[nagdu] Impact of visual acuity was Introduction and Questions

[Cindy Ray]

There are sure differences in the degrees of blindness; and of course I think (or at least this is my observation) NFB is tolerating the term "visually impaired" more readily than in the past. Though that may not be by choice. Anyway, that's not the discussion here. Whether we see or don't isn't the only thing that makes us do what we do. I might be slower than someone else in some things and that person might be partially sighted and I might be totally blind, but my totally blind husband might be way faster at it than I am. We are all different, and sight vs. total blindness would not be the only indicator. I think in the current age so much is turning to visual that there are many things becoming more difficult. I also think that it is plenty hard to trust a dog even if you are totally blind, especially when the two of you don't know each other well. I suspect that it gets easier over time, but with my first one I had no trust. So while I think it is fine for people who have usable vision to get a dog if that's what they want and feel they need, i do find it harder to imagine that they develop the trust they need even close to as fast as I did because they will use their eyes to do many things rather than relying on the dog to help them. Of course that, too, depends on the sort of vision someone has, so there is no black and white here. It all seems to me to be shades of gray.