IamA Blind Person AMA!

What is personally the hardest thing you deal with, being blind?

Not having a girlfriend to hug and show me affection when I'm nervus.

Me too brother. Me too.

Frustrating isn't it?

Hey man, hang in there.

Thanks. I'm okay, I will keep looking :)

I see what you did there..

^{do you?}

^{I'm sorry}

Oh you didn't? That's it, I'll be seeing you later to have words... :)

TIL I'm blind

Really? Where are you from, would you like me to find info on blindness organizations that might be able to help you get used to it?

Your screen reader may have messed up there.

He's actually joking about also not having a girlfriend.

Ah. You see, I looked up TIL and it means in internet slang, Today I learned. So TIL I'm blind would kind of make sense, no? Today i learned I am blind. I might have put TIL i'm going blind but yeah.

Yes, but it was in response to this:

ianiskorean What is personally the hardest thing you deal with, being blind?

bradley22 Not having a girlfriend to hug and show me affection when I'm nervus.

Vociferix TIL I'm blind

Ah, okay.

How many fingers am I holding up ✌?

7.

How are you reading and typing atm?

How much of the internet are you able to access and enjoy? How could we do a better job of making the internet more accessible to people with diminished or no eye sight?

Can I just start by saying thank you so much for asking this question. I have already answered it on another thread but that's fine! the more who know about this the better.

I was tought to touch type at a young age.

I use screen reading software called NVDA. It tells me what is on the screen when I use keyboard commands, more commonly known as shortcuts.

How much of the internet can I use?

Nearly all of it. Youtube, facebook, twitter, reddit, tuns of other sites. However just because I can use the sites does not mean every blind person can. Not every image is labled correctly, not every link has nice text and not every edit box has a lable associated with it.

Please read this link if you have a website and would like to make it user friendly for those of us with low vision or no sight.

https://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/

thanks for the answer.

i was thinking that the internet in time could make learning for people with disabilities as good as, or in time superior to, mainstream education.

Oh trust me the amount of accessibility built into products such as apple IPads IPhones and so on is so great. There are people who cannot speak who use these products to comunicate. Yes they had boxes on which a user would record audio, ,but these, 1. cost a lot of money and 2. they had a limited storage sspace and whilst the apple products do to, you can do a lot more with them. If you have the knollege you can go on facebook like me and tuns of other things. I am blind and can speak but for those that cannot there are ways. Technology is improving the lives of disabled and blind people all the time.

When you dream, do you dream in reflections and light shapes? If you've never seen anything other than that, how does the brain formulate that into actual imagery?

Hi. I dream in feelings. I can tell you of two dreams.

1. The wobbles dream or astral projection,. I suddenly am aware of brad. I then hear some nice music, it is ascending and descending. Wen it ascends, I rize up and float nicely. When it descends I float back down. This happpened at least 20 times. It was very peaceful.

2. The tunnel dream or astral projection. I was aware of my meness like before but this time I was in a tunnel. I could flip and dive and sore and loop the loop and there was no issues. It was awesome!

That is beautiful

Thank you.

Who is brad?

Oh sorry. that's me. My name is Bradley but I prefer Brad.

Oooo. Third person type thing. Gotcha.

Cool. :)

Do you ever get depressed that you are blind or is it just your normal?

It's just normal depression. It's not because i'm blind.

/r/me_irl

You know that that is a reddit page with pictures on it, right? Pictures I can't see? Meemes I believe they're called.

Memes*

Ah thanks. Memes. Got it.

What just happened

What do you mean?

I just watched a blind person correct a typo. What a world we live in.

Speaking of which, it was my understanding that the screen was read out to you to know what's on it? How do you know the difference between spellings?

Was it me that corrected the spelling? If so, I don't remember doing that. :) As for spellings,, it is hard sometimes. herd and heard, there and their, colour and color, armor and armour. They all sound the same to the screen reader so sometimes I have to read carefully.

What do you like to do in your free time?

How do you pick out clothes?

How's your sex life?

Hello. I enjoy meditation, eating, hanging with friends, watching (I say watching even though I'm listening,) movies/tv with audio description and dramas too. I also enjoy reading reddit posts and enjoying life to the best of my ability.

I watch a youtuber thats blind that review movies. He would be good a suggesting movies. He liked La la land a lot especially emma stones voice

Ah. Tommy Edison. :)

What about anime? They basically state every single action, I imagine that would be good for the blind viewers

They don't. Yes dragon ball z and animes like that have inner diolog and you're right, I could sit there and listen to a couple of programs but i'd get bored quite quick. I once was kind of adicted to the Anime Bleach, I think that's how you spell it. Having said that, there are blind people who really like anime. I'm just not one of them really.

Ahh I see. I'm a big TV buff, and I think it would be a worthwhile endeavor to catalog TV shows based on how entertaining the audio is by itself.

