What do blind people see?

Not all blind people see the same.

My grandmother became legally blind late in life. She told me she saw everything really blurry. She could see that a person was sitting next to her and she could see the color of their shirt, but she couldn't see the face at all.

My sister used to work for a blind man who said he sees all white. Some blind people see all black, some can see shadows, some don't see anything at all. It varies between individuals and usually has something to do with the cause of their blindness and whether they were born like that or became blind later in life.

There are degrees of differences in " blindness". Some people are deemed legally blind , who still have some sight and see colours and detail, although it may become more fuzzy as the amount of sight you have diminishes.

Stats from the CNIB(Canadian Institute for the Blind) show that only about 2 per cent of blind people are actually totally blind and without sight. The other 98 per cent approximately have some sight albeit it limited.

Being blind is as difficult as you make it . If you've been born blind since birth, you learn to adapt to not seeing or seeing very little. Many older visually impaired or legally blind people attended regular schools and were not allowed to learn braille because they had too much sight.

I am legally blind since birth due to congenital cataracts and nystagmus.

Not all people are born blind . As the population ages some folks get macular degeneration . Retinitis pigmentosa can be a diabetes related blindness . The National Federation of the Blind has material helping people understand blindness. Kenneth Jernigan was the founder and he wrote books like " What color is the sun ?" Some people lose their vision through accidents . Either way it can be devastating .

It depends on the degree of blindness (some people can be partially blind, not all are completely blind) and the age at which the blindness was acquired. If a person is partially blind they may be able to use large type books from the local library. If they're completely blind, they wouldn't be able to do that. People who are completely blind would use Braille books or books in audio (CDs or cassette tapes).

Depending on when a person became blind, they may have memories of sighted life - if they weren't born blind. Whether or not they were born blind, you can use common descriptions for things like color, and most blind people - even those who were blind from birth - understand it. (green like grass or blue like the sky or orange like a poppy, things like that).

A star for a question that was just asked a few days ago?

Different blind people see and experience blindness differently. Read the words of Helen Keller.

Legally blind means that the person has impaired vision and not that they cannot see at all. Macular degeneration has robbed a person of the central cone of vision. My father-in-law used to seem that he was staring off into the distance but his limited vision only permitted him to look at someone through the corners of his eyes. People who are totally blind see through the mind's eye and may actually be able to see things that the sighted find imperceptible.

The Muse

It depends on the character of their blindness. If a person is blind from birth then have no concept of color - so they can not say what they see in terms of color.

If they have acquired blindness they might have lost all their vision and see black - or they might still see shadows.

Certain kinds of blindness means you can't see the center of your vision field and others you can see the center but not much to your right or left.

Other kinds of blindness you can see far away but nothing up close or vice versa.

Instead of the world looking like anything - it feels, smells, tastes, and sounds like what it is.

i have a friend who is blind and she explained to me that she can't see or doesn't know what the color black is, but she can see shadows. Like if you closed your eyes and put your hand over you eyes you can sense something but you can't see anything. Her other senses are better than mine....for obvious reasons.

paint spot on one pair of goggles

and then paint another goggle black and put line through the paint

another goggles one a tiny hole

and your get an idea what some blind people see.

I'm not completely blind, but I am legally blind (about 20/2800ish with correction), and I can assure you that my scotoma (blind spots) are NOT black.

It's nothing. It's not anything at all. It's not black or gray or green. It's nothing. just like the nothing of trying to see behind your head or the nothing of trying to see out of your field of vision. It simply doesn't exist.