Buzz
The definition of 'blindness' is not absolute, as it is the government, rather than medical professionals, who decides who qualifies as 'blind.' In many cases, being 'blind' doesn't necessarily mean a person is completely devoid of sight.
'Total blindness' describes individuals who have no vision whatsoever. 'Legal blindness' is a term used to refer to people who experience significant visual impairment. Though they can still see, their sight is severely limited. Conditions like glaucoma, cataracts, and diabetes often lead to this classification.
This article will focus specifically on individuals who are entirely blind in one or both eyes. Let's explore 10 things that these individuals experience.
10. Void of Sight
"What do you see?" It's a question that many blind individuals are tired of answering. The reply is simple: "Nothing." Nothing as in truly nothing. No darkness, no color—just emptiness. Trying to explain the idea of seeing nothing to someone who has normal vision is akin to attempting to explain color to someone who has never seen.
Is it possible to describe color to someone who has been blind since birth? No. Similarly, blind people struggle to explain the concept of "nothing" to individuals who have had normal vision from birth.
However, there is a way to experience nothing visually. Start by closing one eye, then focus on something with the other eye. Ensure that you're focused. In that instant, the closed eye sees absolutely nothing—not even the blackness you’d notice when both eyes are shut. That 'nothing' you experience with the closed eye is identical to what blind individuals see.
9. Light
In 1923, Clyde Keeler, a Harvard University student, made the groundbreaking discovery that the pupils of blind mice shrank when exposed to light. By this time, we knew that both humans and mice detect light through two photoreceptors (known as retinal photoreceptors) in the retina. Yet, for the mice, these photoreceptors shouldn't have been functioning, since they were blind.
Keeler soon discovered that both humans and mice have a third type of photoreceptor known as 'intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells' (ipRGCs). Unlike retinal photoreceptors, which transmit light information to the brain's image-processing areas to create vision, ipRGCs send light information to other brain regions without contributing to visual perception.
In another experiment, researchers from the University of Montreal conducted a study with three blind participants. The team, led by Gilles Vandewalle, placed the subjects in a room and alternated turning a light on and off. They then asked the participants whether the light was on or off.
The results showed that the blind individuals correctly identified the light's status most of the time. However, there was a condition: the participants' brains had to be actively engaged, or they might fail to detect the change in lighting.
8. Facial Expressions
Humans typically experience emotional contagion, a phenomenon in which someone mirrors the emotions of another, such as smiling when someone else smiles or yawning when another yawns. Blind individuals also experience this, even though they might not fully see you. They can still detect your facial expressions and respond in kind.
This was demonstrated in a study by Marco Tamietto, a researcher at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Tamietto worked with two blind individuals, each of whom lost vision in one eye due to damage to their visual cortex. The visual cortex is the brain area responsible for processing visual information. Damage to this part of the brain alone is sufficient to cause blindness, even without any damage to the eyes.
Tamietto showed the participants images of people smiling or frowning, alternating between their functional and damaged eyes. He found that they responded faster to the images viewed through the eye with the damaged visual cortex compared to the healthy eye. So, if you smile at a blind person, don’t be surprised if they smile back.
7. Everyone Else, Including Themselves (During Near-Death Experiences)
Our understanding of near-death experiences (NDEs) comes from people who have been on the brink of death. Some report walking through a dark tunnel toward a light, others describe encounters with people they know or have never met, and some claim to have observed their own bodies and the surrounding world from an out-of-body perspective.
To demonstrate they weren't merely fabricating stories, some individuals have gone on to describe their environment and events that occurred while they were believed to be unconscious and dying. Some blind people fall into this category as well, with many reporting that they regained their sight during their near-death experience, just after leaving their bodies.
In the 1990s, Dr. Kenneth Ring, a psychology professor at the University of Connecticut, conducted research into reports of blind individuals regaining their sight during near-death experiences. Of the 21 blind case studies he examined, 15 reported regaining their vision during their NDEs. Three reported seeing nothing, and the remaining three were uncertain about what they had seen.
One man described finding himself in a library filled with billions of books and clearly seeing them. Vicki Umipeg, another patient who suffered a serious car accident resulting in a fractured skull, recalled seeing both herself and the doctor performing surgery on her after leaving her body. She then traveled through a tunnel and met people made of light. At the time, she was 22 years old and had been blind since birth.
6. Nightmares
Nightmares stem from the stress and emotions we experience while awake. Research conducted by the Danish Center for Sleep Medicine reveals that individuals who are born blind are four times more likely to have nightmares than those with sight, as they tend to experience higher levels of stress and emotion during their waking hours.
The study involved analyzing the dreams of 50 individuals: 25 blind and 25 sighted. Among the blind participants, 11 were born blind, while the remaining 14 lost their sight later in life. The results revealed that those born blind experienced nightmares 25% of the time, whereas nightmares occurred only 7% of the time for those who lost their sight and 6% for those with normal vision.