Have fun with that... That would take Thousands of hours. It could be fun though, if you're into that kind of thing. Kind of like me sorting through my music collection.

What kind of music do you like?

Eastern music. Arabic, Chinese, Indian clasic, chanting. Western music, Clasical music, some country because of harmonising,, celtic music,, old english folk songs. I can't remember anymore music genres I like at the moment.

sex life is nonexistent based on this answer

This is true. I did have a girlfriend however it didn't work out so yeah, no sex life for me at the time of this writing.

"i'm sorry, babe, but i can't see this working out between us"

okay, i don't know if self-irony in general is funny to you (girls dig it though) ... i'd make puns like that until it pisses people off.

I "see" what you didd there. I make fun of my blindness all the time, don't worry. :P

That's awesome!

Just too bad you didn't catch the John Cena pun! :)

I think I may have... but I'm unsure. cena as in see, right?

John Cena's catchphrase is "You can't see me" and there's quite a few puns out there about it. :)

Oh shit,, so it is... Nice one.

Non existent at the moment.

How does attraction to another person, male or female, work for you?

Well I like females with a bit of a belly and I like the sounds of a womans belly and heartbeat for some strange reason. So if she let me listen to her tummy and rub it for her to make her feel relaxed, I'd be Happy. Also the personality has to be funny loving and caring. Perhaps stern when needed but I am unsure whether I'd go with that. If you have more questions on this, feel free to ask.

Those aren't her bellies. ;)

Ha. :)

I dunno how your typing software works, but if it has some kind of autocorrect, I just wanted you to know that you've typed "nervous" without the "o" a couple times on this thread.

Thank you. It's not auto correct. I am typing this message using a normal keyboard and TTs, (text to speach.) My spelling isn't the best. :) Thanks, I'll remember how to spell Nervous now.

How do get used to computer readers that sound like Chipmunks on meth?

Are you modest with wearing clothes and so forth vs being caught naked?

Do you suffer from non 24? That is apparently a problem with blind people who don't sleep at night because it is always dark to them?

Hello. 1. You can find speach packages that don't sound like that. I'm very used to a robotic sounding one because I grew up on it.

1. The clothes thing, honestly not really. I mostly go around the house in my housecoat and teashurt and pants. When there are kids around I try to remember to put trousers on. :)

2. I think i may have non 24 yeah.

"When there are kids around I try to remember to put trousers on."

Someone put this in the out of context sub

yeah, I think that's enough redditing for me for tonight. I'm tired, I'll answer more questions tomorrow.

Keep posting and hopefully i'll come back to lodes of questions to answer.

I promice I don't walk around naked when I am with the family, like I said it's housecoat and everything else undernieth like trousers and shirt oh and pants, can't forget the pants.

I'm off to sleep before I write more badly wordings.

I work as a web developer and worked a lot with ARIA (Accesible rich internet app). I know you can solve a lot of stuff with a screen reader but which complications have you encounter with pages that are not properly labeled?

ARIA is great for web access. I haven't worked with it much so I could be completely missing the point. Anyway here goes. If reddit added ARIA to their upvote and downvote buttons, would it be possible for us screen reader users to hear something like, you upvoated bringing the upvoated to 10. It would be a shorter message than that but yeah what do you think as a web developer? Is it possible?

I think it could be a label read when you Focus on the Up/down vote button. Screen readers read according to what you are focusing. It might be possible to rise some kind of event on each vote, but i'm not really sure how Will It work. Never needed to do something like that.

Sure. I know it can be done. I actually helped a site put that in place. I didn't write it myself but I introduced it to a UK snack company called graze or graise, i'm not sure how you spell it. I was quite proud of myself for showing them the sites and going from there. They were very commited to screen reader access after i emailed them. So we went from a site that wouldn't allow you to like/love/bin your snacks because you'd not know what you were doing, to a fully accessible system in 2 weeks.

That's terrific!

Yeah,, it is. :)

Well you've got: badlhy labled graphics, links that are read as a string of letters, edit boxes that don't have a <id> tied to them and all of that kind of stuff.

You know, I think ARIA should be addded to more buttons like for example a facebook button on a website; when you click on it, nothing informs you that you've liked that page or site. You have to go back and check.

In some countries is legally requiered to comply with some minimal ARIA rules to have a website. (Sorry about my english, It is not my first language)

I understand. Thank you for your message.

Do you cook? If so how? booty

First I have a question. do you, in your oppinion have a nice one? A booty that is. :) I can't cook at the moment but that is because of my parents and because I am lazy. Blind people can cook, I believe you can look up cooking if you're blind on youtube and watch a couple videos.

One of the master chef USA winner was blind. Best season ever.

Yep. Crisstine, I believe her name was. I think she writes a blog too.

can you recall a bad dream you've had, what kind of things where there, can you describe a bit? thanks

Sure. I am very nervus when it comes to dentists and have a tooth that probably needs a filling, (I'm going in a couple of weeks and am taking baby steps, first is just a check up and I! decide where we go from there.) In the dream my tooth fell out and that was great, but then I woke up and it was still there. So kind of a mixture of bad dream/sad dream.

Hello everyone.

If you want to help the blind for free and you have an Iphone, check out bemyeyes.com/

It is an app that allows blind people to get help from sighted people using the camra and video function on their phone.

The blind person, once he or she has signed up, connects to the survice and then will be put through to a sighted person who can then describe what they see. The blind person might ask questions such as; what writing is on this box? How long does it say my chicken has to cook for? What color are these socks? Anything really.

So if you want to help the blind and feel good while doing it, check out be my eyes. Thanks.

How do you know when to stop wiping?

So many people want to know this. I'm sorry but search through both AMA and I am a threads to find that out.

If you enter a room and throw something onto the floor do the sound waves bounce of everything in the room so you can "see". What I mean to say is do you have built in sonar? I mean... are you basically a bat or a whale. Are you bat bro?

I actually can use echolocation to find doors, walls,, steps and so on. I have to be in a quietish place to do it though. Some people can use echolocation in louder places but not me. As for soundwaves, if I drop something usuallly I'll know where it is due to me hearing it hit the floor and if I don't know; then I will at leasst have a rough guess. Oh and yes, I am bat bro, how did you know?

What do you think about when you mastrubate?

As I like female tummy sounds, heartbeat sounds and moaning sounds, I look at videos of this kind of stuff. Unforchenetly I am unable to treuly masturbate. I think it is because there isn't a woman with me. I can get hard but that's about it.

That sucks. Sounds like you need a vacation in Thailand.

Sure. You gonna pay for it? Or help me get there? There's no blindy groups for traveling or if there is,, they're way to expencive and you must do what they say.

You could try to crowd fund it I suppose.

Why can't you find a girlfriend though? I cant imagine most girls would find blindness to be a deal breaker. I have a blind friend who is married... and she has severe damage to her face. She was blinded by debris that fell off of a highway overpass.

I just remembered. I did try to ask a sighted girl out. I got let down nicely, she had a boyfriend. So perhaps i can find a girlfriend, I've just got to wait and take my time.

You should get a friend to help you make an online dating profile. There are most definitely a lot of girls you could date.

Just be positive! Being blind isnt going to be a turn off at all if you have the right kind of attitude and are genuine and nice. Most people are going to find that interesting and will be curious just like everyone in this AMA.

Thank you but the only friend I have is blind like me. Dating sites are not very good with screen reading software.

What are your favorite podcasts?

I don't listen to podcasts to be honest. Having said that; I know there's a no sleep podcast and reddit thread. There is also Chillling tales for dark nights. If you like horror, check both of them out and you won't regret it, or perhaps you will...

What is the craziest explanation you have gotten from someone trying to describe colors or a specific color to you?

It was today on reddit. we had gotten around to talking about black people. I was asking how they can be black when black is a lack of color. The person says something like, black people aren't really black they're brown and slowly get browner... Imagine grey, like that. Sorry you might not know what grey is. Then I had a think... I have come to the realisation that the sighted world is confusing as hell. Right. so you've got grey clouds, and grey is another word for dark, and dark is another word for black... So these clouds are dark as in "grey" but if they're dark as in "black" how do people see them? Lol i'm only messing with you, this was sort of a convosation I had today on an AMA thread but you must admit to a blind person this color business is confusing...

It's confusing in the real world too. Some black people can be just as light or lighter than a white person. Indian people can also be just as dark if not darker than black people but they aren't considered black. Go figure!

Wow. i'm glad I'm not sighted! I'd have to figure out how the colors thing works. I think my head would explode.

As a seeing person, I can confirm that "the color thing" is indeed confusing! In many cultures, people still choose to segregate people based on the colors of their skin in order to "better understand" how they differ from each other. What a backwards way of understanding a person. How could one glance at an individual and summarize that persons' upbringing, culture, preferences etc? It's disgusting and far too common.

Yep. Wasn't/isn't that an american thing? I mean there's a place for black people and white people can't go there or something? It's all very silly and confusing to me. I don't know if we have that in the uK. Well there is Chinatown I guess, but many torrists walk through there every day.

Although the vast majority of "black" people are in fact brown skinned, some black people are actually black or at least so close to black as to be indistinguishable.

A quick google tells me Sudanese people are known to be the darkest skinned people.

The people I have seen in person who are this dark always seem to have beautiful flawless skin.

Wow. Thanks for that. This is very interesting to me. If black is the lack of all color, and you've seen people who are nearly black or black, what do you see? I mean; you can't see a lack of color can you? I'm actually not sure.

what is your biggest fear?

It is

1. The dentist, (I am working on that in my own time. This is very important to me as I will not rush this) I've been told on the mud I play that it sounds like excuses when I tell them I am afrade of the dentist and have decided not to mention it on there again. It is not an excuse. I have panic attacks and anxiety along side depression.

2. Being squashed and unable to breathe. (I was on a very small ride once for kids, but I wasn't aware it was for kids and the bars came down and squashed my chest. Lucky for me I managed to make a sound or my face might have changed color because someone started shouting and they released the bars.)

We are in 2017.Do not worry about dentist. There is no pain.40 years ago they were torturers but not today

I once went to get some teeth pulled, maybe 3? 4? Not sure, but they injected me with novocaine, and it hurt like hell for every tooth. Then, after all the teeth were pulled, so I was so ready to be done. Then, they decide to PULL AN EXTRA TOOTH. I screamed like a dying animal. TL

Thanks for the lovely storie. lol.

Change dentist.My dentist pulled my 4 wisdom teeth and i felt nothing.Also, he did not pull all in same day. It was one per day.If a dentist hurts me i never go back to him. Same thing with restaurants, i never go back if food was crap last time.

Hi. Thanks for trying to help. I will take this at my own spead and go from there. If they hurt me intentionallly, then yes I will change dentists. I'm a little nervus of the injection but as i said, i'll get there in the end.

Thank you. I know you're trying to help and I do apreciate it but I am still going to worry because that is part of my condission.

Thank you once again and I am sure I'll be okay.

As long as I have trust with my dentist and he or she knows when i say no, it means no. I'll have to face it another day and I'm okay with that.

I get it. Sometimes you just have those fears that don't make sense but you can't get rid of them anyway. I know someone with an irrational fear of getting her eyes checked out at the the optometrist. She is afraid of being "judged" or "patronized" by the person doing the chart test (where they flip between lenses and ask which is better). She is afraid of being told that her vision getting worse, which ironically makes it hard for her to get treatment which may keep it from getting worse.

If you have that kind of fear of the dentist, I get that no amount of "it's going to be okay" will help. Good for you for going anyway.

Thank you very much. As for those peple saying it's going to be okay, I don't mind it. They are trying to help and in the end, it probably is going to be okay. :)

Thanks for doing this AMA. What caused your blindness? Also when you say you can see reflections of windows what do you mean exactly? Is it the light from the windows or do you see color and some kind of detail there?

thanks

No problem. I was born with sight for about five seconds I think. Then I lost it; due to oxygen breaking the retinas in the eyes. I then had ROP.

I am able to see reflections as in the sun shines in my eye, hits the glass and I can see it because it's a huge sheet of reflective glass.

How do objects look in your mind? For example: cars, screens, silverware or shapes: square, circle, rectangle

Well, I know what shapes are because i've touched lodes of them. I can "see" them in my mind. If I try to imagine a car I imagine my grandads car. I can even feel the seats. Hey! I have a new game! I must try to imagine as many things as i can. Thanks Twolion, you've just made me a new game!

Has anyone ever taken advantage of your condition? for instance, giving you smaller bills back in change, or anything like that?

Also, what do you base your attraction to others on? Voice? Personality? Or do you still desire physical beauty, that can be felt with your hands for instance?

Nope. I'm in the UK, in London where the notes are different sizes. If I was in the US I'd be using the money identifier app on my phone all the time as the notes are the same size.

Hello again. I like the feel of a woman. I like a woman with a bit of a belly as I find them soft and snuggley. So I would have to say personality and touch are my main ways of knoing beauty.

What is your opinion on the superhero Daredevil?

I honestly don't have one. I watched (Listened) to the movie and a couple of eps of the dair devil series. I wasn't that interested.

Have you seen listened to the book of eli? Morgan Freeman's character is speculated to be blind, although with a pretty good aim for even a sighted person.

Was that the one where the guy gets the braille bible in the end or something? I read about that somewhere.

Do you play any video games? I've seen a video where a blind person played mortal Kombat.

I used to when I was younger. I used to play MK, Dragon ball Z and games like that. I now listen to let's players like Markiplaier and Jacksepticeye who are both great at fillling me in on what is going on in the games. Plus they both read text on the screen.

If ever given a chance to see something or some place, (not someone) what would you like to see?

I don't know. Perhaps France but then if i'd just gotten sight, i'd have to get used to it and that could take years.

I am very curious, how is your quality of life? I've always felt extremely bad for blind people, not being able to see and enjoy many things in life. I wonder what it's like and how they keep on living.

Hello. My life is fine. I live in the UK in London. There are lodes of disability orgonisations, (I don't use them but they're there,) and things like that. How about you ask more questions and we go from there? I think you will have an interesting point of view.

What is your perception of major world problems? How do you "see" things in our culture?

