Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Do blind individuals still have a "mind's eye" (self.Blind)
submitted by Jackerino-
I am fully-sighted but entirely lack what a "mind's eye" meaning I cannot picture or visualize anything in my head. (When people talked about books being a "movie in their head" I always thought that was just a metaphor).
I was randomly wondering if people who are now fully blind but weren't always still possesed this ability?
I was randomly wondering if people who are now fully blind but weren't always still possesed this ability?
Fridux 21 points 1y ago
I do despite not having had any useful vision for the last 7 years or light perception for the last 3 years, and my dreams are still sighted. I'm quite reliant on this ability as, for example, when I'm coding I tend to read from the mental image that's formed by listening to the screen-reader and not the sound itself, and I actually have hallucinations of seeing the world around me in one eye. I have even made a small video-game totally blind by just asking the people around me whether it looked and behaved the way I intended, and got all the math right without almost any effort just because I can easily imagine 3D transformations, color codes, and graphics effects.
Artistic-Guidance-11 3 points 1y ago
Id love to see the game
Fridux 1 points 1y ago
OK, I'm back from my appointment and have just uploaded a screen-shot to GitHub and modified the `README.md` file to display it. A link to the game's repository on GitHub is provided in my previous comment.
In the screen-shot most of the cubes are black because they only have two colored faces and most of them aren't turned to the camera. I did this to force people to drag their finger on the screen in order to rotate the blob of cubes as otherwise the game would be too simple.
If you play with VoiceOver enable, the screen-reader will announce the colors of the cubes you tap on, though this doesn't make the game any more playable for the blind like myself, I implemented that feature just to assist me in debugging.
In the screen-shot most of the cubes are black because they only have two colored faces and most of them aren't turned to the camera. I did this to force people to drag their finger on the screen in order to rotate the blob of cubes as otherwise the game would be too simple.
If you play with VoiceOver enable, the screen-reader will announce the colors of the cubes you tap on, though this doesn't make the game any more playable for the blind like myself, I implemented that feature just to assist me in debugging.
Artistic-Guidance-11 1 points 1y ago
Wow its amazing what you've been able to do keep up the good work
Fridux 1 points 1y ago
The source code is available $1, but I don't know if it still works because the last time I touched it was in the iOS 12 days. I have an appointment now so can't test it at the moment, but I'll post a screen-shot later if you wish. If you try running it on an actual device with a free developer account you might run into a bundle identifier collision which will make Apple refuse to create a provisioning profile for it; to fix just change the bundle identifier in project settings or Info.plist.
Beneficial-Durian-44 10 points 1y ago
I still can picture things in my mind I also still have full vision dreams
futurephysician 8 points 1y ago
Yes but it’s more like a mind’s recording,
Source: was born blind and was completely blind for the first several years of my life before my surgeries.
My earliest memories are basically a recording. It wasn’t with a black background or anything, vision wasn’t even a component…. It’s so hard to explain,
Source: was born blind and was completely blind for the first several years of my life before my surgeries.
My earliest memories are basically a recording. It wasn’t with a black background or anything, vision wasn’t even a component…. It’s so hard to explain,
OldManOnFire 4 points 1y ago
I'm not fully blind yet but my mind's eye definitely sees better than my real eyes do.
My dreams and my imagination are brighter, more colorful, and have a wider field of vision than I do now.
I'm curious about your situation. When I say "Darth Vader" you don't momentarily picture the armor and helmet in your head? When you hear somebody mention their vacation at the beach you don't picture the sand, the waves, and the bikinis?
My dreams and my imagination are brighter, more colorful, and have a wider field of vision than I do now.
I'm curious about your situation. When I say "Darth Vader" you don't momentarily picture the armor and helmet in your head? When you hear somebody mention their vacation at the beach you don't picture the sand, the waves, and the bikinis?
Jackerino- [OP] 3 points 1y ago
I think in words. For example with autism are known to be highly visual thinkers, with all their thinking done almost spatially in their head. I'm the opposite, I think entirely in words.
When you say Darth Vader I think of the words "Luke I am your father" and then "man I love star wars". I grew up on a beach and I if I think back to that I just think of swimming, not the act but the word
When you say Darth Vader I think of the words "Luke I am your father" and then "man I love star wars". I grew up on a beach and I if I think back to that I just think of swimming, not the act but the word
OldManOnFire -1 points 1y ago
Very interesting!
