Questions and debates about blindness:

Hear Again said:
you and typeingtornado can get away with doing that because you both can see, but i can't. reading what you've written wouldn't make any sense to me in braille.
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I just used several braille shortcuts in the past two posts. Did you notice?
 
D'oh. And there I was all excited hoping I could pass under the radar. <sullen>

I'm just kidding around. I hope you can understand I'm not talking about using shortcuts for anything official or formal. It's just for my personal notetaking. And in that case all that matters is that I understand. It takes less type to write out, for example, "ll" instead of "little" when I'm trying to keep up with my professor's lecture.
 
...but you're not using shortcuts per se. you're using grade II braille which is a contracted form of braille represented by short form words. grade III braille would be a good example of using shortcuts.
 
Hear Again said:
...but you're not using shortcuts per se. you're using grade II braille which is a contracted form of braille represented by short form words.
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I'm using the contractions which are part of the Grade II braille. I can't use shortcuts because the dot combinations are not translatable (except in a few cases like / for st and # for ble). But I can use the contractions. Plus since it's for my own personal usage or with someone I've made an agreement with, then all that matters is that I understand my own notes or that the person I'm communicating with understands.

Do you see what I'm saying?
 
no, i don't because what you're saying is that you're using shortcuts when you're not. what you're actually using is grade II braille. the "shortcuts" you've described are not exclusive to anything. rather, they are standard short form words used in grade II braille.
 
Okay you were getting caught up in terminology. I was using the word "shortcuts" so that other posters who aren't familiar with Grade II braille understood what I mean. Contractions, shortcuts, whatever you want to call them. I was referring to the shortened forms of certain words in Grade II braille.
 
Nika said:
Okay you were getting caught up in terminology. I was using the word "shortcuts" so that other posters who aren't familiar with Grade II braille understood what I mean. Contractions, shortcuts, whatever you want to call them. I was referring to the shortened forms of certain words in Grade II braille.
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thank you for that clarification.
 
Dumb question number 3,786: why do some blind people have off color, cloudy eyes? I assume that it's from some kind of trauma?
 
society's_child said:
Dumb question number 3,786: why do some blind people have off color, cloudy eyes? I assume that it's from some kind of trauma?
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this is due to the eye disease that they have. for example, blind people who have congenital cataracts can have eyes that look very opaque. i happen to have juvenile cataracts that i was born with and i've been told by all of my opthalmologists that they make my eyes look as if they have a cloudy film over them although for the most part they are clear.
 
off-color eyes can also be due to jaundice or lack of vitamin a -- something i also had as a newborn.
 
Hear Again said:
this is due to the eye disease that they have. for example, blind people who have congenital cataracts can have eyes that look very opaque. i happen to have juvenile cataracts that i was born with and i've been told by all of my opthalmologists that they make my eyes look as if they have a cloudy film over them although for the most part they are clear.
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Oh I see. Thanks.
 
society's_child, here are some more causes for off-color eyes.

Head trauma--sometimes head trauma leads to having scar tissue on parts of the eyes, which can make them look diseased or disfigured. Glaucoma can make your eyes look red. Grave's Disease (a thyroid disorder) and uveitis/iritis can also make your eyes look red, puffy, or jaundiced. Grave's disease can also cause your eyes to bulge out (exophthalmos). Most eye diseases that are in the front part of the eye (anterior segment) are visible to others. However, not all of them cause blindness, though, so someone may have diseased-looking eyes and yet still be sighted.

Most causes of blindness that are in the retina, optic nerve, or brain are not visible on the eyes. Sometimes they can be if there is another condition, for example someone with optic atrophy (loss of fibers of the optic nerve) might have eyes that shake or dance (nystagmus) as their brain's attempt to compensate for the decrease in visual stimuli.

Cataracts (clouded lenses) usually make someone's eye's look cloudy and whitish. A cancer of the retina (retinoblastoma) can make a person's pupil look white, especially in photographs.

Hope that answers some of your questions.
 
Nika said:
society's_child, here are some more causes for off-color eyes.

Head trauma--sometimes head trauma leads to having scar tissue on parts of the eyes, which can make them look diseased or disfigured. Glaucoma can make your eyes look red. Grave's Disease (a thyroid disorder) and uveitis/iritis can also make your eyes look red, puffy, or jaundiced. Grave's disease can also cause your eyes to bulge out (exophthalmos). Most eye diseases that are in the front part of the eye (anterior segment) are visible to others. However, not all of them cause blindness, though, so someone may have diseased-looking eyes and yet still be sighted.

Most causes of blindness that are in the retina, optic nerve, or brain are not visible on the eyes. Sometimes they can be if there is another condition, for example someone with optic atrophy (loss of fibers of the optic nerve) might have eyes that shake or dance (nystagmus) as their brain's attempt to compensate for the decrease in visual stimuli.

Cataracts (clouded lenses) usually make someone's eye's look cloudy and whitish. A cancer of the retina (retinoblastoma) can make a person's pupil look white, especially in photographs.

Hope that answers some of your questions.
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Very interesting! Especially the part you mentioned about nystagmus. I often wondered about darting eyes. I just figured it was something that couldn't be controlled.
 
actually society's_child, you are correct. nystagmus can't be controlled because it is an involuntary movement of the eyes. (in my case, i've had circular and horizontal nystagmus since birth.)
 
Nystagmus is involuntary and usually leads to an acquired head tilt in people with some vision. That means that they will usually position their head at a weird angle because their eyes dance the least when they look in a certain position. For example, someone whose eyes dance the least when they are looking up might tilt their head downwards so that their eyes are looking up when they are looking straight ahead.
 
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people also tend to move their head physically from side to side when reading a book to compensate for their nystagmus.
 
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