The eye is a sensory organ that is very soft and fragile.
It contains no bone but only (optic) nerves, which are mostly filled with a clear gel known as the vitreous.
The eye functions as a collector of light from the visible world around and it then converts this light into nerve impulses. It is fragile and needs to be taken extra care of.
A slight effect on it could result in vision impairment.
When your vision is impaired, then you’re typically known to either be partially/temporarily/reversibly or completely/permanently/irreversibly blind.
Blindness is a partial or complete loss of vision that causes the inability to properly navigate around or detect things seamlessly.
It can result naturally or be caused by accidents, diabetes, or eye infections. It can also be caused by Glaucoma, cataracts, Age-related Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy, and Refractive Errors.
Most cases of blindness can be self-diagnosed or detected through reading tests, laboratory tests, or imaging.
Some cannot be cured but only maintained with treatment or corrective measures to improve the condition of the eyes; this usually requires one to be religious with it.
Blindness can be categorized into 3 main types; night blindness, color blindness, and snow blindness.
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How Does a Blind Person Know If It’s Day or Night?
The following are ways by which a blind person can tell when it is day or night.
Related: How You Can Help a Blind Person to Cross a Busy Road
Tactile or Audible Clocks
Tactile clocks help blind people to know the hours of a day. This way, they can touch or feel (just like a Braille) the time of the day on the clock.
Audible clocks help to function as a timekeeper by announcing the time at the stroke of every passing hour. This makes it easy for the blind person to tell the difference between day and night.
Smart Phones or Computers
Smartphones and PCs now have accessibility and voice commands for people with these kinds of vision loss conditions. It works by simply making the phone your companion and telling it whatever you want to do, including instructing it to tell you what time it is.
Alternation of Sounds
General Noise
Sounds are also a very good way that enables the blind to know whether it is night or day. This is made possible by its alternation between morning (when it is usually noisy with the start of various activities) and night (when it is usually quiet and you can hear a pin drop because everything has gone to sleep).
Vehicles
Noises from cars can also signify to the blind if it’s day or night. For example, when there’s traffic, it can give rise to the blaring of car horns, which is especially loud in the mornings (because people are in a hurry to get to work) and lower in the evenings.
Related: How to Bathe a Disabled Person Easily
Animals
Sounds that animals make are also a great way by which blind people can tell what time of day it is.
When the cock crows at daybreak, a blind person automatically knows that daylight is approaching. When the birds chirp continuously, then the blind can know that daylight has set in and the sun has risen.
When the crickets chirp/creak and the wolf and dog howl for long, this indicates that darkness has set in and it is nightfall.
Temperature Shifts
The blind can tell if daytime arrives because the air is always damp and a bit chilly no matter the season of the year. It’s usually always hot during the day and in the afternoons. And at night, it’s often always cool and quite breezy.
These shifts can serve as a signal to the blind person as to what time of the day it is.
The sun is also an alternate indicator of time. When the sun touches the skin, then the blind person knows that it is daytime already.
Crickets have been proven to be able to inform you about the weather and air temperature by counting the number of times a cricket chirps in 14 seconds at various intervals and adding 40 to the average number of chirps.
This shows that noises from animals are one of the amazing things that can tell you about nature and its components.
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Smells
Smells shouldn’t be underrated as an agreeable alternative indicator of time.
The smell of fresh bread from the bakery signals that it is daybreak (as bakeries rarely bake at night). Depending on the kind of neighborhood, the smell of soap mixed with latrine smell can also signify that it is morning and people are getting ready to get about their various businesses.
Many people who manage local businesses like selling food to early passers-by can also signify to the blind that it is daytime.
Biological Clock
Generally, this means that your body is likely to function according to the time of day. You automatically feel sleepy or fall into a deep sleep when it is night and you’re automatically wide awake when it’s morning.
But sometimes, the body clock doesn’t work according to the time – day or night. This is known to be true because some blind people sometimes find it difficult to fall asleep.
Circumstances
If a blind person lives in the heart of the city where it is always noisy and they cannot tell the difference between day and night, then the best formula or way to determine the time is either through clocks, smartphones, and PCs.
Since individuals vary and differ, the ways things are perceived will be different.
Blindness should not be perceived as a weakness and blind people should not be taken for granted because even though they have lost their sense of vision, other senses are automatically sharper to aid their quality of life.
