Congenital or acquired disability is a common situation among people, and one of the most terrible types of disability is blindness. Blindness is an extreme form of visual impairment in which a person cannot see anything; About 39 million people in the world are completely blind, and their lives are very different from the lives of healthy people. Find out a few facts about this amazing group of people in this post!
Their other senses may not be heightened
In popular culture, blind people are often described as having a particularly keen sense of hearing or touch, but this may not be the case; many blind people rely only on their memory or specific sequences of sounds to navigate the world. However, some of them develop something similar to the ability to echolocate.
They can and should be asked questions about their illness.
We often feel awkward towards people with disabilities, and at the same time, few of us are not interested in what it is like to be blind. Most often, people who are blind from birth or those who have lost their sight a long time ago and have already come to terms with the injury will be happy to answer your questions - because they no longer perceive blindness as a limiting factor.
What do blind people see in their dreams?
A person born blind dreams, but does not see images. The dreams of congenitally blind people consist of sounds, tactile information, aromas, tastes, feelings and sensations - everything that they perceive in reality.
On the other hand, a person who has lost their vision during their lifetime may experience dreams with images and visual information.
The expression and perception of objects in dreams depends on the type and history of blindness. In fact, all people in a dream see the world as they are accustomed to perceive it in reality with the range of vision that is inherent in a person throughout life. For example, a person with color blindness will not be able to see colors in their dreams, even if they really want to.
A person whose vision has deteriorated throughout his life may see clearly in his sleep, as before, or blurry, as now. The same goes for people who wear corrective lenses: they dream both clearly and blurred. Even visions caused by Charles Bonnet syndrome can become part of dreams. In fact, dreams are a reflection of reality.
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Interestingly, rapid eye movement, which characterizes REM sleep, also occurs in some blind people, despite the fact that they cannot see images in their sleep.
Cases in which rapid eye movement is absent during REM sleep include vision loss from birth or at a very early age.
They don’t always need the help of sighted people
A blind person can be met with an accompanying person or alone; when the latter happens, many of us wonder “why won’t anyone help him.” However, most often blind people are very aware of what is happening around them and are quite capable of coping with everyday situations on their own. They are not helpless at all!
The principle of echolocation
5. Psychologists have imposed on the masses the popular opinion about the aggravation of auditory perception in blind people. In fact, this statement is very controversial, and in other cases incorrect. We can only say with certainty that a person who has lost his sight can use echolocation as an auxiliary guide in his daily existence, when sound waves help determine the location and size of an object.
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They don't all use a cane
We are used to identifying blind people by their white cane. There are several types of blindness - and the color and shape of the cane varies according to them (for example, there is a completely white cane, and there is a red tip). But not all blind people need a cane—some get by with the help of a specially trained guide dog.
Functional blindness
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In addition to absolute blindness, there is also functional blindness. Definitions of functional blindness vary by country or medical organization.
In the United States, functional blindness is a visual impairment in which the best eye, already at maximum correction, sees worse than 20/200. The World Health Organization defines blindness when the better eye, under optimal conditions, sees no better than 20/500 with less than 10 degrees of vision.
What functionally blind people see depends on the severity of the blindness and the type of impairment.
They like it when people talk to them normally
If you have a blind friend, you may find this point helpful. You may have thought that using certain words (mostly those related to vision - "look", "see" or even "point of view") should be taboo when talking to him, but this is not the case - you can use them freely. Blind people should be treated the same as everyone else, so keep your conversations casual.
They are insulted by help they did not expect
The desire to help others is part of human nature, and that is why so many people volunteer or donate their money to special funds. We may think that blind people need special treatment and help, such as being walked across the street or carrying their shopping home, but many are able to cope with everyday tasks just fine on their own, and the help they did not ask for , may even humiliate them.
They imagine numbers in reverse order
Although people who are blind from birth have never seen numbers or objects that can be counted, like sighted people, they are able to imagine a number series - but in the form of a “countdown”: we see numbers from left to right (1, 2, 3, 4, 5...), they are from right to left (5, 4, 3, 2, 1...).
Images of the world among blind people
We perceive most of the phenomena of the surrounding world through images. Since childhood, we have an understanding of colors and shapes, recognition of various objects. They are identified without much effort, most often automatically. How do blind people see the world? Are the colors and images of phenomena discernible to them?
Color perception
If a person was born sighted and lost this ability in childhood, then his visual memory is most often retained, and throughout his entire subsequent life he can distinguish colors and knows what certain phenomena with which he was familiar look like.
