Definitely using your cane more is a good idea and I'm glad you've been doing that. Getting some low vision and blindness training if you haven't already is really helpful too. A lot of the advice I would give is situational. In general I advise living somewhere with good public transit, making sure you always have your medical records organized, and take advantage of things like signing up for paratransit with your local bus system if available (through that I can ride the fixed routes for free heh)

Take advantage of anything your insurance or the low vision specialist can help with. Don’t ever feel embarrassed or awkward about using your cane. I was really stubborn about getting mine for a long time and looking back I really should’ve been using my cane way sooner and it would’ve made my life far better. I’m sure right now it’s very overwhelming trying to figure all of this out. All I can say is it does get easier to cope with. You will figure out little tricks and things that work for you.. if you haven’t looked yet there some very helpful free app’s for your phone

Hi, I lost my right eye to cancer and have blurry tunnel vision in my aphakic left eye. I'm super light sensitive and have night blindness too. I definitely recommend getting familiar with public transportation. I moved to a city to be more independent and have more transportation options. Being dependent on others for rides might be ok for some (no judgement!) but it was killing me to always feel like I was a burden or that I had to keep myself small so as to not risk losing the kindness of others that I depended on. Now I live as I please and get to work, doctors, and social events without owing favors. Get comfortable with technology and accessibility options. Ask your local blind society if they can link you to training if needed. If you're in college, don't be afraid to ask for accommodations. Find things you enjoy and keep doing them! I go to lots of concerts, live music feeds my soul. Being blind sounds depressing because sighted people think we're stuck in our homes living unfulfilled lives but it's not true! We're perfectly capable, creative, and persistent individuals with tools available to make our lives easier. Use them and grow into your ideal self. You got this.

Honestly being blind isn’t that bad. People make it out to be the end of the world, and it’s not. I’ve been totally blind for most of my life and not much vision to speak of before only a few feet in front of me and I was always trained as a blind person with how little vision I had and we knew I was going to lose it. Be pragmatic and realistic about it.

You can still work, travel the world, study and get degrees, have normal hobbies, and everything else. It doesn’t make you not a person.

I’ve traveled around the US by myself and it’s totally doable and I was very actively touring and going to sites too 2 or 3 a day in a 2 week pperiod at one point. I went to Hong Kong and traversed the entire city to everyone’s surprise.

I get told I can’t even do that, or I wouldn’t even do. That. I did it absolutely alone and at the time in my mid twenties a few years before that maybe early mid twenties I went to Hong kong. I stayed at my own hotels. Found my own food. And even almost walked someone home in a new city. He was a bit too embarrassed to let me do this. Heh! :D

I’ve been in school for 10 years and have 2 associates degrees. I’ve worked here and there. In the tech industry. I’ve done a lot of volunteering in the tech industry. Recently started doing dev work.

Ive represented and advocated in my early teen years and have sat on a few paneles including an ada panel at a state university with the department head and was the most outspoken if not the only outspoken one, the one who drove change and consistently showed up at every meeting.

I’ve worked on newspapers briefly but the most interesting part was going all over schools and interviewing people and at one point passing out newspapers.

I worked for an election campaign and did a little door knocking I wasn’t very good at this and not because I was blind. I was better at just leafleting. Basically being a paper route gal and going to every house and dropping off a flyer. I walked all over a neighborhood or two and tracked 37 miles or so on one weekend. I was exhausted at the end!



I continue to represent different places and have been on a film, a companies film to a board of trustee, on a newsletter and maybe a website of a school, and recently a artist podcast heard all over the world but most of all in europe, I’ve done a lot like that. I try not to make it about me though.

I advocate and teach, and politick, for Ada type rights equal opportunity.

I’ve lead several online groups and have ran an online writer’s workshop when I was young.

I’ve recently did a car show.

I am well traveled around frisco and the bay area of California and Los angeles county and to some degree the orange county area. You can’t get me lost.

I’ve gone food hunting or yelping all on my own. I probably know a lot more places to eat then a lot of people.

I’ve studied and read many things in my spare time.

Yes I am totally blind. And I don’t let anything stop me. It’s all in the attitude. You can’t sit at home and just pity yourself.

Have a positive attitude get training and keep going. Your life is far from over. You can do a good amount of hobbies you have. You can certainly do university and college. I posted a post on here from an old acount I’ll have to find and linked to about university and how to cope if you want it.


Get assistive technology training, get independent skills training, and also orientation and mobility. Also learn braille. Braille is the literacy system for the blind.

I would say while some people like family denigrate me, I would say I live a pretty normal life. And you can too. I’ve been told by sighted people. I wouldn’t even think of doing that. Your adventurous days have not stopped. They’ve almost just begun!

Don’t let anything stop you and don’t take no for an answer, but be realistic all at the same time.

There is a wide range of jobs that can be done as a blind person. Obviously there are some that can’t but they are not as numerous as those that can be done for the blind. Don’t limit yourself. We need more stem people and general public and some blind people to some extent think they can’t do stem. Is it the easiest path, no. But it’s a totally doable one.