Blindness is typically referred to as a visual impairment associated with vision loss. Seeing is believing. I saw it with my own two eyes. She was an eye witness. There are so many examples of how seeing things is considered proof of the truth. Is your vision perfect? Is your memory of visual events perfect? Do you know about the things that you can't see?

This last point of not knowing about the things that you can't see is why I say I am blind. I am blind to the things that I did not see and may not remember accurately. Vision is not a perfect recording of events stored in memory and you can recall with perfection.

Part of what got me started thinking about this is conversations I have had with Microsoft's John Jendrezak regarding accessibility. John has a blog post on the latest features in Office 365 for accessibility.

To mark the fifth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), I encourage Office 365 users to do a few simple things to make the digital world more accessible—including making a habit of running the Accessibility Checker on your documents (currently available in Office for PCs and coming by the end of the year to Office for Mac and Office Online). In addition, to help advance accessibility awareness, I’m pleased to share more about some of the enhancements we’re bringing to Office 365 that ensure people with vision impairments can work seamlessly with built-in accessibility settings on every device.

What I have started to realizeis how many times that systems aren't designed for when people are blind. I don't mean visually blind, but they have limited ability to see things beyond what they have seen. Part of what makes your eye sight special is you trust it. You can see the cup of steaming hot coffee. Your mind can gauge how hot it is and whether you should take a small sip or you can take a big drink.

I have been using the perspective of thinking what are we blind to.

Are you blind? I am. Because I can't see everything.