Ramble for January 24, 2026: blindness. Spectrum or no?
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Pumpkin pie spice latte
Please excuse any errors in the dictation of the following message. As I was dictating I got myself upset so please also excuse the profanity. I do not feel like editing it as I am done with this topic forever on this app. You will never ever hear me respond to anything relating to this topic again on this app. Take care everyone To lonely Road, there is no difference sir. Why are you just confusing yourself and listening to people. OK you don't have to listen to me either but am my opinion, there is absolutely positively 100% no difference. Everyone has a visual impairment. Some peoples visual impairment is very mild. Some peoples visual impairment is so extensive they don't even see light anymore. But it is still a visual impairment. A visual impairment. A visual impairment. I find it unfortunate that people with less vision always want to compare themselves with people that have more vision. It's always us versus them. It's always they don't need anything. They are faking. They are stealing benefits. They don't go through this or they don't go through that or they don't understand what it means to be blind. They do understand. I am low vision sir. I have been low vision for over 40 years. I use a cane because I have to. I use jaws on my computer because I have to. I use VoiceOver on my iPhone because I have to. I use paratransit because I have to. I listen to audiobooks from the National Library Service For The Blind And Print Disabled I received Social Security benefits because I was no longer to do my job and I need to have money to pay my bills because I have to. I take eye drops twice a day because I have to I have had seven eye surgeries because I had to I have a caregiver, not every day, because I have to get help with reading certain things that the apps on the phone will not do. I have to get people to help me fill out forms and sometimes do online transactions because I have to. I can't see colors anymore but other than that, I can still see a lot of stuff. So sir, although I can still see stuff, I still know if it's daylight or nighttime, I can't see very fine objects but I can definitely find a doorway or steps or my washer and dryer my doors my bathroom, etc., but although I can still see all that stuff, I still need a lot of help in other areas. Am I any different than you? Sir, you could take two people with the same exact visual acuity the same exact living situation The same exact age and they live in the same exact town where the services will be the same. However, both of those peoples experiences will be different. One of those people may feel confident enough to be able to work and the other one may not be able to work. One person will use a cane and the other person will not use their white cane. But everything else is the same. Please please please please please world, Ramo, ladies, gentlemen, teachers, therapist, children of all ages, let's stop comparing. Let's stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it I can't stand it. OK, I'm not gonna respond to any more of these post. I'm getting angry and that's of no use. I think it's absolutely positively 100% ignorant for people to try to compare people's level of visual acuity and to say that these people don't deserve this or whatever whatever because they can see more. I'm almost thinking that it's some kind of hatred going on here. Some type of self hatred and jealousy. There's no goddamn need for that. What goddamn difference does it make. I remember when I was going to the blind center here in my town, because I have low vision and it's kind of in the middle, I often had to get help from people who had more vision than me. I appreciated their help. However, there were also people there who had less vision to me and I was happy to be able to assist them with certain things because I had more vision than them. We were all at the same goddamn center. We were all receiving the same goddamn services. So stop it. I'm done. I'm never ever gonna respond to any of these post about this ignorant shit about thinking there's some type of difference and that this side is better than that side this side knows what it's like because they're blind. Fuck that word blind. It's just a goddamn word. What does it mean anyway. I never hear anyone on this app really define blind. They use it. They throw it out there. But they never use it I mean they never defined it. Sir I don't know you and you can block me if you want to. But I'm so tired of this goddamn argument. You're just haters you're just haters. And I mean that for the people that think that there is a difference and that this group is better than that group. Or this group knows what it's like in that group does it. Goodbye 
The lowly rogue
Sunny Stabler
Harmony Finder
Aimee desert peach
Pumpkin pie spice latte
Harmony finder thank you. And you made an excellent point yourself about people exaggerating what they can see more than exaggerating what they can't see. That is so true. In my opinion, some of that of course can be denial like you said, but it can also be embarrassment or even Misunderstandings with their own level of vision. As you start to lose vision, if you had previous vision, you make adaptations. And you continue to do that as your vision decreases. So as we do this sometimes, we don't really realize the extent of our vision loss, I mean the actual acuity. I know I have done that. For a long time I thought that I could see stains or spots on my clothes. I know I could not see them as well as I used to but I really thought I could still see them. But more and more, people would say, oh, do you know you have a spot on that shirt??? The shirt appeared spotless to me but apparently my vision had gotten worse to the point where I couldn't do that anymore. I don't know if that makes any sense. I'm talking about items like perhaps like a white T-shirt type of shirt. 
Harmony Finder
Pumpkin pie spice latte
Hey, first of all, I think you're talking about two different topics and that's a little confusing. You're asking if blindness is a spectrum and then you're also asking can certain people say that they are blind. Those are really two different topics. So I'm gonna go with the title of your post which is is blindness a spectrum. I first want to say that we can just take the word blind out of it. You can ask 100 people  what blind means and you will literally get 100 answers. They won't be completely different of course but those answers too will be on a spectrum. So let's take that word out of it and let me discuss what we're really talking about here which is a visual impairment. So I will ask the question is visual impairment  on a spectrum? Of course it is. I don't know why we all keep fighting that reality. It's like anything else that's on a spectrum. Let's look at the color pink. If you have never seen color, you may not get this reference. But I have. You have shades of pink that go from perhaps blush, to ballerina pink, to baby pink, two breast cancer pink, two light pink, two pink, two dark pink, two fuchsia, Two magenta, etc. Oh I forgot, hot pink. Technically, they are all pink. Most people when looking at those quickly will say oh, that's pink. And then as a blind person you could say, oh what shade of pink??? And hopefully that person will be good with colors and will be able to tell you, oh, that's like a baby pink, or that's like a hot pink, etc. But in the end, it's pink. Just like visual impairments. Yes, some people can still drive, some people can read print perhaps using magnification or extra light or large print, there are those who have some light perception and can see shadows and of course there are those who have zero light perception. So of course visual impairment is on a spectrum.
Chrysalis