137. sorry, my brain was buffering

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hi hello hey… oh, are you waving at us??

We’ve done many an episode about the unique situations we find ourselves in while navigating a world with limited vision, and this one offers a fresh take on a very enduring experience.

After living for 30 years (an average of our ages), we’ve realized our brains aren’t exactly built for speedy visual processing. When your vision is limited, your brain gets less information to work with—and sometimes it feels like it’s just… buffering. This isn’t a visual processing disorder; it’s simply our brains doing their best with what they’ve got.

The result? Occasional awkward pauses, missed cues, and moments where we look completely spaced out. But there’s also a flip side. Because we don’t get bogged down in tiny visual details, our brains have learned to compensate in pretty cool ways. We make decisions based on shapes, colors, patterns, and context—and honestly, we’re often surprisingly accurate. (And when we’re not, the fails are at least validating proof to our friends that no, we’re not being dramatic about our vision.)

related episodes

If you want more proof that our eyes love putting us in funny situations, check out these episodes:

• 52. our lives are just one long, awkward moment for more on navigating social situations with low vision.
• 114. please, read the room!!! on choosing our battles—when to disclose and ask for accommodations, and when to let things go.
• 17. do we want a cure? our thoughts on not fixing our vision.

And an episode we reference in this one:

• 107. blind gamer girlies on playing video games with low vision.