What do blind people see?

As part of Royal Blind Week at the end of last month, the charity challenged people to take some time out to experience what it is like to be blind, whether for an hour or a whole day. Those who took the challenge shared their experiences, talking of how difficult daily mundane jobs became and what they missed seeing, people’s expressions, scenery etc. But what did they see? Most probably they were wearing thick blindfolds so saw complete darkness and I think many would assume this is what a person who is blind would see. However this is rarely the case.

This was highlighted in a recent BBC article , ‘What people see instead of darkness’. One individual, who lost his sight in childhood, says the world is an array of luminous colours and light, seeing swirls of light, spinning circles of colour as you might see in a kaleidoscope.

The article was a follow up to an article by a journalist who lost his sight in his youth and he says one of the things he misses most since losing his sight is darkness. Even although he has had the cord cut between his eyes and his brain, his world still has colour and lots of it, moving, swirling, changing colours.

Some who have been blind since birth describe seeing nothing, no colours, not even darkness. Like what you see out of the back of your head or as another person said it as “like trying to see out of one’s foot”, you literally don’t see a thing.

If you are fortunate enough to have your sight, make sure you look after it.