That person is just totally misinterpreting. The term doesn’t refer to the visual that the subject presents to others, but rather the acuity of the vision of the subject. So they’re twisting the term and getting offended over their own misunderstanding

I've been advised to use "vision impaired".

I just tell people I'm blind and leave it at that. Life's far too short.

An impairment is generally a weakening or diminishing of something. We can say that doing certain drugs, drinking alcohol, and depriving ourselves of sleep impair our judgement and reaction times. So if we consider legal blindness to be at the line of 20/200 in the US, then anything under that is an visual impairment. You could even say that without glasses, your vision is impaired, because it is a reduction or diminishing of vision as compared to what is normal for you.

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People just want to be offended and have that spot light on themselves. Life's too short for that shit. I tell people I'm blind even though visual impaired is more correct. It's the same reason we just say, "fine, thanks", when someone asks how you're doing. They are just accustomed to the social construct and don't want your life story. So, unless someone wants more - and I'm happy to elaborate in such cases - I just say I'm blind. It's close enough at any rate. My usable vision is not good for much of anything really.

It's only considered offensive in Australia (see item 20 on this list for the rationale): https://www.bca.org.au/history/

I think this is another example of knowing your audience. If you’re appealing to a global market, don’t use visually impaired. I’m not in Australia, I’m in New Zealand but I also agree that visually impaired implies to me that there’s something wrong with the way you look.
If someone was trying to market a product to me claiming I am a visually impaired person, I would probably not buy the product. It’s no different from terms about race that may be acceptable in some countries but not others. So, it all depends on how much the company wants international business.
That said, I would dispute that visually impaired is a term that enjoys universal acceptance in the United States. The last US company I worked for had a style guide, and their preference after consultation was to use the term blind to describe someone who couldn’t see, and low vision for those with...well...low vision.

So I have a few local blind friends and we have adopted the term "blinks"

Then again we also call ourselves four blind mice sometimes so what do we know?

No what the hell. I am visually imapired. The best way to describe myself is this, I’ll always use this.

I'm am "visually impaired" and I find this offensive

I think there are blind people who don't like "visually impaired" and prefer "blind" much like there are deaf people who don't like being called "hearing impaired".

I think it was meant to be a joke. “Visually impaired” as in the person’s looks are bad (eg visually unpleasant, ugly)

Versus “visually impaired” as in “does not see well”

Not a great joke, for sure, but I can’t believe anyone would say that and be actually serious. More likely someone trying to make a joke about today’s “outrage culture” that has to find something that offends them at least once a day!

I was a member of a Facebook group where a lady insisted we change the group name for exactly this reason. She refused to listen to anyone stating that here in the United States, visually impaired is not an offensive term. She ended up leaving the group over the issue. She was Australian and she insisted that this term was offensive there. I’m not sure if that’s true or not.

‎This is a FB post from a friend: Just a personal thought this morning: when I hear the term "visually impaired," I think of limitations placed on one's life due to the lack of eyesight or vision; however, when the individual learns that it is acceptable to be blind and utilize the tools and propper training, they are not impaired. This is why I do not consider myself visually impaired. I am blind and it doesn't matter what I can see or not see. I have the tools and propper training to live the life I want independently and for that I am greatful!
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(two finger double tap to interact with this post), 9:01AM, ‎Sent

Visually impaired, simply means that the vision, eyesight, is lacking.