If a person is blind from birth, then he cannot perceive the colors and images of the world. Due to his lack of vision, the area of the brain that converts visual information into a picture does not work. Blind people know the names of colors and objects, but do not imagine them in colors. They have their own unique perception of these phenomena. Blind people can use associations, associate colors with various objects, for example, “blue” - “cold”, “green” - “grass”, “red” - “fire”, “hot”.
Blind people are able to represent numbers. But the difference is that sighted people see the number series from left to right (1, 2, 3...), blind people see from right to left (...3, 2, 1).
How to describe color to a blind person?
This can be done precisely with the help of sensations and associations.
- Describe color using tactile sensations. You can let someone hold something in their hands when you talk about color. For example, touch leaves or grass and describe them: “The grass and leaves are green. They are alive, fresh, smooth.” Or, for example, give cotton wool in your hands: “The cotton wool is white, like the clouds, airy, soft, fluffy, light.” Gray or brown colors can be associated with hardness, severity, strength, cold, etc., touching walls, soil, branches, asphalt, etc.
- Use taste and smell to describe flowers. For example, most red berries, fruits and vegetables are characterized by a sweet taste (raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes) or are spicy (pepper). Green vegetables often taste crisp and fresh. Let me smell fruits, vegetables, spices. For example: “Orange and tangerine are orange, the smell reflects their juiciness, brightness, fullness of sun and warmth.”
- Explain what colors can be using sounds. For example: “The sound of water, the sound of the surf, the waves in the ocean reflect the color blue. The sound of this color is usually calm and pleasant,” “The howling of the wind and the dripping of rain resemble the color gray, because gray clouds appear in the sky at that moment.”
- Match colors with emotions and feelings. Ask the person: “How does the color red make you feel? Black color?" Tell us about your associations. For example, yellow color means joy, friendliness; green is associated with development and hope; gray with apathy, sadness, etc.
They fit into society just like everyone else
There is a stereotype that blind people are not socially active and that the only reason they leave the house is to shop, pay bills and go to work. Some blind people behave this way, but others are the exact opposite of the stereotype! They love to learn new things, attend concerts, restaurants and even cinemas, and also play sports (including extreme sports). It all depends on the individual, on the interests and preferences of the person himself.
People born blind
A person who has never had sight sees nothing because he simply cannot see.
Samuel, who was born blind, answered questions during the interview about how he perceives the world around him. He claims that the expression that a blind person sees the world around him as black is not at all true. The fact is that a person who is blind from birth simply does not know what blackness is, he has nothing to compare it with. He quite seriously sees nothing, sees emptiness.
This is difficult for a sighted person to understand, but imagine what you can see with your elbow. Nothing, right?
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Another useful exercise is to close one eye and use the open one to focus on something. Now answer, what does your closed eye see?
Their success depends on us
The types of education and employment that blind people manage to fit into, according to psychologists, are directly related to what “bar” of expectations we set for them and how much “positive reinforcement” they receive from us. Programs to support the blind are created by sighted people, and the more we believe that they are capable of something, the more real small feats they accomplish.
They perceive colors differently
People who are blind from birth do not have a full color palette before their eyes, but they are aware of what “color” means, associate colors with objects (for example, they may realize that roses are red and the sea is blue), and they can associate colors with other phenomena (for example, are able to remember that “red” is “hot” and “blue” is “cold”). Those who are not congenitally blind, of course, imagine colors in the same way as sighted people, based on memory and visual knowledge.
Molyneux's task: the brain prevents the blind from completely restoring vision
“If a person born blind can distinguish by touch the shapes of objects, such as a sphere and a cube, will he, having acquired the ability to see (but without the help of touch), be able to identify these objects only with the help of sight, correlating them with his tactile sense? performance? This is Molyneux's problem, a thought experiment formulated in 1688. Both William Molyneux himself and John Locke, in a letter to whom he described this task, were inclined to answer in the negative.
