Hello and welcome to /r/blind, the hub for blind and visually impaired redditors.

First of all, on behalf of all blind and visually impaired redditors, I would like to give a shout-out to the Reddit team and thank them for celebrating this Blindness Awareness Month with us.

We understand that several people have not heard of /r/Blind before seeing our ad in the Reddit sidebar. we hope to answer some of the questions that a lot of blind users of Reddit get from sighted people on our $1. if your question isn't answered there, feel free to ask us!

It is good to know that **blindness doesn't always mean not being able to see anything** and some blind people may have at least some vision. also, although the Snoo in our ad has a guide dog, white cane, dark glasses, and an eyepatch; **blindness is not always visible** and may not be obvious to the onlooker.

Read $1 by one of our mods to learn how advertising on Reddit benefits the blind redditors.

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Here are some facts about blindness and vision impairment:

According to CDC:

* Blindness is a severe vision impairment, not correctable by standard glasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery. It interferes with a person's ability to perform everyday activities.
* "Legal blindness" is defined as vision with best correction in the better eye worse than or equal to 20/200 or a visual field of less than 20 degrees in diameter. "Legal blindness" is significant in determining eligibility for disability benefits from the federal government, but it does not reflect the precise functional impairment and disability.
* "Vision impairment" (VI) is defined as having 20/40 or worse vision in the better eye even with eyeglasses. However, people with the slightest VI can experience challenges in their daily activities. For example, people with vision less than 20/40 cannot obtain an unrestricted driver's license in most states.

Blindness has many causes. In the United States, the leading causes are:

* Accidents or injuries to the surface of the eye (chemical burns or sports injuries)
* Diabetes
* Glaucoma
* Macular degeneration

The type of partial vision loss may differ, depending on the cause:

* With cataracts, vision may be cloudy or fuzzy, and bright light may cause glare.
* With diabetes, vision may be blurred, there may be shadows or missing areas of vision, and difficulty seeing at night.
* With glaucoma, there may be tunnel vision and missing areas of vision.
* With macular degeneration, the side vision is normal but the central vision is slowly lost.

Other causes of vision loss include:

* Blocked blood vessels
* Complications of premature birth (retrolental fibroplasia)
* Complications of eye surgery
* Lazy eye
* Optic neuritis
* Stroke
* Retinitis pigmentosa
* Tumors, such as retinoblastoma and optic glioma