Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Is blindness a big inconvenience for you? (self.Blind)
submitted by siriuslylupin6
I am totally blind and I feel sometimes blindness gets in my way. What if I want to go for a midnight drive? Can’t do that! I am totally blind. What if I too want to own a motorcycle and drive at top speeds down the road? Oh I am blind can’t do that!!!!!! What if I want to do a scenic drive by myself across the country. Oh I am blind can’t do that. What if I want to get a pilot license and fly planes. Oh I am blind can’t do that. what if I want to own a truck just to drive it around town noisily and look suave. What if I want to do something more hands on like fast construction work or carpentry oh wait. I am blind.what if I want to travel and appreciate sight seeing? Oh I am blind can’t do that. The list goes on.
Anyone feel this way who is totally blind or has been for most of their life.
Anyone feel this way who is totally blind or has been for most of their life.
mdizak 11 points 2y ago
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We all only have a finite number of heart beats and hours during this short journey called life, and we all write our own book of experiences. No two books are the same, and due to the truly vast number of experiences available that this life offers us, no book will ever contain all experiences possible. Every book contains experiences others wish they had, but couldn't because there's only a finite number of pages.
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Don't leave some pages in your book blank, just because being blind didn't allow you to experience some things. Fill those pages with different experiences, fulfilling and joyous experiences that others wish they could have written in their own books, but couldn't due to the finite number of pages available.
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PS. I've been totally blind myself for a little over 4 years now.
We all only have a finite number of heart beats and hours during this short journey called life, and we all write our own book of experiences. No two books are the same, and due to the truly vast number of experiences available that this life offers us, no book will ever contain all experiences possible. Every book contains experiences others wish they had, but couldn't because there's only a finite number of pages.
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Don't leave some pages in your book blank, just because being blind didn't allow you to experience some things. Fill those pages with different experiences, fulfilling and joyous experiences that others wish they could have written in their own books, but couldn't due to the finite number of pages available.
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PS. I've been totally blind myself for a little over 4 years now.
ukifrit 2 points 2y ago
now that's some interesting thoughts. A lot of sighted people can't drive for various reasons. When you realise that, with or without disabilities, no person can do everything life gets a bit easier to deal with, because you stop thinking you need to do certain stuff to be a valid human.
edit? This is not to say we don’t face difficulties due to inaccessibility and other factors.
edit? This is not to say we don’t face difficulties due to inaccessibility and other factors.
niamhweking 2 points 2y ago
I was just thinking this. There are plenty of things sighted people will never do either, due to height, weight, finances, strenght, place of residence etc. When my daughter was diagnosed the first thing my husband said was, she'll never drive, but I've a sibling who has never driven, never had an interest in driving etc. I mean OP could learn to drive, take private lessons on private land where insurance isn't an issue. Like does OP really really want to be a pilot or are they just saying it cos it's not an option? Take flight simulator lessons. Most people dont achieve all possible things
ukifrit 2 points 2y ago
Exactly. We sometimes feel bad for not being able to do stuff we aren’t even interested on. Not that I think inaccessibility is acceptable.
siriuslylupin6 [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Interesting perspective. For sure. I’ve never seen very well but I know these things must be fun. I have seen a little but yeah....
I can do a lot and do but there’s still real limits because of a lack of vision like no blind person however capable can fly a plane or anything I listed but yeah.
But that’s true. I suppose......
I can do a lot and do but there’s still real limits because of a lack of vision like no blind person however capable can fly a plane or anything I listed but yeah.
But that’s true. I suppose......
ukifrit 2 points 2y ago
I actually think flying is one of the most possible things to be done by a blind person. We only need it to be made accessible.
