People who create a problem that rush to save us.

Today I went to the market, on my way home someone parked work truck blocking the sidewalk. I joyfully beat the truck with my cane, excessively, getting around the truck. The people responsible call out for me to wait, they are sending someone to help me. I didn’t need help, they just need to not block the sidewalk.

Yesterday I had a very clumsy day, and it was all because of my low vision. My spouse and I were making dinner (which we don't get to do together very often because of our extremely incompatible schedules) and I knocked something off a shelf which then fell onto the counter and knocked a bunch more stuff off the counter. The cats, who were begging right below, took off in terror. A few minutes later I grabbed something wrong and dropped it because I didn't have a good grip on it, then another few minutes later I dropped a bit of food on the floor and couldn't see it to clean it up. There are plenty of other things that are frustrating (people, transportation, work stuff) because of my vision, but this one came immediately to mind because all day yesterday I felt like a damn tornado just leaving wreckage everywhere I went. I feel like sometimes I have "bad vision days" where my eyes work even worse than usual. Does anyone else have days like that?

Family "forgetting" you are blind. I am visually impaired and live with a low amount of accommodation so it gets forgotten sometimes. I'll end up doing something embarrassing because I didn't see something and it stinks!

Snow! Omg when it's a fresh snow fall I cannot see the difference in a snow pile and a path. Super annoying! I get lots of snow in my boots!

Not driving. I mean where the heck are these self driving cars already. Give me my freedom!

Trying to hold my cane and push a cart or hold a basket and anything else. Add a child who's hand your holding and it's a big juggling game.

Why must glass cups be clear. I hit them over all the time. Annoying.

This has been fun! :)

As a blind childless person on disability I get no help with public housing, or section 8 or whatever it’s called now. I get help with everything else from the government but for housing there’s no help for people in my shoes. To be clear in my area which happens to be northern Virginia it is impossible to get on section 8.

the thing that really drives me nuts is anytime somebody makes a post on this site and mentions that their blind and then all of the comments are just "how do you use reddit if you're blind?"

6 years. I have been dealing with light sensitivity so severe that even winter nights where the snow is covering the ground and it is just the moon light reflecting off the snow is painful. If the sun is out at all I struggle to keep my eyes open because of the pain, but somehow my vision problems do not rise to the level of disabling even though I spend about 75-90% of my day with my eyes closed because opening them would likely cause me to throw up because of the pain. I can not get Orientation and Mobility training because my visual acuity is 20/20 in a highly specific testing scenario where they use a spoon looking thing with holes in it to further filter the light and dilate my eyes to stop my brain messing with their ability to focus. Make it make sense. None of this is considering the fact that I have noticed my peripherals are going, albeit mild right now but I have noticed that on my left I can't see if I try to peak under my sunglasses to see something. Or the fact that it feels like my eyes feel like they are permanently set to see on two separate layers causing nausea. Or the slow response to light and quick response to darkness causing me to be thoroughly disoriented when those conditions are changing. How is that not disabling? How do I not qualify for any form of help, beyond my own ability to work with a trainer and train a guide dog. Why is that my only option?

And yes I am in the process of finding a different eye care professional but ophthalmologists have around a year waitlist and my general practitioner has been dragged his feet to get the referral after I decided I was done being invalidated by my previous team.

I have a lot of trouble finding things on store shelves, even though my RP mostly only affects my peripheral vision. Especially if I stand too close to the shelf I'm searching, I just can't get a good picture of what's there. So I stand back to get a good view, but then I need to get closer to really examine a product to decide if it's what I need. In a crowded grocery store, it's hard! And I'm likely to miss something that is in fact right there in front of me, deciding that the store must be out of stock or doesn't carry it anymore.

I also struggle with people just not understanding. I commute by bike because I can't drive anymore, and it's cold this time of year in Colorado! It's my first winter as a non-driver, and I've had a dozen coworkers ask me why I'm still riding in the cold, or saying they could never do that, or saying things like "gosh it's nasty out there - I hope you have a ride home!" and then not offering me a ride. It would be tricky to accept a ride because I need my bike to come with me, but if you're not gonna offer me a ride then don't tell me I shouldn't be riding in this weather! I literally do not have another option.

