Blind people can see

There are many things I've learnt since being diagnosed as Visually Impaired six months ago.  having gradually lost my sight there were many assuptions I made about what "being blind" meant.  Here are a few myths and unusual facts that might help you learn more about the partially sighted and blind.

• About 96% of people who are registered blind have some vision.  It may only be being able to distinguish beween light and dark, having little or no central vision to being able to read.  Most blind people don't see "blackness", as commonly believed.
• Blind people can't hear better than sighted.  However, the brain can compensate by taking advantage of the space in the brain that isn't being used for vision, sharpening the memory.  Blind people may concentrate more on the sound they hear but going blind does not improve hearing.
• Every second someone in the world goes blind.
• Estimates suggest that approximately 37 million people worldwide are blind, with approximateely 124 million having low vision.
• 90% of those people live in developing countries.
• Macular degeneration causes 47.6% of the cases of blindness and partial sight in the UK.
• More than 50% of blindness in the UK is preventable.
• Most cases of sight loss happen in old age.  Due to thre fact that sensitivity of the fingertips decresses with age only 1 in 10 registered blind people can read Braile.(There's also not much choice as only 5% of books ever make it into a Braille version).
• Consequently blind people can't recognise people just by touching their faces. Voices are easier to distinguish but blind people don't have a supersense.
• 90% of blind people regularly watch television thouigh they only get a 50% reduction of the licence fee.  Visually impaired people don;t get any reduction.
• Though people may have other conditions other than just lack of vision, blind and visually impaired people do not need to be shouted at to be understood.  Like a Brit speaking English louder to a foreigner to try toi be understood, a blind person won't appreciate being treated like an idiot at shouted at.
• Musical talent is found in the same proportion of blind people as in sighted.  Being blind does not make a virtuoso.
• Independence is important.  Though blind people sometimes need and appreciate help they don't like suddenly being led if they haven't asked or been asked assistance.
• Speaking personally, I think sighted people can feel unnecessarily awkward with the language they use talking to disabled people.  You really don't have to try and find an alternative to normal everyday phrases like "keep an eye out", "did you see" or "see you next week".  We won't be upset and sometimes it can be turned into something humerous, you've got to keep a sense of humour when you lose your sight.  It's the same reason it doesn't seem strange when someone on TV says "see you tomorrow" when they obviously won't actually "see" you.  I would rather someone warn me of a flying brick than leave it too late whilst trying to think of an alternative phrase to "look out!".