Laser_Lens_4 3 points 2y ago
I'm just a blind idiot on the internet, but from what I've watched, I don't think so. Taxiing, takeoff, and often landing are visual things. Landing is often automated using an instrument landing system, but smaller airports sometimes don't have the equipment. In this case, you have to use special runway lights to make sure you're on a correct glide slope. Taxiing and and takeoff are always manual activities. Once at cruising altitude, I imagine a blind person would have an easy time operating autopilot systems if the software was made accessible. It's a matter of programming waypoints and altitudes. However, if the plane has to use excessive force to maintain a course, the autopilot will disconnect. When flying manually, there are a lot of parameters to be aware of: airspeed, angle of attack, engine status, fuel levels, altitude, position, and that's not even taking into account operating radios. Frequency changes are common as you move through airpsaces controlled by different groups. On larger planes, there are also activities to perform while in the air that aren't strictly related to flying. Airline pilots often have briefings and will communicate with teams on the ground. Someone without vision could only likely either fly the plane or operate the radio. Basically, there's a lot of things to do beyond staring out a window, and the bandwidth of ears is extremely limited. Also, you'd be fucked in an emergency unless there was someone to take over.
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Take my comment with a grain of salt. I'm just a silly blind lady who watches a lot of Wendover productions and Mini Air Crash Investigation. Maybe I'm completely wrong.
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Take my comment with a grain of salt. I'm just a silly blind lady who watches a lot of Wendover productions and Mini Air Crash Investigation. Maybe I'm completely wrong.
ukifrit 1 points 2y ago
the parameters on air could be translated to sound, so you would need training like every pilot. Landing and these stuff on the ground are trickier to think on how to make it work, but the world is large, someone will bring a good idea at some point.
I know all of that goes beyond technology and training. I just think it's good to imagine a world made for more than able bodied people to live and do all sorts of stuff..
I know all of that goes beyond technology and training. I just think it's good to imagine a world made for more than able bodied people to live and do all sorts of stuff..
siriuslylupin6 [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Yeah, true it would be very interesting if possible.
ukifrit 1 points 2y ago
autopilot is already a thing.
DrillInstructorJan 7 points 2y ago
It was once seriously proposed that I could go for a ride in a jet fighter, although I suspect that was only because it was such a completely crazy plan that nobody had thought to make a rule banning it. In the end I couldn't but only because of reasons nothing to do with being blind. It can be done!
But on a more serious note, a big inconvenience? It's like the second job you hate, can't quit and have to do every waking second. Sight seeing doesn't bother me but the amazing amount of planning and work you have to put into travel does. I get quite annoyed by sighted people who never travel, it's like squandering all those opportunities.
Of course it gets in the way, of course it's inconvenient, it's a pain in the ass. I should say, after a while that's about all it is, it's a pain in the ass. But it is certainly that.
But on a more serious note, a big inconvenience? It's like the second job you hate, can't quit and have to do every waking second. Sight seeing doesn't bother me but the amazing amount of planning and work you have to put into travel does. I get quite annoyed by sighted people who never travel, it's like squandering all those opportunities.
Of course it gets in the way, of course it's inconvenient, it's a pain in the ass. I should say, after a while that's about all it is, it's a pain in the ass. But it is certainly that.
MrsMammaGoose 3 points 2y ago
I love that: “It’s like a second job you hate, can’t quit, and have to do every second of every day.”
ukifrit 6 points 2y ago
being poor is more of an inconvinient than being blind for most of the time.
FrankenGretchen 4 points 2y ago
Thank you! This is the truth came to say.
ColonelKepler 5 points 2y ago
Yes, totally. I hope I don't come off as rude, but I feel like some people here may be missing the point. It's not about wanting to "do everything", feeling like other experiences aren't valid or dwelling on what you can't do. Some of us are just more spontaneous, or get tired of having to find different/inconvenient ways of doing absolutely everything, all the time. I'd give anything to just be able to operate smoothly in the world, if that makes sense. For example, being able to walk into a large building you've never visited before, and within seconds just *know* how to get where you're trying to go because there are obvious signs, stairs/elevators, etc. Of course we (totally blind people) can figure all that out, and it may not even take long in the grand scheme of things, but that shit adds up, and it's extremely obnoxious. Also, totally relate about the midnight drives! I'd love to do that, or just go running/strolling/stargazing by myself late at night. I have serious wanderlust, but I don't know how to satisfy it without a huge amount of stress and requiring a level of energy I just don't have.
