the only useful eyes in our household belong to our daughter (nearly 9 now).
I will post a longer comment when I've had time to thin'k, but as a totally blind couple, we're all happy, sane, productive and reasonably comfortable with ourselves I think.

We never wanted kids, happily it is something we very much agree about, but honestly, I would not be that confident in my ability to look after a child. The reason I can't see is not one that would be passed on genetically so any kid of mine would be fully sighted and just from a safety point of view they would obviously be able to run rings around me if they wanted to. I know people do it and that's great but I would be terrified. A young kid, not understanding danger and not really understanding that I can't see to stop it happening, might easily do something crazy, and I would then feel horribly responsible. That's just not a situation I ever want to be in so frankly even if I desperately wanted to do it I don't think I could. It's bad enough being responsible for myself.

My wife suddenly lost all vision when our children were 15, 11 and 10. Our oldest grew up very quickly to help fill some gaps while mama went from being a student at Blind & Visual Services to being a teacher there. Lately she has been babysitting the grandchildren on weekends (before this whole pandemic thing) with minimal assistance. I believe it all depends on how much support is available to make things easier, but it's doable without. Changing, feeding, bathing, etc isn't an issue for her, but we will childproof the area beforehand with gates, cabinet locks, putting items out of reach, just in case.

I can't give you any advise on being a blind parent.

but I am the son of a blind father.

So this is from my experience growing up with a blind parent. Some of the low lights and High lights but feel free to ask me anything if you want.

It's not easy at times we can be little ratbags.

Moving furniture around after arguments so he would hit them or my favourite was rubbing the dots off braille book to change them to naughty words.

Yes I was a total ratbags at times.

But my dad would forgive me sit me down we would talk it out.
He taught me to read and write in braille.
He taught me how to navigate in the dark to this day I can run about my house with the lights off much to my grandkids dismay.

He did just about everything a normal sighted dad would do.

Yes including how to drive much to the police officers horror when he stopped us.

Playing catch was harder but we both learnt.. bells in ball.

3 leged races were interesting.

And never ever challenge a blind man or the son of a blind man to a game of blind man's buff his hearing is exceptional. And he taught me to use my senses.

And or any other game were you would be blindfolded I had an unfair advantage thanks to my dad.

I learnt how to study, play board games, card games, use computers when they were first coming out and both of us would be testers for products now used everyday by other blind people around the world.

I remember meeting professor lessie Kay the guy who invented the sonic glasses as he would bring newly developed products to my dad to test.

Spending hours reading University textbooks onto tape so my dad could attend University

Meeting with language professors so we could record them speaking in different languages so a company called dolphin could produce speech chips in languages other than english

This blind man taught me respect responsible and never be afraid to try something new
And if I needed help never be afraid to ask.

And the best part.

He is my adopted father.

Little tip.
As a kid I thought if I held my breath and hugged the wall he would not notice me.

Every time he would walk down the hall stop Infront of me hand would come out with a single finger and he would turn to face me poke me in the tummy and say.

Put those X amount of biscuits back.

And everytime I would have X amount of biscuits.


So in conclusion .... You will make an awesome dad.

I'm sighted and my kids/ grandkids still got LEGOs up their noses lol. It makes no difference sighted or not on being a parent.

Now in this I have said things that will to some identity who I am and who my dad is. Please any who reads this keep that information to yourself.

I’m going to give the perspective from a Daughter of a Blind Parent. My father began losing his vision when he was in his late twenties. He has Retinitis Pigmentosa. Honestly, it’s very difficult. Although my father is able to accomplish some tasks on his own, such as listen to audio books, run a Facebook page. He is very dependent on my help for technology. I’ve been helping my father since I was a child with church related things (Since he is a Pastor) I’m an adult now, and my father still very much depends on my help for a number of things. It’s really exhausting. I don’t ever see myself having a family in the future, having to take care of him since I was a child is a burden no parent should place on their children.

My father never also went to counseling to deal with his emotions to deal with his loss of sight or anger issues. It warms my heart to see him excited about new projects and goals, but at the same time, I’m always expected to help him in every project. If I refuse to do so, I’m seen as an ungrateful daughter. I’m honestly exhausted and burnt out.