It's just something said to keep blind kids from getting too depressed.

You also have a number of blind people who have mental delays along with their blindness. Think about how close the brain is to the eyes. No point in getting too real with those folks either.

The big trick is not to go around in mixed company repeating it.

Blindness is a disability, but that’s not a bad thing. I don’t know anyone who calls it an ability, as that makes it sound like blindness grants super powers. XD But your post reads like being disabled is a terrible thing, so you’re looking for that blindness super power. That’s just my impression, of course, and may not be accurate to what you meant.

I’ll reiterate, though. Disability isn’t bad. It means the world isn’t designed to accommodate us, as we’d be much less disabled if more accommodations for the blind were in place. Of course, yes, there are things I can’t do because I have low vision. But at the same time, there are plenty of things that one sighted person can do that another sighted person cannot. And there are some things I can do better because of my lack of sight like operate in the dark, and find lost objects.

I mean, I guess blindness is an ability is a thing you might tell kids, or people new to vision loss so they don’t feel as down on themselves. Disability still has such negative connotations in a lot of places. But for me, my sight just is, like being right-handed, and I adapt and figure things out because the alternative is sitting in my room being sad, and that sounds boring.

You mean not everyone gains heightened sense of perception/hearing/speed/smell/taste/ninja powers/memory/recall/synesthesia? Marvel comics lied?!? I’m not Daredevil?

Not to come off as the sunshine and rainbows guy, but Ill tell y’all straight up; My blindness/vision impairment is an ability. Its an ability that lets me relate to my patients who come into my ophthalmology clinic/surgery center. I may only be a tech but to be able to relate to one of my patients who was depressed and down about having RP and feeling like she was the only one with it up here meant I have a super power. She hasn’t smiled much lately because of the severity of the progression, how difficult its been. She has forgone seeing the eye doctor because what’s the point. But that day she came in, I requested to work her up from my coworkers. That time I used to connect with her and let her know she aint alone and that I was going through the same thing. I was able to provide exceptional care because I knew her limitations and I knew how to assess her vision properly because I knew where she had sight and didn’t. So yeah, my blindness/visual impairment is one hell of an ability, its an ability that gives my life some meaning now.

I think leaning on terms like ability, disability, impairment, special need etc. takes away from what is actually happening.

You perceive the world in a different way. That really is the long and short of it.

People who are unwilling to accomodate that different perception will call it a disability, and people who don't want to act along the lines your perception requires create inaccessible products and environments.

People who don't want to try to understand this perception will be awkward, even scared, at times hateful towards it because it's something they can't neatly label or understand or rhyme with their own world view, so it's inconvenient.

Does that mean society as a whole causes us to be, for lack of a better word, impaired in some respects? Why yup, yup it does. Are we discriminated against for that same reason? Oh definitely.

The best we can do is make the most of it, figure out ways around people and services that only cater to what they consider to be the norm. That way, at least when we get shit from said people or services, it is 100% on them, as we did all we could.

I know that takes an extraordinary amount of willpower, maybe even a unique brand of masochism to go out there and butt heads with ancient preconceived notions and busting the same myths over and over and over. Why yes, I do have superpowers, let me show you my bat mobile.

I go out there, I try to teach it forward, sometimes it works, often it doesn't. I guess that is just my lot in life.

So yeah ...is blindness an ability? No, I wouldn't really say so. It's a pretty strong difference that, particularly when you're raised with it, can subtly color your world view in a lot of respects, some for the better and some for the worse.

Is it a disability? I guess that depends on who you ask, what you are doing and what the circumstances are. When writing a print letter, yes. When playing an audiogame, no. When reading braille, probably not, as that is often considered easier without sight, but does that make it an ability?

Thanks for coming to my ted squawk on the silliness of words in general :P

If it was an ability, motherfuckers wouldn't be going "you shouldn't go back to school, its not safe."
There's playing the cards you're dealt, and then there's being a delusional idiot. You know, those people that always have the words POSITIVE, and GOOD VIBES ONLY in their mouths, but the moment you start venting about your personal problems, they ignore half the shit you say just to make you seem like you don't have any desire to do better.
At this point if you're in the same age range or older than me, or to be more specific, not some kid, I'm just gonna keep it a buck with you regarding these things. Honestly I don't even think you need to tell kids "BLINDNESS IS AN ABILITY!" because its really over-simplifying what you actually mean when you say that, or at least what people think they mean.

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As a sighted design educator, I often have to work to get my sighted students to see beyond their eyes, and to start considering the semantic and mental models of their communications. Sighted design students have a tendency to be overly fixated on visual aesthetics, and it can hold them back. When I work with the blind, I don't ever have this problem. They don't approach web design from a fixation on visual aesthetics, and much more readily grasp mental models of information architecture.

I'm not arguing that blindness is or isn't a disability, they are jut words after all. I'm just pointing out that for all the good our sense do, our senses can deceive us, and can also act as a mental crutch.

I live my life like it's not a disability, that's how I challenge myself to do things that I might not otherwise.

Those who say otherwise shut your pie hole.. please and thank you!