A world where visuals don’t exist.
For more than 285 million people worldwide, the visual canvas that most of us take for granted simply doesn't exist. But what does it really mean?
Vision Category | Estimated Number (2020) |
|---|---|
Blind (severe or total impairment) | ~ 43 million |
Moderate-to-severe visual impairment | ~ 295 million |
Mild visual impairment | ~ 258 million |
Near vision problems (e.g. presbyopia) | ~ 510 million |
Any vision impairment (all levels) | ~ 2.2 billion |
These arent mere numbers, what they mean is that for many peopl
Imagine waking up tomorrow and the sun has never existed. Not darkness—because darkness implies the absence of something you once knew—but a complete void where the concept of "seeing" has no meaning.
This is the reality for millions of people who navigate our world without vision. But here's what most people don't understand: it's not about missing colours or shapes. It's about missing the entire language that vision speaks, the subtle cues, the spatial relationships, the emotional context that sight provides in milliseconds.
When a sighted person walks into a coffee shop, they don't just see tables and chairs. They see the barista's welcoming smile, the empty corner table with good lighting, and the person by the window who looks like they're waiting for someone. They see safety, opportunity, comfort, or caution, all in a single glance.
For someone without vision, that same coffee shop exists as a collection of sounds, smells, and textures. The espresso machine hisses, conversations blend together, and somewhere in that acoustic landscape, they must piece together not just where things are, but what's happening, who's friendly, and where they belong.
The challenge isn't just navigating physical space; it's navigating the human experience itself. Every social interaction, every decision about where to sit or stand, every moment of trying to understand the mood of a room, becomes a puzzle solved without the key piece that everyone else takes for granted.
This isn't about what people with visual impairments can't do. It's about recognising that they're solving complex problems every day that most of us never even realise exist. And maybe, just maybe, technology can help bridge that gap not by replacing vision, but by translating the rich, complex story that vision tells into something equally meaningful.
Because the world isn't just a collection of objects in space. It's a living, breathing narrative, and everyone deserves to be part of that story.