DrillInstructorJan 2 points 2y ago
Yes. The operating smoothly without having to second guess everything you do every day. I feel like I should be awarded an extra 20 years on my working life to compensate, but somehow I don't think I'm going to get that...
siriuslylupin6 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Yes!!!!!! I think you get it!!!!! Totally agree with you!!!!!
zersiax 4 points 2y ago
It's really the whole glass half full vs glass half empty mentality. You can't drive a car. Also means you'll never have to, which means you won't ever be the designated driver to not drink at a party.
You can't go for a midnight drive ...go for a midnight stroll then.
You can't fly a plane for a job, good for you, means you might actually have regular hours. You can't be an astronaut which means you won't have any chance of coming down with an acute case of death by space.
In the meantime, you can do a whole lot of things. Like making music? Like computers? Like working with people? Loads of careers in those arbitrary groups :) As for crafting, that is harder but could certainly be a fun hobby if nothing else? :)
You can't go for a midnight drive ...go for a midnight stroll then.
You can't fly a plane for a job, good for you, means you might actually have regular hours. You can't be an astronaut which means you won't have any chance of coming down with an acute case of death by space.
In the meantime, you can do a whole lot of things. Like making music? Like computers? Like working with people? Loads of careers in those arbitrary groups :) As for crafting, that is harder but could certainly be a fun hobby if nothing else? :)
Only1lunatica 4 points 2y ago
I mean if I drive a car or any vehicle I'll kill someone and not killing people via vehicle isn't really an inconvenience but it's good
siriuslylupin6 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
If you could see then you wouldn’t obviously haha!
Only1lunatica 3 points 2y ago
I can see, I'm just visually impaired annoyingly uniquely so but I don't need a cane or zoom text yet I still don't drive, also car accidents kill most people every year, it's no laughing matter.
are all your peers at the getting drivers licenses age?
are all your peers at the getting drivers licenses age?
siriuslylupin6 [OP] 2 points 2y ago
No I am in my late 20s but have a very adventurous and impulsive nature makes it so much harder during the pandemic in the first place. But also some of this stuff does sound cool.
niamhweking 1 points 2y ago
https://www.traveleyes-international.com/
Only1lunatica 1 points 2y ago
do you try out things or do you just write them off immediately with the "oh can't do that" mindset?
FrankenGretchen 2 points 2y ago
I don't have enough pointy fingers to direct at all the sighted people who've killed people while driving their cars. In fact, I've never heard a story where it was a blind person driving that caused a death.
siriuslylupin6 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Well there’s a lot of things that can cause accidents though. Driving and looking and seeing is a sensory thing it’s kind of neat.
FrankenGretchen 2 points 2y ago
I don't spend a lot of time trying to live in someone else's life. You seem to be choosing to be envious of things you simply cannot have rather than accept that and live the life you can. Also, idealizing the Sighted Life is ridiculous.
Driving not only requires sight, but attention, coordination, years of learning to do it safely, the job to afford the car, insurance, maintenance, toll fees and a place to keep your car. That job has to have benefits so you can have the time to go do all this magical sightseeing, too.
You are building an absolute mental barricade to your life by focusing only on things you can't do while ignoring the downfalls of those activities. This kind of fantasy living is harmful.
Driving not only requires sight, but attention, coordination, years of learning to do it safely, the job to afford the car, insurance, maintenance, toll fees and a place to keep your car. That job has to have benefits so you can have the time to go do all this magical sightseeing, too.
You are building an absolute mental barricade to your life by focusing only on things you can't do while ignoring the downfalls of those activities. This kind of fantasy living is harmful.
