Column? On the websites Reddit and Quora, there were some people from around the United States who wrote about having a similar experience using the DMV eyesight optic test equipment.  One person could only see the first three out of four characters in the Left Column, Center Column, and Right Column.  Another person could only see the Left Column, the Center Column, but not the Right Column.  Both of these people said that they were frustrated, embarrassed, and humiliated, because they kept arguing with the DMV that they couldn’t see the fourth character in each column, or that they couldn’t see the third column at all.

Here are some links where people discuss this same thing happening to them with the DMV eyesight test optic viewer: https://www.reddit.com/r/optometry/comments/rlj2s1/couldnt_see_all_3_columns_simultaneously_during/  https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-read-the-DMV-eye-test-machine

From the written descriptions of what happened to other people, this indicated to me, that the way some people’s heads, faces, eyes are shaped or positioned, their line-of-sight does not line up correctly with the three fields-of-view in the optic viewer.  The optic dividers in the optic viewers that were meant to isolate the left eye and the right eye were blocking or interfering with people’s line-of-sight in different ways.  Another indication of this effect, was that some of these people wrote that shifting and repositioning their head in the device viewer allowed them to partly see or glimpse what they were missing when looking straight ahead like they were supposed to.

Note, some people wrote that they believed the DMV optic viewer lens may have been dirty, oily, or scratched.  This is a possibility.

After reading and re-reading experiences and input from many different people, trying to understand what was happening,  the best conclusion was given by one commenter, “These eyesight test devices at the DMV are so screwed up, that I realized a long time ago that I was better off going to my Optometrist a week before, and getting an Eyesight Certification Letter.”

In general, all 50 states allow a person to obtain a Driver’s License if they have at least 20/40 vision in one eye, with or without eyeglasses, regardless of how bad their second eye is, as tested by an Optometrist.  The State of North Dakota has a legal specification of eyesight requirements and restrictions to obtain a North Dakota Driver’s License:  https://www.ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/37-08-01.pdf

For me, my left eye corrects to about 20/20 and my right eye corrects to about 20/40 with eyeglasses.  So I asked myself why would I ever, ever want to go through the frustration, uncertainty, and embarrassment of struggling through my eyesight test using the optic viewer at the DMV, when I can just get an Eyesight Certification Letter from an Optometrist ahead of time?  Here is the North Dakota DMV Optometrist Certification Form:  https://www.dot.nd.gov/forms/sfn02342.pdf

***Note:  If you are the parent of a teenager who needs eyeglasses or contact lenses, who is about to get their first Driver’s License, don’t add to their anxiety and nervousness, and create an additional hurdle to passing their driving test by subjecting them to the DMV eyesight test device which may give them trouble.  If you are above 50 years of age and don’t adapt to new things easily and become frustrated, or if you are a person who absolutely can not afford to go without a Driver’s License, I strongly recommend getting the North Dakota DMV Optometrist Certification Form completed BEFORE your DMV Driver’s License appointment.  Most Optometrists in southwest North Dakota don’t have appointments available sooner than one month wait time.