Incredible facts
According to the World Health Organization, in 2013 there were 39 million blind people on our planet.
These are the people who wake up every day and look at life without the help of their eyes.
In truth, every blind person has an amazing story behind them, but there are some unique individuals to whom incredible things happen.
10. The Blind Film Critic
By its nature, film is a visual medium.
.
One might assume that an art form designed primarily for the eyes would not be of interest to a blind person, but not in this case.
Not only does Tommy Edison love watching movies, he also reviews them on YouTube. Even though he was born blind
, Edison always liked watching movies.
Since he started writing reviews three years ago, his videos have attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Edison watches a lot of different films, from The Hunger Games to Reservoir Dogs, but his approach to cinema is completely different.
from how ordinary moviegoers see him.
“I am not distracted by beautiful special effects and attractive people. I watch the movie to see the action"
, he once said. Because he judges films only by what he hears, Edison is not attracted to blockbusters. Although he is a fan of Die Hard.
Even more exciting than his reviews is his second YouTube channel, where he answers interesting questions from his readers. For example, how does a blind person learn to smile, can blind people understand descriptions of flowers, and would Edison want to see if given the opportunity.
Edison's simple but profound personal thoughts provide amazing insight into the world of blind people.
9. The soldier who sees with his tongue
Craig Lundberg was a 24-year-old corporal serving in Bars, Iraq, when his life changed forever. In 2007, a young soldier was seriously injured, resulting in damage to his head, face and hands. Moreover, this accident left him completely blind.
Doctors were forced to remove his left eye, leaving his right eyeball, which also completely lost its function. Suddenly Craig found himself in complete darkness
.
Lundberg took a course on how to live with the help of a guide dog
, when the Department of Defense chose him to test out their fantastic new technology called
BrainPort.
After putting on a pair of dark glasses equipped with a video camera, images from the camera were converted into electrical impulses and sent to a special device located on Lundberg's tongue
.
Scientists are not entirely sure what exactly was at work in this case: the signals passed through the tongue, or through the visual cortex, or through the somatosensory cortex (the part of the brain that processes touch). In any case, Lundberg can now see, in a certain sense of the word.
At that time, the sensation of the device on the tongue, according to the soldier himself, was similar to licking a battery,
Lundberg can "see" two-dimensional images. He was able to identify simple shapes without making unnecessary movements.
Even more amazing is the fact that he can see letters
, which gives him the opportunity to read. While the device is still being further developed, it promises to give Lundberg new life. At the same time, the soldier himself says that he will never get rid of his faithful guide dog.
8. The Explorer Who Conquered the South Pole
Former Royal Navy sailor Alan Lock always dreamed of becoming a submarine officer, but during his training he lost his sight in just six weeks due to rapid macular degeneration.
Locke views the world through “frosted glass with white spots.” However, he did not allow such a small thing as blindness to drag his life downhill. Inspired by his disability, Locke decided to conquer the world.
Between 2003 and 2012, he competed in 18 marathons, climbed Mount Elbrus and became the first blind person to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. However, unsatisfied with this list of achievements, Lock decided to try something else.
With the help of two sighted friends and a guide, the 31-year-old man set off from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole.
Dragging 60 kilograms of cargo on a sled and battling freezing winds, Locke and his companions spent 39 days traveling 960 kilometers, eating dehydrated foods and pieces of butter along the way.
Not only did he become the first blind man to reach the South Pole,
he raised more than $25,000 to help charities that help blind people.
Their other senses may not be heightened
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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.
Tunnel vision
In addition to the completely blind, there are also visually impaired people. People with tunnel vision fall into this category.
According to the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary, “tunnel vision is a painful condition in which a person loses the ability to peripherally (side) view. The image is perceived only within a certain narrow radius falling on the central region of the retina.”
A person with tunnel vision looks as if into a pipe. He does not notice objects moving near him and ceases to orient himself in space. The causes of this disorder can be different, including: oxygen deprivation, serious blood loss, a sharp drop in pressure, hallucinogens and some other drugs, a sharp release of norepinephrine (the “fight or flight” reaction), nitrogen poisoning (caisson sickness), complications of laser therapy, cataracts, glaucoma, retinal degeneration and much more.