God, the "I'm blind" dance.

- I'm blind.

- Ha ha, me too. That's why I have glasses.

- No, like, blind blind.

- Like, legally blind?

- No, like blind. Blind blind. Can't see shit.

- Ohhhh, like ]Insert pop culture reference]?

- Yeah, [Pop culture reference] blind.

Every single time. It doesn't annoy me, but it's such a common script when meeting new people. It'd be less funny if it wasn't nearly always, word for word, the exact same conversation.

Honestly, my only real gripe is that I want to play a tabletop game that's not super popular, and I'm not finding anything. If there's a game, it's got its slots filled by the time I see the post. I'm in my feelings about it for sure, but also like I feel like I have to preface everything with layers of "I'm blind, but I'm competent, but I can't do maps, but I can do everything else, but I also can't do this one tiny thing, but I'm enthusiastic and reliable" an it's annoying.

Dude, when you knock something over, then go to look for it, then end up knocking more things over. Also falling downstairs.

My Fitbit watch that I use for a vibrating timer with work broke today and completely threw off everything so I had to find a way to better keep time with my phone to know when the end of my massage sessions were. It's really frustrating with technology decides to throw a wrench and everything that you're doing in order to navigate your day. I'm also learning how to use TalkBack more as to rely less on what little vision I have because it just getting harder and harder to read my screen so navigating my phone has been a bit of a frustration today.

I hate it when I put something down, go get something else and it's gone.

> So when I say I'm blind. I sometimes get laughed at. Because they are taking it in that joking sense. And it's honestly kind of hurtful sometimes.

Of all of it, this one may be the most frustrating. Maybe it's a restaurant or someone coming to the house to do work. I will say that my eyes are pretty bad and I'm going blind to let them know I can't read what they're trying to show me. It gets a chuckle every time and I still have no idea what they're trying to show me.

Personal vent: I'm a web developer. I spent almost 10 years doing full stack but the main focus was back end. I recently changed jobs and the focus is now the front end and I'm struggling. The designers are patient but I know it's got to be frustrating for them having to go back and forth as much as we do on some of these things.

toothpaste is really annoying.

this morning i failed multiple times putting toothpaste on my toothbrush. sometimes i can have the perfect amount of toothpaste but i completely miss and it goes everywhere.

very annoying to clean up too. basically anything that falls on the floor is gone forever.

My vent: why must sighted people colour code EVERYTHING? You could make this one a triangle and this other one a square as well, but nooo we’re just going to make this one blue and this other one green and call it done.

I have the opposite problem to your second vent OP! I see a lot better with the lights on and feel very uncomfortable without it. Dim lights is complete darkness for me! And every time I hang out with my friends in the evening, there comes a time when everyone wants to dim the lights and I have to beg them to keep it on, even though we are still talking, playing games or eating. every! Single! Time! Of course, if I had someone who is photophobic in my circle (which I absolutely do not by the way, none of my friends have eye issues that are out of the ordinary), I would live with the dimmed lighting and just not participate in whatever is going on, but as the situation is, it pisses me off every single time!

I hate how everyone is using screen share in Zoom when it’s not accessible! I love the advent of Zoom, but I wish all of the features were accessible. That is probably easier said than done, though. Inaccessibility in general is really frustrating.

it's been 2 years and i stilb miss playing Sim
so...

When you get to work and something updated, the OS, a program, an app, your phone, and something broke. You are in a rush because you need to work, but yet you are spending time trying to figure out how to work around this new issue. Then of course I need to spend time filing a bug, because no one else will notice that the screen-reader experience broke and I have to be nice and calm trying to explain someone who never used a screen-reader in their life what is the issue and how it can be fixed when I know that 50% of the time I'll have to go back and forth with them because they say that the issue does not reproduce on their side when they are just doing it wrong. The worst thing is that they don't know that they are the third person I'm talking to this week about something breaking. They probably think it's not a big deal, but the reality is that I use daily at least two OS, tens of apps, hundreds of features and I need everything to work all the time. Sighted people do not have these issues because sighted developers see them when testing, but they can break screen-readers and pushing the change without even knowing it until I knock at their virtual door.