Criptedinyourcloset 3 points 2y ago
Oh yeah, I totally know how you feel. Sometimes it feels like an inconvenience as well. I’ve always wanted to join the US military but oh great, I am blind, I cannot join the US military. I also for a long time wanted to be a welder, but I recently had to except the fact that my vision will not allow me to do that. Carpentry is something you could do though, I know a lot of really good blind woodworkers. But yeah, totally know how you’re feeling, it is so annoying.
mehgcap 2 points 2y ago
While I agree with everyone saying to not focus on the bad, and to stay positive, I do get where you're coming from. I'm not into travel, but there's a LOT I wish I could do. Even something as simple as zipping down to a store on a bicycle is out of reach, because I have to find a sighted person willing to guide me. Dealing with inaccessible websites or programs, having to get sighted help to learn a new piece of gear, and not being able to handle papers (mail, paperwork at a doctor's office, etc) are the things that come to mind immediately as maddening inconveniences I'd banish in a heartbeat if I could. I'm at peace with being blind, so I'm not angry or sad about this stuff all the time. Still, I'd take sight if it were offered, because yep, sometimes being blind is pretty frustrating.
munchhie 2 points 2y ago
It's not the worst thing in my life. A bit inconvenient, but not really. There are other things for me to stress over.
Fridux 2 points 2y ago
I try to ride with the tide, meaning that I go along with the circumstances and focus on getting busy and having fun doing what I can still do, ignoring what I can't. I don't feel like I'm missing out on things because, at the end of the day, my time was completely consumed, so even if I had sight I wouldn't have time for anything else, or worse, I'd be wasting that time away procrastinating like during the 6 years that I spent playing World of Warcraft.
I didn't always have this mentality. After going totally blind all I wanted was to die due to the boredom that I felt, but once I realized that what I truly loved to do was still doable totally blind, and that I actually had the skill to do it even with this condition, my days became fulfilling again.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally fine with being blind, I just accept and am at peace with it, which is the only thing I can do at the moment because I no longer want to die. If the chance of regaining sight was offered to me I'd take it in a heartbeat as I miss the freedom that sight provides, but I cannot say that my life is bad as it is.
I didn't always have this mentality. After going totally blind all I wanted was to die due to the boredom that I felt, but once I realized that what I truly loved to do was still doable totally blind, and that I actually had the skill to do it even with this condition, my days became fulfilling again.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally fine with being blind, I just accept and am at peace with it, which is the only thing I can do at the moment because I no longer want to die. If the chance of regaining sight was offered to me I'd take it in a heartbeat as I miss the freedom that sight provides, but I cannot say that my life is bad as it is.
FlamingWhisk 2 points 2y ago
I still have some sight but am legally blind. I really wanted to be able to drive. Just put music on and do the back country roads. Yes I have friends that would and do take me. But then I’m always the “guest” so can’t be asking them to stop at every road side stand.
Day to day I’m always tripping, scraping or banging into furniture. I’m always sporting half a dozen good bruises. Gave myself a black eye once (didn’t see the shovel handle and banged my face real good as I tripped on a stair going up I might add). Couple days later it was all purple and back. Couple days after that the cops showed. Neighbour had called the police thinking I had been battered. Nope. Just me pretending I can still see everything
What kills me the most is I can’t use my degree. I’m an art historian with specialty in restoration. This is the first year I’ve realized I can’t do that anymore. At 52 it’s hard and honestly kinda scary that I have to figure out a new occupation to support myself and kids.
I guess the biggest inconvenience is lack of choice, options and opportunities
Day to day I’m always tripping, scraping or banging into furniture. I’m always sporting half a dozen good bruises. Gave myself a black eye once (didn’t see the shovel handle and banged my face real good as I tripped on a stair going up I might add). Couple days later it was all purple and back. Couple days after that the cops showed. Neighbour had called the police thinking I had been battered. Nope. Just me pretending I can still see everything
What kills me the most is I can’t use my degree. I’m an art historian with specialty in restoration. This is the first year I’ve realized I can’t do that anymore. At 52 it’s hard and honestly kinda scary that I have to figure out a new occupation to support myself and kids.