If you mean world hunger. I give to a food bank when I can and I sign change.org petitions to help. It's one little thing but I hope with me signing the petitions and giving the food, i'm helping a little bit. When it comes to peliticle stuff, I'm honestly not interested one bit. Although I do wish I'd voted stay when voting for Brexit. I didn't fully understand it and my family kind of roaped me into it. I have decided that if I cannot understand a thing, I will not vote as then I cannot feel guilty for something I did not do.

Have you tried the Be My Eyes app which lets sighted people assist blind people? Info http://bemyeyes.com/

As a sighted person, I've tried it but never get a call to ask for assistance

I have tried it and it is great. I use apps like that to help me read bottles, jars, tubes and so on. I wish I could help you but you can't select who you talk to on the app.

How are you replying to comments? The use of a screen reader would imply dictation software/voice to text, but your replies so far have several words written phonetically - which wouldn't happen with voice to text.

Did you learn to touch type and spell words as you hear them? How did you learn to write? This is fascinating, thank you for taking the time to do this

It's no problem. I'm sorry my spellling isnt' that good. Yes, I learned to touch type from a young age at school. We had spelling lessons in English class, I wasn't that good. :) As for screen readers; they do not require dictation. All screen readers I have used,, and I've used nearly all of them, do not have a dictation function. The only one that does is voiceover and that is simply because it's in the IPhone as a built in feature.

Your spelling is fantastic! I'm sorry if I implied that I thought otherwise. It blows my mind that you can write without being able to see, I can't even imagine it

Thank you.

Are your other senses upgraded?

In movies like Daredevil and in some myths, they say if one of your senses close, others will open more.

I don't believe so. I just think we as blind people use them more.

How do you feel about blind people's representation in the media, mainly film? What would be your ideal plot of a film that stars a blind person? And another question: what films do you think get it right? I know there are certain technologies that can make film accessible, and I'm researching them now. I hope that when I get to the point of making a film accessible for a blind person, that they enjoy the story and feel validated by it in the best way possible.

Hi. First off thanks for your questions.

1. I feel that blind people in the media should be played by, blind people. As far as I know it has always been sighted people who play blind people.

2. Thank you for looking into making film more accessible. There is a way of doing that called audio description.

IF you'd like me to show you a couple trailers on youtube of AD go ahead and ask.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hopefully promoting pease and love to as many as I can.

First off, I want to be your friend. You sound like a nice guy! Let's be pen pals!

Anyways here is a question. Do other people tell you you're attractive? Like so many people find you attractive by standard norms?

Also, if you could of had the choice, would you have rather been deaf or blind? Personally I find this question very conflicting. I don't know how I could ever live without things like music, but I also don't know how I could live without sight.

Do you have a fear of heights? Or anything really?

Hi. sure we can be pen pals. To answer your questions.

1. No. No one has ever told me that.

2. I'd rather be blind but that is only because that is all I know. If I was born deaf I'm sure I'd say the same thing about deafness.

3. I have a fear of the dentist which I am working on with my grand parents, it will take a long time but i'm sure i'll get there in the end. I also have a fear of being squoshed. I was on a ride once and i wasn't aware it was for kids, the bars came down and lucky for me someone saw I was struggleing and shouted to get the attention of the people on the ride. They presssed a button and the bars were lifted.

are you blind or legally blind? I went to middle and high school with a girl who was legally blind and always told everyone she was completely blind to get special treatment.

Ah. I can see light and shadows. So I'd say I'm completely blind.

how was middle school as a blind Guy? How did you manage to learn maths? Have you felt discriminated any time for being blind?

I went to a school for the blind. Learning maths was okay but i've forgotten it all now and no i've not felt discriminated against for being blind.

Hello everyone!

I have just come across a great app for those of us who would like to kepe fit.

It's called Aaptive and it combineds music with audio instructions given by trainers.

I love it because as a blind person this really helps me out.

I have written to the team asking whether they could make it a bit more accessible. I am hoping they get back to me.

It is free to download however you do have to pay a monthly fee. You can if you wish try it for I think it's 10 days. I'd highly recommend it if you want to do some walking, running, streching, yoga, meditation and quite a bit more.

Here are some links if you want to find out more about the app and download it to try it out.

Ios: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aaptiv-1-audio-fitness-app/id869058995?mt=8

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aaptiv.android&hl=en_GB

Enjoy, Brad.

What is your idea of a perfect date?

I like women with a bit of a belly and hugs. She would need to be very willing to hug and have a good sense of humor. I don't know where we'd go or what we'd do but as long as i get my hugs and she can apreciate that I really enjoy contact, then I'd be happpy.

Hell yeah when in doubt hug it out :)

Yep. :)

Can you cook your own food without any sort of assistance?

I used to learn how to cook in college but now because my nan does it for me, i've forgotten most of it.