In general, I want to vent that there is a disproportionate burden on us. I have to live with features or apps that break without warrant, I have to file those bugs, I have to explain to them how to fix it for me and I have to suffer from a productivity hit in my job because of that. I have to explain to people how I use a computer when I tell them I'm blind. Can you like for once in your life instead of asking a blind person how they do X to just Google that exact question and find the answer in 5 seconds? How many times do you think people ask me that question, like just today?

Oh and don't get me started on dumb questions people ask you like how can you tie your shoes. It always goes with me asking can you tie your shoes with your eyes closed? They say yes. I say well you have your answer. Like am I asking you how you go to the bathroom at night with no lights?

dating as a blind person.

How the hell are you meant to do it? Taking a pic of yourself is hard, at least it is for me, I'd prefer offline dating but that's hard too. If you're in a pub and hearing all the sound around you; how are you meant to know if a person 1. is your type, I like chubby women for example and 2. doesn't have a boyfriend, oh and 3. How do you start the convo: "hi, so I'm brad and am looking for a girlfriend, wannna chat and see where it goes?"


Making friends is equallly as hard and it's sad. Honestly sometimes I get so bored of life, I do the same thing over and over, I might go out to the shop with my grandparents or perhaps to a restaurant but that's about it and yes lol I'd like to make female friends to lead to the hole girlfriend thing.

I've only got the blind dance conversation once, but it was a bit weird.

It's been hard to figure out who is talking to me and on more than one occasion I've responded to someone who wasn't addressing me.

I have yet to have anyone accuse me of faking my vision loss.

Totally blind here.

I absolutely have issues reading graphics and advanced math stuff. Don’t know how to read them. I wish we would have better training on how to read and see those graphics.

I hate hate 3d graphics, even if someone tried to explain them they are really difficult. I don’t really get the concept no. Then you have to try to do the math for them.


I also dislike the pity and the way that us totally blind people seem like an alien to the rest of the world. I’ve been made clear by several people how just my presence without even saying anything or doing anything, the fact I exist really makes someone uncomfortable.

Also walking down the street isn’t amazing sorry. Being able to walk down the church isle and to navigate a school building isn’t amazing. Being able to navigate a school classroom isn’t impressive.


Being an assertive not skiddish, worried, frightful, totally blind person is also not amazing.


Just because you know james and he’s also blind doesn’t mean you know prag tooo. Because you don’t know me. James is James prag is prag.


Oh you are blind, I love stevy wonder. He’s my favorite singer. You know he’s so cool and talented. And ray charles is blind too. Yeah, not cool sorry.


How about when I am walking down the street with my cane people are like I am right here right here don’t bump in to me, right here. Okay I know just please shut up now. I may be blind but not stupid. My cane will either tap you and I’ll go around or I can feel you with my proprioception and kinesthetics type of feel and I’ll make sure I go around you or adjust.

No sorry just because I am blind does not mean I’ll fall down if I do not sit down or lean or stand against a wall. One person even said that blind people are known to fall off ledges and bump in to open doors and cabinets. Sure maybe those who are not trained well and don’t really get how to move around.


Just because I am blind doesn’t mean I am not capable. I also really dislike when they shelter and baby me or other blind people. It’s interesting because I know a mid to high partial do this to me, and he claims he needs to be protective of me.

Partially blind guy here but I want to vent about the size of text on a tv screen. When I was a kid I said I’d own a large screen television one day. By the time I was able to afford a 47 inch tv, they shrunk the type size down so small it’s worse than it ever was. I still can’t see subtitles or browse Netflix without getting close. I am thankful I can see at all though.

On a positive side whoever made the Ninja air fryer and designed their mobile site did a great job making it easy for a visually impaired person.

Also when you talk to someone, they leave and do not tell you, then you realize you are talking alone. Then they come back like "oh I went to go get a snack". Though they are forgiven if they brought me some

As a former Florida man, those fire ants are some shit. Lol, I think the numbers are pretty high in terms of the folks who have seen me just strip and soak during a random conversation where I was just standing dead center of an ant hill. Went on vacation to Florida a few years ago. Everyone went into the gas station, and I figured I'd stretch my legs with a smoke break. was nice fluffy grass, so no worries right? Hell no, I got ate the hell up and many more new people got to see me in my drores. lol. Much needed vent.