Anyone know a person who was born blind?

[Demasoni]

The reason I ask is because I've always wondered if a blind person had the most vast imagination, or if it's just black.

From personal experience and reading, I've always assumed that man is only capable of imagining things he's seen in the real world. They don't have to be things that exist, but we are still capable of combining color, shapes, and texture. For example, you can dream of wildest creature that doesn't even exist, but it's still taking traits and qualities of the real world: a shape, a color, maybe eyes, hands, feet, etc etc. Is it safe to assume that we can only visualize in our minds using things we've actually seen? Solid, liquid, gas, color, texture, light, and shapes?

Blind people are capable of feeling things. If I gave a blind person a cigar, he could feel it's shape, that it's circular, it has a texture, the bottom is flat etc. But how does he visualize it in his mind? He is unable to see color, he's never seen a tobacco leaf, the difference in color the veins have from the rest of the wrapper, and how the light hit's it. Does he attempt to visualize it somehow?

I don't mean to offend anyone that is blind, or someone who knows a blind a person; this is just a thought that I've always pondered. I also hope my wording isn't confusing. Thanks!

[thebayratt]

My nephew was born blind we believe. He had numerous medical conditions and passed away at 20months old. He could "see" when you walked between hin and a light source and follow the "shaddows". He never learned to talk much, just a moan n groan; so it was had to know how he was fealing or what he saw or didn't.

RIP
Kyle Butler

[Cigary]

Our minds tend to ask questions and the thoughts you express I see nothing wrong with. Those who are born without sight I would imagine would develop their others senses to a higher level than we do because of their dependance on trying to get as much information as possible. When I think about things like this I would probably want to be born without the sense than to have had it and lost it. If you don't know what sight was then I don't see how you could miss it? Kind of like if you never knew what the color BLUE was how could you define what color is about?

[Stench]

Helen Keller is probably the most popular example of this, but the mind will form it's own point of reference based on whatever sensory input is available. For example, a person born blind could probably not grasp well the vastness of the horizon, but would be able to detect textural and olfactory subtleties that a normal sighted person would never notice.

Can you imagine being able to read braille? I've run my fingers across the braille markers in elevators and can't tell the difference in any of them!