If you could choose one past experience that you wish you could of experienced through sight, what would it be and why? Also you are one strong individual to do this. One of my biggest fears is losing my sight, I deal with chronic pain and I just couldn't imagine how tough it would be without seeing anything. But if there's one thing I've learned is, do not let your disability stop you.

Thank you.

I think I would choose meating Joy for the first time. She was a helper in my school and I had a crush on her. She had a chubbby belly that was quite loud and I found that to be a turn on for some strange reason.

Can you figure out why I would want to see her? Yep you got it, masturbation picture of corse. :). The problem with me and being blind is,, I knew she had a nice body, the idea of the nice body thing was in my head but it had no connection with anything. Basicly if I got guided by her, I could touch and enjoy the experience of the nice body, but as soon as I had stopped being guided and was no longer touching her, Poof! it's gone. Does that make sense?

Yes that makes sense. You will find love, everyone does. Don't stress, because with time it will come.

Thanks. I hope so.

Do you have a girl friend?

I wish. I wwent on a date a couple of days ago with a woman with autism, she is very nice but not my type. I got hugs though so that was great. Oh and free food too. (It wasn't the best food but it was free.) If you're wondering I signed up to a website called flame introductions. Wel it is a dating agency and I had to fill out the form in person. It has a disabled and or blind section and non disabled section.

That sucks. Since you're blind do you rely on family members to help you with certain task or are you completely independent?

I rely on my nan for some things. For example; my nan cooks and cleans my room. I take the washing down and do my bed but she uses a steamer to steam the flors. Apart from that, I'm indipendant. I go on busses on my own, trains, taxis, I've even been to a place called covent garden on my own. It's a place that has some stores like an apple store and restaurants. Oh and sometimes there's live bands and singing. It's quite nice.

Do you think you can be totally independent if you're living with a blind girlfriend?

PS: thanks for this AMA

You can,, yes. There's going to be things you can dothat she can't and she can do that you can't. You'd learn from one another and keep learning.

How do you keep yourself busy?

I do many things. I'll read harry potter fan fiction. Go on facebook, Check whether I have any change.org emails, or any emails in general, go to restaurants with my friend Amin, go out on my own, play audiogames. (audiogames are games made in audio for blind people sometimes by blind people and sometimes not. They're okay but videos are better as they have more people working on them at a time.)

Wow, what about movies? Can you watch movies or are they call audio-movies?

I can watch movies. I have over 2000 movies on my external hard drive with audio description. Audio description or AD is a track that plays along side the movie and explains what's going on.

What about movies in theater? Do you have to wait for them to be on DVD?

I'm honestly not a huge movie fan. I just wiat for them to come out on blindmicemart.com which is a site for blind people to buy things and download movies.

What do you see when you are dreaming at night?

I don't remember my dreams. Apart from two of them but you should be able to read about that in the thread if you want to know about those. Do a search for wobbles or tunnel and you should be able to find them.

ok, have you ever done psychedelics? If yes, what did you imagine or saw in closed eyed visuals?

I have not taken any drugs like that.

What's your opinion on John Cena?

I don't really have one. I used to watch/listen to WWE and that kind of stuff when I was younger. I always liked the Undertakers' music.

What's your favorite color and how come you like it?

Do you see the reflection of things like cars and light with color?

Have you ever been tricked with your clothes' colors? For instance you wanted to wear a red shirt and someone handed you a white shirt as a prank

What's the first thing you'll die to see if you get your eyesight back?

I am unabel to see colors just reflections of light. I'd like to see my girlfriend if I had one. Or if I don't, I want to play video games!

Do you know how colors look like?

No, not really.

Are there things blind people enjoy that people that can see don't/can't?

I'd have to say no on that one. We all can enjoy things to a sertain extent.

do you ever worry there are bugs in your food?

No but I am very nervus around flies, beas and wosps. I really don't like the sound they make. especially when it's close to my ear.

I have some questions.

What do you dream of?

What do think of colors like red and blue and do you associate with these colors?

What do you do all day?

Hello. I don't dream of anything as far as I know. However I am into astral projection. As for colors I have updated my first post. I don't know why I put I can see colors in there when I can't. What do I do all day? For now, not much but I do volunteer and hang out with my friend Amin and enjoy life to the best of my ability.

Animal shelters can always use dog walking volunteers. There a lot that could be a problem but the one i worked at had me just take them into out door pins to let them run.

Thank you but I am nervus around animals. Some dogs jump and that would make me quite skittish? I think the word is. Thanks for trying to help. :)

How is your vision when you astral project?

I've not manage to get fullly out of the body yet. I'm at the rocking stage and vibrations. I would asume because this body has no idea what it is like to see. The "soul" or spiritual self would have no idea either. Sure we could say that in a past life I could see, and perhaps that is true but I think how this works is like this:

1. Spirit self is in Heaven, the astral relms, call it what you wish.

2. The Spiritual self decided to be born with a sertain family and outlook in life.

3. The hard drive, (mind) of the spiritual self is whiped and then the baby is either born or within the belly of the woman.