A sighted person receives a significant part of information through the eyes. Often we deliberately “deprive” ourselves of one of the organs useful for orientation in space - we plug our ears with headphones and listen to music, enjoying it. A person who has lost his sight at a conscious age continues to think in the usual categories for a sighted person - he imagines pictures of what is happening, the brain creates them from information received from other organs. Those who were born blind see the world differently. If a person who has lost his sight imagines a vacation at sea, “seeing” water and a sandy beach, then a person blind from birth will feel the sand between his fingers and the breeze on his skin, and hear the sounds of waves. Even after restoration of vision, the brain of these people is not immediately able to perceive certain objects and phenomena. The English surgeon and teacher William Cheselden, who lived from 1688 to 1752, invented a method of surgically creating an artificial pupil to treat some forms of blindness. In 1728, he published a report of the cure of a 13-year-old gentleman, blind from birth, of cataracts. When the boy first saw it, he quickly figured out the colors and called scarlet his favorite. The color black seemed strange and “uncertain” to him. But the boy could not judge the distance between himself and objects, could not distinguish one thing from another and recognize the shapes of objects. This was the first confirmation that Molineux's problem had a negative answer.
Sidney Bradford, born in 1906, lost his sight at the age of 10 months. Thanks to a cornea transplant at the age of 52, Bradford regained his sight. Immediately after the operation, he realized what time the clock was showing. He easily determined the distance to objects in a room in which he had previously been without the ability to see objects. But the new world, full of color and movement, intoxicated Bradford. He was afraid of things that he was not able to understand, did not recognize people and objects that he perceived only by touch. Before the operation, Bradford worked as a shoemaker, and continued to work in the same place after receiving his sight - but with his eyes closed. This was the only way he could identify the instruments.
Sydney Bradford
Michael May, blind since the age of three due to kerosene poured into his eyes, regained his sight only at 43. By then he was the world record holder in high-speed ski slalom among the blind. He was always a sporty guy, played football, received a master's degree in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University, and became the head of the Sendero Group, a GPS company for the blind. And after receiving his sight in 1999, he could not recognize his wife. His eyes after the operation, that is, the “iron” itself, should have given him perfect vision. But the brain could not process information the way sighted people process it. One day, while skiing down a mountain, he realized that he was approaching a huge object at high speed and could no longer get around it. It turned out it was a shadow. He continues to use a cane and calls himself a “blind man with sight.”
Michael May
About the next hero, Shirl Jennings, the film “At First Sight” was made in 1999 with Val Kilmer in the title role. By the age of ten, due to the many illnesses suffered during his life, he could only distinguish light from darkness. After the operation, it was very difficult for him to compare the objects he saw with his eyes with those he touched. After his vision, lost at an early age, was restored, he became an artist.
Shirl Jennings painting
The people we talked about became blind before the age of ten. What happens if a person loses his sight at a more conscious age? Shander Herian stopped seeing at the age of 14. He writes that when a person is blind, he imagines what others look like. Not by touching the face or judging height, but by voice and character. Kherian studied, worked, married the woman he loved. Ten years after the wedding, he saw his wife for the first time. The moment he opened his eyes, he immediately recognized her: “I see you” - these were his first words after the operation.
Shander Herian
People who are blind from birth or from an early age and who received sight at a conscious age do not understand why objects moving away from them become smaller. This perception develops in the brain as we grow. This is much more difficult to understand. People exhibit agnosia - they are able to describe the characteristics of objects, but cannot fully recognize the object. They find it difficult to recognize people by their faces, including themselves in the mirror.
Restoring vision sometimes plays a cruel joke. Michael May continued to use a cane after gaining his sight, Sydney Bradford was disappointed with what he saw: after the operation he was attracted to bright colors, but the world mainly consisted of dull tones. In just two years of sighted life, his body was exhausted, after which he died.
On the other hand, Shirl Jennings, having gained sight, was able to become an artist. Despite the difficulty of a blind person understanding depth and displaying three-dimensional objects on a plane, his brain was able to adapt enough for him to begin to engage in visual arts.
The cases described above show that the Molineux Problem has a negative answer. Immediately after gaining sight, a former blind person will not identify a ball and a cube, and only after some time, with a high degree of probability, the brain will compare visual and tactile information. Of course, a lot of this depends on age: children from India were more likely to fully process visual information in their brains than a 52-year-old shoe repairman.
A 2014 study from the University of Montreal confirms this. Experts used MRI to monitor the brain function of a 50-year-old woman before and after surgery to implant an artificial cornea. Eye surgery leads to positive results even in adulthood after a lifetime of blindness. But there is an important nuance - the brain, accustomed to relying on hearing, continued to process sound signals in the visual cortex even seven months after the operation. People who have lost their vision even for several months, including due to accidents or illnesses, are unlikely to regain full vision due to irreversible changes in the structure of the visual centers of the brain. Like skier Michael May, when the hardware was working normally, the software did not allow the patient to see clearly.