The study also highlighted the differences in the dreams of the three groups. Most blind individuals, whether born blind or who lost their sight, frequently dreamt of being in awkward social situations or experiencing car accidents.
However, those born blind never dreamed of seeing anything with their eyes. Instead, their dreams predominantly involved other senses like sound, taste, smell, and touch. In contrast, people who still had sight dreamed of seeing, and those who went blind later in life also experienced visual dreams, although these visions became less frequent over time.
5. Pop-Up Ads
You're here now because you're using the Internet, and like every other user, you're aware of online advertisements. These ads come in many different forms, but the most frustrating and disruptive are pop-up ads—those ads that suddenly appear on your screen and ruin an otherwise smooth browsing experience.
The first pop-up ad code was written by Ethan Zuckerman over 20 years ago. Zuckerman has since apologized for creating this code, calling it the 'Internet’s original sin.' However, it's unclear whether his apology will be accepted by visually impaired users, as these ads have become a major nuisance for them.
For the visually impaired, a pop-up ad is like an unwanted streaker on the Internet. It appears without warning, disrupts whatever task they were engaged in, and remains a hassle until removed. Often, blind users don't even realize they've encountered a pop-up ad and can be several minutes into it before recognizing what's happening.
This happens because blind individuals use screen readers to access the Internet, which reads aloud the page's content. The issue with pop-up ads worsens when the ad doesn’t include a close button. Even when they manage to close the ad, the screen reader restarts from the top of the page, forcing them to hear the entire article again.
Ad blockers could resolve this issue, but some websites don’t allow them because they rely on ads for revenue. Additionally, pop-up ad developers have found ways to bypass ad blockers, ensuring that pop-ups still appear regardless.
4. Movement
At the age of 29, Milena Channing experienced a severe stroke that left her blind. She initially thought she had permanently lost her sight, but she discovered she could still see moving water while bathing her daughter. When she told her doctor, he dismissed it as a hallucination, telling her, 'You’re blind, and that’s it!'
Channing didn’t accept her doctor’s explanation. Over time, she realized she could see moving rain, steam rising from her cup of coffee, and her daughter's swinging ponytail, but she could not see her daughter or any other objects. Doctors later diagnosed her with 'Riddoch’s phenomenon,' a condition where blind people can only see moving objects.
This phenomenon occurred because the stroke spared the part of her brain responsible for processing moving objects. Channing quickly noticed that her 'vision' improved whenever she was in motion, leading her to get a rocking chair to enhance her visual experiences.
3. Everything
Some blind individuals have mastered the use of echolocation to navigate their surroundings. They generate sounds and listen for the echoes that bounce back from obstacles. By analyzing the returning echoes, they can determine the size and position of objects, allowing them to avoid them safely.
This technique is similar to how bats and dolphins use echolocation for navigation. However, there’s a limitation: unlike bats that detect tiny insects, humans need objects to be at least the size of a glass cup to detect them accurately.
Daniel Kish, a blind man, has developed the ability to 'see' through echolocation. He lost his vision to bilateral retinoblastomas, a form of eye cancer, when he was a toddler. Since the cancer could not be treated without removing his eyes, he lost both before reaching 13 months of age.
At just two years old, Ben Underwood lost his sight due to bilateral retinoblastomas. Determined to find a way around his blindness, he developed echolocation skills to navigate the world. He became so proficient that he could walk, ride a bike, skateboard, and play games without the assistance of a guide dog, cane, or even his hands. It was as if blindness didn't affect him at all. Unfortunately, Ben passed away in 2009 when the cancer returned.
2. Color
While those born blind often experience complete darkness, individuals who lose their sight later in life may begin to perceive colors. Damon Rose, a BBC journalist, went blind following a childhood surgery over 31 years ago. These days, he sees vibrant colors—so many, in fact, that they can be overwhelming.
In a piece for the BBC, Rose explained that the colors he sees appear to flash like lights, taking on different shapes and shifting rapidly. Occasionally, one color will serve as the backdrop to another. Interestingly, Rose mentions that the only thing he never sees is darkness, and that’s the one thing he longs for most.
1. Visual Hallucinations
People who are blind can experience Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS), a condition that causes visual hallucinations. While these hallucinations resemble those seen by others, blind individuals are typically aware—or eventually come to realize—that what they are seeing is not real. CBS is common among those who have recently lost their sight, with symptoms lasting up to a year and a half in many cases. However, for some, it can persist for up to five years after blindness occurs.
A 69-year-old man began experiencing CBS six months after losing his vision. He reported seeing unusual shapes, as well as people and animals, including a spider that he even attempted to kill. He also saw familiar individuals sitting beside him, though no one was actually there.
The cause of CBS remains unclear, though researchers suggest that it may be a result of the brain's attempt to compensate for the loss of sight. This theory is supported by a study where 13 individuals were blindfolded for five days to simulate blindness. After just one day, 10 participants began to experience visual hallucinations.
