24 Male from the UK recently registered Severely Sight Impaired. The biggest part of it all was before finding out i was losing my sight, I had my life all planned out. I was at college, had friends and a girlfriend, drove motorcycles. The losing of my sight turned it all upside down and I had to re-find my way, You find out who real friends are or if you have any real friends, things like jumping on the bike to go grab a coffee are all things of the past, family bonds are strengthened when you have to rely on them for nearly everything, and trying to find new hobbies that i can enjoy and can actually do is more difficult. Its all the little things that were so easy that get to me personally. Telling people apart from their faces, Not spending 10 mins trying to read someones writing with a magnifier, a 2 min journey in a car to get food, not having to walk in the rain because a journey is too short to warrant calling a taxi, the public not calling you out for having a cane and getting out a mobile phone to call someone for a lift. the delivery guy joking that isn't it too dark to have sunglasses on in the house. well maybe this ended up a bit of a rant but oh well.

I’m 41, married, and live in theUS. Experienced severe vision loss at 38 and my life has changed a lot. I used to be an avid reader, videogamer, and enjoyed shooting firearms and astronomy. I took disability retirement from my job in public safety because I can no longer drive and do other parts of my former job. A lot of thing are harder now, but I’ve adapted well and feel like I live a fulfilling life. I try to keep busy and do things around the house, and my family has been able to travel a bit because I’m not tied down to an on-call job any longer.

Right now I live in a rural area and love country living, but I’m considering moving to an urban area for access to public transportation. I’m also ready to get back to work and I'm considering law school for disability law or pursuing my teaching certificate,

Like everyone else said it's the transport thing. There is no uber in the town where I live, but there is in the town where I mainly work and I spend crazy amounts of money on uber and cabs. I refuse to not do stuff so I just pay for it and it is annoying. I am lucky enough to be able to do that and I know a lot of blind people aren't.

What makes people laugh is when I say being blind is incredibly inconvenient. That's what it is. It's work. It's a job I work seven days a week, never get paid for, can't quit and never get a day off. What would be nicest to have is the feeling of a day off, where I can do all the stuff I want to do and not have it feel like just working around the inconvenience is a job in itself, that I have to do on top of my real job.

You can sort of award yourself a partial day off by just not doing anything. Sitting there looking around youtube is low impact but then you feel like a loser for not making the most of life. People who hit sight loss of course have a horrible time at first, I know I did, but in the long term it's what I've been talking about. It's a grind.

Wow, this got more personal than I meant. But there it is.

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The biggest thing is that I can't drive myself, so if I need to get anywhere, I either have to walk or figure out how to get a ride. My town doesn't have any public transportation, taxis, or much else. There's a shared-ride taxi thing from the county, but it's next to impossible to get a same-day ride.

I personally think that the definition of legal blindness in the US is way too simple and unfair, because a vision disability may manifest in ways that, in my opinion, are far more disabling than the loss of acuity, and yet are not even considered issues by law. For example: someone with 10% of acuity and no other issues is far better off than someone with 10% of contrast or light perception, and I say this from personal experience, as I led a fairly normal life with 10% of acuity which went downhill once I started losing contrast and light perception.

Legally blind male, current graduate student, independent living. My daily life is pretty similar in what I do, but a bit different in how I do it. Being legally blind puts some constraints on things that sometimes require a few get around.

For one thing, I can't drive. I mostly travel by walking (if my destination is within a ~20 minute walk), public transit (bus, train, etc.), and using Uber. Not driving makes a few things difficult, like groceries/shopping in general. I use an app called Instacart (think uber for grocery delivery) and Amazon to buy most things. It also limits how far I can live from school/work and I usually try to live within walking distance (preferably around 10-15 minutes away).

There are a few other things, but I'd have to say that has one of the bigger impacts on day-to-day life.

I am totally blind since about 8 but have always been very low low vision . I find my life is almost like everyone else besides the circadian rhythm stuff. but I also wonder if that’s my propensity to be distracted. it’s a quarter till 2 in the morning and I still haven’t ran out of things to do haha! I keep plenty busy.

I find it depends on how well adjusted you are as a blind person, as a very well adjusted and normalized and integrated blind person I act and do things and live just like you, and john doe, like anyone else. I am going to do my stuff and go to a meet up socionics group tomorrow actually. So like everyone else, I am going to take the trains and buses there. so not very different at all.

I have about a billion and 5 hobbies just who I am nothing to do with being blind, read avidly like anyone else and very scholarly books too, been getting more in. to self-development and typology. serve on a committee on disabilities at a university where I attend, attend classes like everyone else. I study political science. I suppose being blind has me being more aware of disabilities and blindness and I am an ardent activist on that front and help out in those efforts.

take the trains and buses just about everywhere, know my city, county, and the counties adjacent well. went on vacation alone and went to five states in 2 weeks and saw a lot of historical and political structures.

I would say I am a very social person and veryn extroverted, and also very intelligent, most people who knows me agree. I’ve asked for adjectives and it all sort of all involved that.

but yeah, I would say I am pretty normal.

I would say that blindness is a spectrum. some people are more and some people are less well adjusted. and can do things. some are more able and less able, some more brave and adventurous then others. some very independent and normalized like myself, and some very not so much.

maybe the only thing that’s different for me is I am very slow at school and work and read slower and so don’t and can’t work so I just focus on school at the moment.

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Life isnt that different. The only differences are is the way we navigate and function and get around things. My personal biggest difference is my perception like my philosophy of the world we live in. The shift is huge.