The effect of tunnel vision can be temporary (the flow of blood from the head in astronauts and pilots is accompanied by such symptoms) and chronic. There is no single plan to help people with this disease. Some doctors prescribe medication, while others suggest using special devices designed for people with tunnel vision.
These include glasses created on the reverse principle of binoculars. They cover everything that happens from the side. However, this invention is not popular among patients, because reduces objects, thereby interfering with the objective perception of the surrounding world. There are also glasses with cameras that record everything that happens around a person and broadcast the image to small screens.
Is it possible to go blind from a computer after 10 years? We invite you to familiarize yourself with a short list of tips on how to reduce the harmful effects of tablet, PC and smartphone monitors on children’s vision.
- If you try to hide all this equipment from the kids for a long time, there will be no trouble. Remember that all these technologies are not recommended for children under two years of age.
- The older your child is, the more time he can spend on the PC: from 3 to 5 years – 15 minutes. per day, 6-7 years - 20-25 minutes, 8 years - 40 minutes, 9-10 years - no more than 1.5 hours (necessarily with breaks).
It will be much more difficult to control your child later, since he will already become quite old. And even today, 1.5 hours a day on a PC is too little, since almost all preparation for lessons is carried out using this machine.
It’s better to teach your child to do eye exercises and take breaks every hour. Teach your child by example - it won’t hurt you to work like that either. As long as vision exists, it must be protected, and not saved when it is already hopelessly damaged.
Distance is the law. Teach children from an early age how to properly operate any computer devices. And here it is not only important to maintain the correct distance, correct posture also plays a big role.
They can and should be asked questions about their illness.
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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.
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?
They don’t always need the help of sighted people
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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!
What if you already have myopia?
Some people wonder if it is possible to become computer blind if you are nearsighted. Experts recommend that people with myopia reduce their working hours at the PC, take breaks more often, and relax on vacation and on weekends.
Doctors also advise performing eye exercises (movements in directions, squinting, rotation, etc.) and general strengthening exercises. They say that under normal working conditions the progression of myopia can be stopped.
Doctors say that it is best in this case to work 3-4 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon with hourly breaks of 15 minutes. On weekends you need to rest, as an exception, a couple of hours at the PC, no more. It is not recommended to work in the evening or at night. Take care of your eyesight and be healthy!
They don't all use a cane
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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
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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
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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 fit into society just like everyone else
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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.
Hygiene rules
So is it possible to go blind from a computer? Active use of PCs is fraught with excessive eye strain (as we discussed above) and even a decrease in visual acuity. Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely avoid such damage. At the current level of technology evolution, there is no extremely reliable protection against the influence of a monitor.
And yet the harm to the computer can be minimized. It is enough just to follow the rules of visual hygiene. If a person spends too long looking at the monitor, his eyes will get tired. But even those who spend up to 14 hours at a PC every day do not lose their vision. This is dictated by the ability to provide acceptable eye protection.
You should look away from your PC monitor every 20 minutes. It is enough to look out the window or into the distance for just 20 seconds. It is also necessary to remember that glare on the monitor increases eye fatigue. To prevent vision impairment, place the monitor below eye level. This will prevent pain from occurring in the neck.
The ideal distance from the visual organs to the PC screen is considered to be 50-70 cm. But if this is not met, there is no need to bend or stretch to achieve the required position. It is important that you do not feel discomfort when working at the computer.
Their success depends on us
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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
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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.
This is how people with astigmatism see the world
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.
In an eye with a refractive error, misaligned lines of light prevent light rays from focusing correctly. As a result, a person sees a blurry image.
There are two different types of astigmatism: corneal astigmatism, where misalignment of light rays is caused by the cornea, and lens astigmatism, where misalignment of light rays is caused by the lens.
Both conditions cause blurred vision. In some cases, vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines may appear blurry. This condition most often occurs in combination with other vision defects such as nearsightedness or farsightedness.
They are not ashamed of their blindness
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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.
