I finally made a picture story to explain it

https://quicklygoingblind.blogspot.com/2022/06/what-i-see.html

I say I’m visually impaired, blind, legally blind, or partially sighted depending on the situation. If people take the time to listen I explain to them that there are hundreds of types of blindness and most blind people have some vision of some kind.

I always try to keep it simple because I hate the whole "oh no! Have you tried glasses? Can they do surgery?", which I know people mean well but if I can bypass then I prefer to.

I typically say "I don't have peripheral vision, so I can't see to the sides of me or underneath me." Typically I mention it after running into things, so they pretty much know what I mean and how it effects me.

Now, if I run into someone on the street (waiting to get O&M training) and they get mad, I typically respond "I'm blind." First time I said, the guy ended up apologizing to me! I think in quick moments like, people just understand "blind" over "I don't see well."

I go with half blind. My bad eye sees everything as colorful blobs with certain spots just not existing. The other eye is okay as long as I have glasses on. It's hard to explain the details to a lot of people, but half blind seems to satisfy most?

I tell folk I have a loss of peripheral vision, and if the don’t get it I link them to the Wikipedia page for hemianopsia.

You've hit on a topic I have been giving a lot of thought lately. I will try to limit my preachiness.

(Stepping on to my soap box)

To people outside of the community I either say that:

* I am a partially sighted blind person, or
* I am blind with some ability to see in the right conditions

After that, I may go into more detail if someone asks, they sound like they really want to know, and I have time and am feeling generous. Otherwise, it would be hard for me to care less about their opinion.

I never say I am legally blind, visually impaired, or have low vision. Call it a personal quirk of mine that I may write about one day.

I worked my way through college as a sign language interpreter. Often spending considerable amounts of time with some of the more activistic members of the deaf community. My views on what it means to be blind are, in large parts, influenced by my experience there as well as reading $1 by Kenneth Jernigan of the NFB shortly after discover my vision loss.

To me:

>Anyone that must predominately use nonvisual tools and techniques to perform basic living tasks that people typically use sight to perform is blind.

Period. There are no other criteria for me. To further distinguish between ourselves within the community can help us where it allows us to better understand one another. However, allowing outsiders to do so, only serves to divide us, weakening our ability to support each other, and lessening our power.

(Stepping off of my soap box)

If you are in the US acuity is not the only criteria for legal blindness. Constricted visual field, sometimes known as tunnel or pinhole vision, can be as well.

Yup, tough to explain. That's we have a government issued card which is leegal proof of us being blind. Although, pulling it out every time when someone asks, that's just too much work. So, I only use it in front of some gerks who don't understand words. And sometimes, even that is not enough. You got to either fight them, which is not sensible, or, flight, I.E. get the hell away from them.

For most of people words are enough though.

This is an excellent question, it depends on who's asking there are times I say visually impaired sometimes I say blind rarely do people actually want me to go into detail about my vision

I tell people I’m visually impaired and everything that I can still see looks like analog broadcast tv that won’t quite come in with some floating black spots. Young people who grew up with cable don’t know what that looked like so then I liken it to a low megapixel image that’s been enlarged too much for the resolution. Not quite the same, but then they get the amount of distortion I’m dealing with.

I usually go for partially sighted or visually impaired. My central vision is actually pretty good so long as any font I need to read is large print. If I need to explain further I generally say I have very limited peripheral vision and that depth perception, contrast, and colour vision are all sort of off too

I have tunnel vision. Right eye is around 20/40 or 20/50 but my visual field is basically gone. Instead of trying to explain I usually say something like "I'm not completely blind, but I can't see very well. I've got tunnel vision"

People usually understand that.