Makes sense. It forces you to learn the actual skill rather than relying only on your residual vision because that’s what you’re used to. Of course when you are out of training you can use both.

Even if you have stable vision I’m sure you’ve experienced that how well you actually see can widely vary based on the lighting conditions or tiredness or other things.

I went through a training program that had that requirement. It really helped. The idea is to prepare you to live independently no matter your vision. It also levels the playing field, and means the trainers only need one curriculum. There's also the question of losing more vision. In my case they started focusing on low vision techniques at the end of the program.

Making everyone learn braille makes sense, too. I'm starting to read braille again 10 years after my time in training, and the braille course there helped.

1st a caveat - I'm sighted. I lurk here because I'm trying to plan an eye surgery and have been passively gathering ideas on how to run my phone etc during the recovery phase where I'm not supposed to read things.

As far as the blindfolded training - I've heard of it and it makes sense for progressive diseases. Think of retina pigmentosa. At the point where insurance and government assistance will pay for training and such, you still have usable sight.

Few months later you have less sight, have trouble getting financial assistance for more training, and have anxiety over not feeling independent. Even if another pass through training isn't expensive for you, it's a time waste and you'll persistently be wondering how well you'll do when your sight gets worse.

If you can be taught how to function in daily life fully blind, reading Braille properly with your fingertips and navigating city streets without being able to look - you can go on about your life without having to scramble for more training again and again as your disease progresses.

But I think it makes zero sense for people with non-progressive problems.

To give a bit of background, I'm blind and have been to the programs you're describing. I've also known a few people with residual vision who've trained the NFB way and those who have not.

Quite frankly, those who have been allowed to use their residual vision during training tend to struggle later once they've completed their program. They're less efficient at traveling, reading, and working. They tend to use their vision in ways which may be detrimental to their eye health over time e.g., they'd rather strain their eyes to read a book than use a screen reader.

On a more philosophical level, they tend to struggle with their blindness beyond the usual stressors that all of us face. They either act as though they're in some sort of special club because they're high partials, or they'll dig in their heels and refuse to further their training.

On the other hand, those who've gone through the sleep shade training and happen to have partial vision are far more self-aware. They'll use their residual vision but know when their eyes have had enough. They're much more confident, efficient, and much less likely to look down on their peers who are totals.

TLTR: Sleep shade training enables you to trust and depend on your other senses, making you much more skilled/confident in the long run.

Doesn't make sense to me. Why not train a visually impaired individual to make the best use of his or her remaining vision and then teach them skills to compensate for their impairment?

I've done this when I am taught some clients before. It is usually for one of two reasons... the client has a progressive disease and needs training for when they will lose significantly more vision, or their vision is much worse at night (nightblindness) and needs training specifically at night, but in an area where that isn't necessarily safe.

The progressive disease one is the one that comes up more often, often RP (although it has also happened to severe diabetic retinopathy before as well). In some cases, it also helps people adjust that total vision loss isn't the end of the world, and can (sometimes) help them cope with the fact they would lose more vision in the future.

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