Thanks for the reply, dude. What got you into astral projection?

I have been studdying chi, god,, life force, things like that for years on and off, so when I heard of astral projection I just added it to my study list.

Have you ever smoked weed? If so what was it like?

I've ate weed once. A tiny tiny bit and nothing happened. I don't smoke so I can't answer that question, sorry.

Hey Brad, huge birds fan here. Do you remember that play Week 8 against the Cowboys, where Romo thought he made a huge completion and they had to review it? That took forever, and I thought it would be a good time for me to reload my beer supply and take a piss. When I went to go get more beer, however, the line was ridiculously long, especially just to get Bud Light. I remembered from a previous game that there is actually a good beer stand somewhere on the 200 level, with a bunch of different kinds of beers. I figured it was worth the trip up there so I could maybe get a Yuengling or something. When I was going up there, I saw this fat lady slip and fall right by the escalators, and she couldn't get up. There was a huge crowd around her and it looked like she got really fucked up. I tried to get a picture of it with my phone but my camera was screwed up ever since I took my phone to the beach and got sand in the lens. They told me that otter box cover would protect the phone, but it didn't do shit against keeping sand out. That's the last time I listen to anyone at the AT&T store. When I decided to go take a piss at an airport bathroom in Chicago, I had no idea it would be the craziest experience of my life. So I go into the bathroom none other than Bruce fucking Willis walks in. Bruce Willis! I was fucking pumped. I grew up watching Die Hard and The Fifth Element so he was my favorite actor. Even when the new Die Hard movie came out, I was the first in line to see it. I was on a date with a girl and she thought she was going to see that stupid Nancy Drew movie, but when we got there I said "I'm seeing Die Hard with or without you. Your call." She was really pissed at me but I didn't give a fuck. She wouldn't talk to me the whole way home either so I just dropped her off at her house instead of taking her back to my place. We wouldn't have fucked anyway, because she insisted on me wearing a condom and I knew I didn't have any left. I tried going to Acme to get more condoms before we went out but they fucking lock them behind the counter at the pharmacy and I couldn't find anyone to open the cabinet door for me. Fuck Acme. I think they have a hidden agenda to prevent people from getting contraceptives. I was supposed to replace the brakes on my mom's car because the mechanic said they were the worst he's seen and could fail at any moment. I don't know why I just kept putting it off, but looking back now I would do anything to go back and replace them. She drove a 1999 Honda Accord that was in pretty decent shape, but she beat on it a lot because she liked to drive fast. It is ironic because she always yelled at me when I was speeding with her in my car, but I'm like "dude you've been in more accidents than I can count, and I haven't even been in ONE." Technically though, I was in one accident. I was just too embarassed to tell anyone. I was trying to find a song on my iPod while I was driving, but my iPod was being gay and not lighting up, so I had to shine my phone on it to read the menu. I wasn't paying attention to the road and I jumped a curb and hit this guy's mailbox. I got out and put the mailbox back in his ground, but it left a huge dent in my hood. I told everyone that some kid threw a pumpkin at my car from an overpass because I didn't want to admit I crashed my car like a dumbass. Without a doubt, it would be to forget about the horrible event that happened while I was in jail. I had to spend two weeks in a county jail after sentencing for my DUI. Normally, first time DUI offenders don't have to do any jail time, but due to the severity of my DUI/accident, the judge came down pretty hard on me. I wasn't even supposed to drive that night; I was going to sleep on a friend's couch. When I got back from the bar to stay on his couch, his doors were locked. Turned out he went over some girl's house to try to fuck her. I could have told him that wasn't going to happen. I knew for a fact that this girl was a total bitch and just got a kick out of leading him on. She did it with another friend of mine and got that guy to buy her all these dinners. It was ridiculous. He even took her to this crazy restaurant in Philly where the entrees were $75 a pop. I don't care how good the food is, fuck paying that much for a meal. Unless it was a foie gras covered steak stuffed with endangered tiger meat. That shit would be amazing. In 2003, I was waiting in line to make a couple of deposits at my local bank, when two masked gunmen stormed into the bank, shooting their guns in the air. There were only five customers in the bank, and they ordered all of us to get face down on the floor and keep our heads down. Now, I normally don't carry a gun, although I do have my CCW (concealed carry permit) and that day, I happened to have my HK USP compact on me because I was just coming back from Philly, which is the reason why I got the permit in the first place. I heard from a friend that some guy tried to mug him on the way back to his apartment, and I thought "fuck that, I better get a gun." His apartment was in kind of a shitty part of town, but that was really all he could afford at the time because he had to pay off two DUIs. He even had to do some jail time for the second DUI, and