I've been taught we're all somewhere on the spectrum. Even severely autistic people are capable of language, although it's not as natural for them. Are you completely incapable of imagining a circle or a scene from a book, or do you just find it harder because it's not naturally how you process the world?
I've been taught we're all somewhere on the spectrum. Even severely autistic people are capable of language, although it's not as natural for them. Are you completely incapable of imagining a circle or a scene from a book, or do you just find it harder because it's not naturally how you process the world?
Jackerino- [OP] 2 points 1y ago
I cant picture even simple shapes or even just a solid color. My mind is like a book, its truly an endless but linear stream of words, just like a book explicitly states everything that happens in between dialogue my brain does the same.
When it comes to dreaming it is weird. I have the capacity to dream, but I can count on my two hands the amount of times that I have done it
When it comes to dreaming it is weird. I have the capacity to dream, but I can count on my two hands the amount of times that I have done it
[deleted] 0 points 1y ago
[deleted]
retrolental_morose 3 points 1y ago
Well, I possess it in an auditory sort of a way. if I am reading about, say, an arctic landscape, I will "hear" the wind, the crunch of boots on snow, etc. If I am reading a novel based on a TV series or film I've seen (Star Trek is the best example), I will hear the character voices in my head as I read.
Born blind. Obviously I don't picture things the way a sighted person would, but when reading a good story I can get lost in it just as anyone else. In fact I very clearly remember jumping in fright when reading a book last year because a character spoke and we weren't told, narratively, that they they were there. The surprise of them appearing, or rather, us being alerted to them lingering, physically caused me to stop reading in startlement and actually pay attention to the room around me, in case some one or thing was lurking
Born blind. Obviously I don't picture things the way a sighted person would, but when reading a good story I can get lost in it just as anyone else. In fact I very clearly remember jumping in fright when reading a book last year because a character spoke and we weren't told, narratively, that they they were there. The surprise of them appearing, or rather, us being alerted to them lingering, physically caused me to stop reading in startlement and actually pay attention to the room around me, in case some one or thing was lurking
oncenightvaler 1 points 1y ago
me too.
Hallowss 3 points 1y ago
Pretty sure aphantasia and vision aren’t related, it’s just rareish
I’ve didn’t have a ‘mind’s eye’ when I could see, and I still don’t
I’ve didn’t have a ‘mind’s eye’ when I could see, and I still don’t
Mamamagpie 1 points 1y ago
I was going to say this.
unwaivering 1 points 1y ago
yeah, I get the book is like a movie thing, except since I've been blind from birth, I usually imagine that I'm in it somehow.
[deleted] 1 points 1y ago
[deleted]
oncenightvaler 1 points 1y ago
Short Answer: Yes.
Longer Answer: So there's this poem called The Blind Men and the Elephant https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/foundation_gr8/blms/8-1-1a.pdf And if you read it you will discover part of how I imagine. I have to fit all the component parts together to figure out what the whole is. If there was an imaginary apple first I would picture the sphere, then I would picture the texture, then I would picture the stem and seeds and core, then last I would put a colour on it depending on its flavour.
Longer Answer: So there's this poem called The Blind Men and the Elephant https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/foundation_gr8/blms/8-1-1a.pdf And if you read it you will discover part of how I imagine. I have to fit all the component parts together to figure out what the whole is. If there was an imaginary apple first I would picture the sphere, then I would picture the texture, then I would picture the stem and seeds and core, then last I would put a colour on it depending on its flavour.
SoapyRiley 1 points 1y ago
I can sit here and imagine an apple on my desk and that apple is clearer than my actual desk to me. It’s edges are crisp and there are no holes in it unlike what I see that I can reach out and touch.
CosmicBunny97 1 points 1y ago
I feel like it's gotten stronger since I lost my eyesight - for example, I imagine what people look like in my head, and I'm shocked when people tell me that's not what they look like.
SoapyRiley 1 points 1y ago
Exactly this for me too!
Vicorin 1 points 1y ago
Yes I have a mental picture of everything and my dreams are sighted.
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