I guess the biggest inconvenience is lack of choice, options and opportunities
BlindFuryC 2 points 2y ago
FWIW, I'm sure I've heard of blind people flying planes and helicopters. Granted their co-pilots are normally sighted, but having a co-pilot is fairly par for the course even for sighted pilots. Well, maybe not for helicopters, not sure. But it's something I'd love to try. And I'm sure more physical things like carpentry and metal work, etc, some blind people do too.
I agree that it's a question on your perspective. And I completely get you. I have those days where I just think being blind is so rubbish that I just don't know what I did to pull such a rubbish card. It does lock off some few things to you and just makes a bunch of stuff harder. I'm sure even the most optimistic blind person would agree. But, you play with the hand you're given. And you can still do a lot and achieve a lot. As in genuinely have a good life and make a difference, have a family, a good job, make people happy, and be happy in return, and probably more but you get my jist. I've not achieved all of those yet but I believe I'm doing alright. As alright as anyone's doing, sighted or otherwise.
I hope you can see past the inconvenience and see that there's still a great many options open to you.
I agree that it's a question on your perspective. And I completely get you. I have those days where I just think being blind is so rubbish that I just don't know what I did to pull such a rubbish card. It does lock off some few things to you and just makes a bunch of stuff harder. I'm sure even the most optimistic blind person would agree. But, you play with the hand you're given. And you can still do a lot and achieve a lot. As in genuinely have a good life and make a difference, have a family, a good job, make people happy, and be happy in return, and probably more but you get my jist. I've not achieved all of those yet but I believe I'm doing alright. As alright as anyone's doing, sighted or otherwise.
I hope you can see past the inconvenience and see that there's still a great many options open to you.
ukifrit 1 points 2y ago
my grandfather makes canes and other metal and wood crafting and he’s totally blind. You only need someone to teach you to use the tools the proper way.
viciousSnowFlake 1 points 2y ago
Makes work really hard for me (software engineer). Reading has gotten increasingly difficult some I'm constantly second guessing myself. I get head/eye aches after a few hours of reading code and ny that time I'm emotionally drained as well. So work just fucking sucks.
siriuslylupin6 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Hmm. I see maybe you’ll learn to adapt and stuff.
Chopstixtmfw 1 points 2y ago
I think a half of my life that's in the woods on a mountain on a trail on a river and a kayak or a boat nope not a problem at all The times where I got to make money pay rent get to a storre basically can't
callmeratqueen 1 points 2y ago
I have a lot of usable vision left, and I think that's what makes things like driving and such feel so in reach when it isn't. I am just now learning about the things I cant do or have to do differently and I'm still going through that shock. Of course its obvious, but it hits a lot harder when there is confirmation. I hope that makes sense.
the-cat1513 1 points 2y ago
Leaving aside leisure activities such as practicing a specific sport, reading subtitles of series and movies, being able to play countless games to which I do not have access, going to a tourist place, driving at midnight just because ... etc, etc. The truth is that if. Blindness is a big problem for me.
My country is a third world country and therefore accessibility in general is very neglected, in addition, disabled people are still seen with many stereotypes that in other places have already been abandoned, but more importantly, without university studies for a blind person it is almost impossible to get a job.
As an example: Many people my age start to earn money as delivery drivers for online delivery apps or for restaurants, something that obviously I can't do. I know many people who managed to leave my country starting with that job, only with their mobile phone and a bicycle, or working for MCdonalls.
In short, yes. Blindness is a terrible problem for me and I wish I wasn't blind.
My country is a third world country and therefore accessibility in general is very neglected, in addition, disabled people are still seen with many stereotypes that in other places have already been abandoned, but more importantly, without university studies for a blind person it is almost impossible to get a job.
As an example: Many people my age start to earn money as delivery drivers for online delivery apps or for restaurants, something that obviously I can't do. I know many people who managed to leave my country starting with that job, only with their mobile phone and a bicycle, or working for MCdonalls.
In short, yes. Blindness is a terrible problem for me and I wish I wasn't blind.
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