They are not ashamed of their blindness
Some blind people may be embarrassed by this due to personality traits, but, as a rule, this does not happen: most blind people perceive their blindness as a difficult task, and not as a limitation. For them, this is not a reason not to enjoy life! In addition, research shows that people who are blind from birth experience less anxiety than people who are sighted.
Not all people with visual impairments are blind
Of all the severely visually impaired people in the world, according to WHO statistics, only 15.88% are completely blind. Others lose partial vision and can perceive color, light or shape, and sometimes even blurry outlines of certain objects.
What is important to know about the blind: 5 facts
Pete Eckert, blind photographer
There are currently more than 285 million people with visual impairments in the world, and this number is expected to triple in the next 30 years. According to the World Health Organization, about 80% of vision problems are preventable, highlighting the importance of regular eye exams. However, many people have already lost the ability to see. How realistic is our perception of blind people? Do such people have dreams? How do they use computers? Here are 5 facts about living with blindness.
- Blind people do not have heightened senses
People who live with blindness do not actually have heightened senses, although they rely on them to navigate the world. It’s just that hearing is the main source of information for the blind, just as for sighted people their vision is. But ordinary people's vision does not become sharper because of what they see and does not turn into a superpower, they just see. Therefore, the idea that blind people have better hearing is incorrect: they simply rely on it to perceive the world.
- Blind people have dreams
One of the most common myths about blind people is that they don't dream. However, people who have lost their sight at a conscious age claim that they dream of images that gradually disappear over time. People who were born blind also have dreams, but without visual images. Unlike sighted people, they hear and even tactilely feel sleep.
- Blind people can use computers and smartphones
Some visually impaired people have partial vision, which allows them to see a computer or smartphone screen using a magnifying glass. However, people with severe vision loss access a computer using assistive technology in two different ways. The first method is to use a Braille display, which connects to a computer and converts text to Braille line by line. The second method is a screen reader that reads the information out loud. This is also implemented on smartphones that have technologies such as TalkBack or VoiceOver.
- Blindness does not mean darkness
Sighted people tend to think that closing their eyes will give an idea of what blind people see. However, this is far from reality. There are different types of vision loss, and in some cases, blind people can see large objects but their vision is out of focus, while others can see colors. People can also see light sources or have tunnel vision, etc. At the same time, people who were born blind cannot say whether they see completely black or not, because they simply cannot perceive and convey it.
- Blind people may not look blind
Blind people learn to interact with the world and live actively, regardless of their visual impairment. It is estimated that only 2% to 8% of blind people use a cane to navigate. Others rely on a guide dog, partial vision, or a sighted assistant. Besides navigation, blind people can do almost everything that sighted people can do: cook, apply makeup, use a computer. With the help of accessible technology and gadgets and their own willpower, blind people can be independent. And sometimes this makes sighted people not believe their eyes.
They have dreams
Yes, yes, blind people are capable of seeing very different dreams - even if they don’t see them, they can feel them in other ways. 18% of them feel taste in a dream, 30% smell something, 70% feel something, 86% hear various sounds.
Gradually in dreams they also lose the ability to see
Those who have gone blind during their lives remember what it is like to see, and so it is natural that they first have dreams with real pictures. But, unfortunately, these dreams are based on memories, and memories have a peculiarity - they dissipate if they are not updated from time to time.
Vibrant colors are modeled through associations
9. Not all blind people came into this world with a congenital defect; many acquired it during their lives. That is why people have such a fresh and keen perception of flowers, they remember how they could previously stand for a long time and admire a beautiful rose, a fragrant lily, or be touched by an ordinary field chamomile. They are now able to model previous perceptions through associations. They remember that the sky is blue and the sun and fire are yellow. Bright colors still have meaning for them.
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They have more nightmares
The nightmares of blind people are related to the reality that is built around them, so, as a rule, they are associated with the fear of getting lost, falling, losing a guide dog, or being hit by a car. They have more nightmares than other people because their stressors cannot be completely eliminated from their lives.
What to do if obvious blind spots appear in your eyes
But this is already a bad call. We are unable to notice a normal, healthy blind spot - for the reasons described above. The only way is to close one eye so that it cannot compensate for the blind spot of the other. But even in this case, the blind spot will be very small, and it will take some effort to catch it. For example, as in the illusion with which this article began.
But if you look at the world with both eyes and at the same time notice invisible zones - as a rule, they have a dull gray color - or when looking with one eye the blind spot has become larger and more noticeable, you need to visit an ophthalmologist as soon as possible. These may be symptoms of Blind Spot in Eye of serious visual impairment.