lost his license for two years. I asked him if I could buy his car off him since he wasn't going to have his license for 3 years, but the asshole said he wasn't selling it. I really wanted that thing - it was sweet. It was a 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport, which was one of the last years they made those things. I wish Jeep would still make those. They were badass. My grandfather passed away, and had a rather large funeral of about 300+ people. I had to go up to the front of the church and present his cremated ashes in a ceramic urn to my grandmother. As I was carrying this VERY expensive urn, it dawned on me that I was still a little bit drunk from earlier in the day (the wake had a bar, so I was getting hammered). Most funerals don't have wakes with bars, but my grandfather was a bit of an alcoholic and specified that his funeral would have a bar in his will. He must have spent a lot of time thinking of some of the crazy shit that was in that will. He wanted us to take some of his ashes 75 miles out to sea and dump them. The weather was terrible when we decided to do it so they made it a whopping 1.5 miles from Coney Island. I didn't want to drive that far in a fucking boat anyway. The Phillies had a 1:00 game that day and I was trying to watch it, and would have missed the entire thing if we went out that far into the ocean. I think the Mets ended up winning that game though. Fuck the Mets. Back when I went to Penn State, I was a pizza delivery guy during the night. One night, I was delivering a pizza off-campus, when this smoking hot girl answers the door completely topless and in some pink panties. She told me she didn't have enough money for the pizza. When that happens, our boss usually tells us to just bring the food back and we end up getting to eat it ourselves. Sometimes it works out great, like this one huge order we had (over $90 of food) got brought back, so I just took a bunch of it and ate it for a week. The only thing that sucked was the cheesesteak. I don't like when they make cheesesteaks with cheese on top of slices of steak. You gotta chop up the steak and mix in the cheese. There was a place in town that did that next to this bar called The Phyrst, and their cheesesteaks were fucking delicious. The only thing that sucked was when I would walk there at 3 AM, drunk and hungry as hell, only to find out that they closed early. Fuck that. I ended up having to get this pizza down the road but it was greasy as hell and gave me heartburn. Ever since I was 12, I have always wanted to bang a porn star. I am 29 now, and last year my dream unexpectedly came true. I was in Vegas for my friend Mike's bachelor party. We were staying at the MGM Grand and had a whole night of debauchery planned out because once Mike got married, that was the last we would ever see of him. His fiancee was this controlling cunt that I absolutely hated. A few years ago she actually made us turn the TV off during Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals (Flyers/Blackhawks). As a die-hard Flyers fan, I flipped the fuck out on her and peed in her shampoo bottle without her knowing. I wonder if her hair smelled like pee after that. I once did $35,000 worth of damage to the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. I was 17 at the time, and was driving my piece of shit Jeep Cherokee through some podunk town in Idaho. I was trying to find a Waffle House to eat at because I saw a sign for one a while back on the highway. Turns out the town didn't have a Waffle House, they just had a fucking Roy Rodgers which I hate. Why do they have to put their fries in a dumbass fry holster? It limits the amount of fries you can put in there. One time I actually ran my belt through the loops on the fry container and wore it like a holster, but I ended up getting crumbs all over my pants and the thing tore after wearing it for a few minutes. Shotty craftsmanship, if you ask me. When I was younger, I thought it was just someone playing a practical joke on me. Many years later, I realized that I actually watched 17 people fall to their deaths. I was visiting Disney World with my parents. They hadn't really planned it until my dad was assigned a business trip in Orlando, so he booked a big room at the Dolphin Resort so we could all stay there. The Dolphin Resort pool was pretty sweet, but the hotel next to it had this badass pool with a giant pirate ship water slide. People actually climed the pirate ship and then went through this tunnel water slide into a pool. Even cooler - the pool had SAND in it! It felt like I was in the ocean. I started diving into the sand trying to find shells and shit, but it was just sand.

Hello. These stories are interesting and some are funny but what do they have to do with me being blind?

Hey man, how come you're blind? Is it a condition or have you @@@LOLOLOLOLOLOL&^{&&&&&777778888@@@@@@@@@@lalalalalalalplplplplolololulilukhfd/////&965$&('('(:($,} $;2&@9"(:',#,2 (@9"0:9$(3 (2,@;#&"8/9$(3;3;2&#9"0:0 ($?3,22,28#99:9/(54?3827"8#0@(@(#("9:9#3,3; $"9$,#;2*wieidjcjdbwncicksbwjdoln.

Oh great, another one. Do you have any idea how this sounds with a screen reader? :)

嗨，对不起，但是，但是认真的，什么条件使你失明，或者只是从诞生一直在那里？祝一切顺利！

Sorry my screen reader is unable to read emogis. It just reads them as a lot of silence.

Hey man, sorry. Seriously though, what made you blind? Is it a condition or was you blind since birth? All the best!

This guy commented in manderin Chinese. It was not emojis

Hello. I was born blind. Well actually from what I was told; I could see for a couple of seconds but I can't remember that as I was a baby.