#cortical blindness

[nonspeakingkiku]

Kiku got a brailler!

ID: A green perkins brailler with grey keys sitting on a wooden table End ID

[nonspeakingkiku]

What Kiku got! Yoto mini, adventure sleeve, headphones, and queen - greatest hits volume one, Slumberkins: Sloth's Daily Routine, Spookley the Square Pumpkin, Rumple Buttercup cards, and their Starter Pack for little kids.

Possibly badly written ID in alt text.

[nonspeakingkiku]

Kiku should have the books Kiku requested from Share Braille soon. *happy wiggles* Requested a bunch of different kinds, including halloween books. 😋

[nonspeakingkiku]

Kiku is moving very soon. And it is scary but also exciting.

One of the things Kiku is planning on doing after Kiku loves is making a CVI friendly calendar/schedule. It's probably gonna be tactile as well as visual, but Kiku isn't exactly sure how Kiku is going to do it. Kiku is excited though. ☺️

[nonspeakingkiku]

Kiku is getting better with Kiku's white cane. ☺️

[nonspeakingkiku]

hello, i just saw your recent response to an ask and i am curious/confused. how do you navigate the internet without screenreader while being visually impaired? sorry, i’m just curious

Large text on my devices mostly. Images can be hard sometimes. But also it has to do with why Kiku is blind. Kiku has CVI which is brain based, not eye based. Kiku's vision fluctuates, sometimes Kiku can see better, other times it's just grey static. Large text, high contrast and/or bright colors, all of that helps Kiku see better. Sometimes Kiku uses a screen reader but not often, because Kiku is also deaf/hard of hearing, understanding speech can be hard and leads to hearing fatigue. It's pretty complicated. 😅 Thank for the ask. ☺️

[nonspeakingkiku]

I’m curious, as a fully abled person, how do you interact with the world with your deadblindness? Are there specific things you struggle with more than others, are some days worse than others, can you tell when you’ll have a worse day or a better day?

Feel free to infodump to me I am autistic so I understand how easy it is to accidentally infodump

For Kiku

Kiku has CVI (cortical vision impairment) which is brain based rather than eye based, so Kiku's eyes work okay (other than being nearsighted which means things far off are blurry) and Kiku's brain has trouble processing what Kiku is seeing. Kiku has an easier time getting brain to process things that are familiar and/or brightly colored. Kiku doesn't have good depth perception (determining things like distance, size, ect) and has problems with lower visual field (stuff near the ground especially) and Kiku ofte won't see obstacles on the floor.

Things that aren't brightly colored or familiar are harder to find especially if there is clutter. Also reaching for items is hard because of depth perception. Often will come up short or reach too far. On a good day in a familiar environment Kiku is kind of like a sighted person. Well, a really clumsy sighted person. But on a bad day or in a unfamiliar environment it's ranges from really blurry and visual distortions to a swirl of colors or grey static.

Reading is really hard, especially if Kiku doesn't change font and background colors of text. Black and white with bigger text is readable, but strains Kiku's eyes and causes migraine s, dark background and bright text (so white on black or yellow on black) works better, but reading print is hard no matter the color so Kiku is learning braille.

Movement and bright colors attract Kiku's attention and helps Kiku see unless the object is moving too fast, then Kiku can't see the thing well (bugs are a nightmare).

Dark colored objects on a dark background or light colored objects on a light background are hard to see and will frequently get lost 😅 bright colors on a dark background are easiest to see.

Kiku loses things often, and has been told so many times that can be standing right on top of something and not find it.

Kiku deals with visual fatigue a lot (which eye strain and stuff is part of) and will just stare off because brain and eyes need a break. It looks like disasociation but it's not.

Also because Kiku can't see things coming until they get close, things seem to pop out at Kiku, kind of like jump scares. It's really disorienting. And Kiku has almost walked right into things and people because didn't know they were there.

Kiku thinks that's a good explaination.

As for Kiku's hearing, Kiku won't hear things at times, especially if Kiku isn't aware of something making a sound. And other times (a lot of the times) speech sounds like gibberish and Kiku has trouble determining what sounds are or where they are coming from. This affects Kiku's ability to communicate and can also affect safety if Kiku doesn't hear something important. It mostly affects communication.

Kiku suspects Kiku's deafness is also brain based, so it works similar to Kiku's blindness, some days are better than others.

Kiku can't be seeing things and hearing at the same time. If Kiku is actively focused on seeing Kiku can't hear well. And if Kiku is actively focused on hearing Kiku can't see well.

Kiku needs captions on things Kiku hasn't seen a lot or Kiku can't understand it some times. And other times Kiku can't watch the screen and has to listen. Depends on how Kiku is doing.

Kiku is light and noise sensitive due to chronic migraines.

Kiku hopes this answers your questions ☺️

And feel free to ask if you have any other questions. ☺️

[foonirvanacage]

Anyone have any articles on whether or not people with cerebral deafness still react to sounds similarly to how people with corrical blindness still react to sight (because their eyes can still see, their brains just can’t put together the image, they can better avoid obstacles in their paths than can people who’re blind due to a problem with their eyes), like auditory startle response, turning towards a noise, etc.? I couldn’t find anything when I googled it d: