I can‘t be bothered about what people think to be quite frank. It‘s not my job to make strangers feel comfortable about my impairment. I mind my own business and so should they. If they are bothered by how I live with my blindness, that‘s their loss, as this doesn‘t have any consequences for me (if need be, I have a disability card).

I’ve never cared what others think, so I don’t fake it, except when crossing streets. I don’t want ‘teach’ them someone with a cane will see them waving to go.

A little bit? I don’t avoid using my phone or anything, because I might be seen as faking it. But maybe that’s because I’ve only had one “you’re not really blind” accusations as a result, and it was only from a couple teenagers.

I will, however…take shortcuts. I might be able to squint and read these forms, but it’s faster to ask for help filling them in. I might be able to find the sauce aisle myself, but it’s faster to ask someone. I could probably navigate a lot of places by sight, but it’s easier if I also use my cane. I could squint at signs, or I could reach out and feel the vegetables to find the ones I’m looking for at the store.

So, if someone saw me at home, and then saw me out and about, I might look like I’m emphasizing my blindness more, and I guess I kind of am, but only because it’s a shortcut to get things done faster and more efficiently, not because I’m worried about people thinking I’m faking it or not really blind.

I mean, yes and no. I’m nowhere near legally blind but where my glaucoma is eating away at my vision, I have to look up to keep from getting poked in the eye or cracking my head on anything at face level. As a result, I can’t see the sidewalk even when the lights aren’t creating a blinding glare. So I use a cane. And sometimes my brain processes things in a way that makes it feel like I’m in a funhouse and I can’t even be sure of what I’m looking at. People make all sorts of assumptions about my vision and I guarantee most of them are wrong. Sometimes I can see my smartphone. Sometimes it’s all blurry and I have to turn on voiceover. If people want to ask questions, I’m happy to describe what I can see. If they want to be rude, I’m lucky in that I can just turn my hearing aids on mute and since I can get around with my eyes closed, they become deleted from my existence. Although, here in the SE USA, a pitying expressing with “bless your heart” goes a long way in getting the ignorant rude to shut up too.

I am still hesitant, but I used to be even more concerned about it when my vision was better. I heard about people getting a hard time for not looking blind enough, and it scared me because I am self conscious as it is. Really, I shouldn’t let ignorant people influence my behavior, but that’s easier said than done.

This is something I struggle with a lot. I've been visually impaired most of my life but I've only used a cane for the past year or so. Some days I feel like I'm an imposter, even though I know the cane is a lot of help.

I've recently been trying to break out of this state of mind, and just act how I usually would, now with the aid of a cane. I've done this a few times (though usually in smaller spaces where I kinda know pepple) and it's worked out. I also feel like people are beginning to understand the spectrum of vision and vision loss better too. People are also cowards, so I think most would avoid saying anything directly to me if they suspected something.

I've always been pretty open about my vision, it's an odd shift to go from explaining that you can'r see to that you can a bit. Though I feel like if someone was openly antagonistic/accusatory about it, I would cry.

In all honesty, I'm in the opposite situation. There are times when I might prefer to use a cane as an identifier. But I don't because I worry about mixed signals.

I mean you can get respect from people close to you, or from co-workers.

What you can't do is to get respect from random people on the street.

I don't know if your condition is degenerative or not, but every time you get some moron complaining that you are faking your blindness, you should just keep score at how well you are doing with it.

People are rude, the world is hard. The one constant reality that you have to.learn to deal with is that random people will never give you the respect that you deserve

There is not enough money or success in the world to get you around that, unless you can afford to take a limo everywhere.

You are either a helpless human being or a faker on the street. You could be a God at your work or in your family but that is just some stuff that you gotta learn to let roll off your back.

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I'm totally blind, so no need to fake anything here. :)