This is on a completely different level than partial/complete blindness, but as a very near-sighted person I definitely move much more carefully without my glasses on. A lot of people think that being nearsighted isn't that bad, and it certainly isn't compared to literally losing your EYES, but having everything go blurry barely an arm's length away isn't that fun either.
Depth perception is pretty much shot, so I'm always either over- or under-shooting whatever I'm reaching for—the only way I can get around in the morning is because of body-memory. If something changes in any way, even just a sweater that fell onto the floor, I go into minor panic mode for two reasons: One, it's the morning and I am not a morning person; two, I instinctively go "WTF I CAN'T FUCKING SEE AND SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT FFFFFFFF" before I calm down and go on with my day.
The first week after rearranging my room is utter hell.
Speaking of which, body-memory is a surprisingly underutilized aspect of blindness. Having Super-Senses will definitely turn her body-memory Up To Eleven; now instead of just panicking when something LOOKS different, she'll panic when things smell, feel, and sound different as well. Wooden floors will makes everything sound way too loud if you're used to carpets/rugs everywhere. Contrarily, carpets/rugs make things eerily silent if you're used to hardwood floors. As most homes have a mixture of hard and carpeted floors, it will definitely be a way for her to map out where everything is by sound. Ie: Living room = hardwood, bedrooms = rugs/carpet, bathroom = tile.
A lot of people with vision problems complain about disorientation, which is very much true because, well, we can't SEE. I move very carefully when my glasses are off because since I can't focus on anything, the tiny reptilian part of my brain thinks that I'm in danger and so I shouldn't move too much—both to avoid getting hurt by bumping into things, and to avoid attracting attention. I do NOT like when people come towards non-spectacled me, even if it's just that they found my glasses and are giving them back, because I literally can't see who they are until three fucking feet away. Replace "seeing" with "hearing" and you should have your character. Instead of needing a minute to recognize their face, she'll need a minute to recognize their voice and walking patterns, and probably what kind of cologne/perfume they have. Her friends/co-workers would definitely make it a habit to announce themselves before heading over.
I...can imagine. Funnily enough (or not), I am partially blind.
Always have been, always will be, and it helps (along with some "spazz" elements of another condition) to make me an utterly ridiculous klutz to the point of (extreme) frustration. Now, I didn't lose my functionally blind eye, but what little vision it has is utterly useless, and when my right eye is covered, I freak out, because everything is blurry, I can't read, and things that my brain is fully aware are still look like they're moving (due to pulsing of the eyeball.)
Depth perception? What's that, now? (I know what it is, but I don't have it at all - I can't tell five feet from fifteen visually without the help of far too many rulers.) The same for me - if something in my room changes, I'm completely screwed - case in point: my calculator fell off the corner of my bed overnight last night, and I couldn't find it for the life of me this morning - and it was right in front of me, in a very visible spot. Things like this happen all the time, especially with the ever-popular cluttered-to-hell menu and the horrible periodic table of the elements... And I, unfortunately, don't seem to have body-memory thanks to brain damage - I already know that I don't have (and can't have) a sense of where my body is in space, either in relation to other parts of itself or to other objects. Meaning that I misjudge distances constantly and crash into corners and people a lot. And I can't tell when I'm standing incorrectly, because I literally can't sense it. My body is...fun.
I've never been a morning person, and I'm always reacting with, "I can't see, dammit, what the fuck?! Why can't I see properly?!" (usually because my brain is using my left eye and not my right because it's opening slowly.) I also can't see small things (like graphs, small text, diagrams, maps, etc.) and have to have them blown up so that I can even interpret the damn things. And then my right (good) eye will blur up as I'm walking around, and I get very...confused, and at least mildly panicky because suddenly my vision is shit. Apparently my reaction is amusing.
Wow, are you me? Seriously, the similarities...
Good point - I should research it, since I lack it for everything except dropping people who sneak up behind me (I'm a martial artist by training, and I have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). I've heard of it though, and I don't know why it didn't occur to me (probably because, as you said, it's often overlooked). Yes! Yes, yes, and yes - this is exactly what I was looking for! I figured it would, but clearly I haven't given this Taken Up To 11 aspect of the rest of her Super-Senses enough attention. Hmmm, she's in a different environment, but I can apply the same principles.
Oh, I'm disoriented constantly! It's actually become something of a joke for me to make about myself - well, except when it happens in, say, a mall. Exactly! I can't see as I need to (fatigue also doesn't help, especially when it's constant...) or my brain can't process the data, and I get lost, even if I've been to the same place hundreds of times and had the layout explained to me. I move very carefully in the dark, or if I'm tired (because if I'm not careful, I'll miss a step and go sprawling - ironically, that sense of body-awareness (I'm very aware of internal things, just not external) is so weak/nonexistent that when going down or up stairs, or navigating crowds, I have to rely on my vision to compensate.) Wow. That was a long parenthetical sentence. I've gotten more into those since becoming a Troper.
Ditto for me - I hate it when people come up behind me, or from the side, because my peripheral vision is bad, and from the back...I don't have eyes back there! (I'm also very likely to hit you without realizing who you are first...)
That sounds right to me! I'll make sure to integrate that into her characterization then, end-story. Scent, for her, is another way to identify, so she would need time to process and recognize that as well - it also contributes to her intense dislike of perfume.
Thanks a bunch!
I've done the former, which has been helpful - there's this one blind author whose writing is actually quite humorous (and sad at the same time). I read an essay of his in a textbook a couple of years ago, and I can't remember his name for the life of me. I keep thinking Kunst (or similar) and either Dean, Howard, or Harold - not coming up with anything...The title of the thing was something to do with the sun, but I don't think it referenced blindness directly...This is gonna bug me now. Drat...
The latter sounds interesting. I'll Google it, and see what I get.

This is my main character's situation by the end of my work. Although I've thought about it likely far more than I should, and done some non-harmful experiments of my own to try and simulate it, I still don't feel like I really get it.
What should I focus on, do you think?
What difficulties should I hone in on, especially?
I'm aware that the sense of touch is going to be extremely sensitive (it was sensitive to begin with), and her hearing is going to try and compensate (she has had all of the basic Super-Senses since the beginning, actually.) I've tried to do tasks without using my dominant arm, but since it's still there, I still haven't succeeded as entirely as I would like (nor do I plan on removing it for the purposes of a story - because that would be really stupid).
Little note: she lost one eye and her arm first, and learned with time, to live without her arm - and then she lost her other eye to a subverted case of Annoying Arrows that very nearly killed her due to the depth of its peneration into her eye socket - she only survived due to having a very much inhuman Healing Factor. Ergo, she wasn't blinded all at once - but suddenly being completely blind is very unsettling to her.
edited 3rd May '11 1:23:04 PM by punkreader