wow that's interesting. I figured that for a DB person that was born without sight to have to be able to use much imagination in the brain to try to draw a "mind picture" than what a sighted person would see with his/her own eyes. If you could describe what you would imagine what a place looks in your mind, would it be closer to what I see with my own 2 eyes?
I know this question isn't directed at me, but here is what I think. There are a couple of things I think about this that lead me to believe the answer would be yes. First, we are all using the same language here on this thread to communicate, one that we learned to associate with visual things that we grew up associating with. If that makes any sense, that means that if we were each to describe an object we encountered separately, we would probably describe it in a way that we would each agree that it was the same object. Of course, if two perfectly sighted people encountered the same object separately and later described it, the description would be different, but I think there would be the same amount of agreement that it is the same object.
I also think that if you were not born totally blind, but instead were born with perfect vision, then suddenly lost all of your vision at, say, age 30, you would relatively soon acquire the ability to describe input from your other senses visually. I say this based on my personal experience. I've never been blind, but I've managed to hold onto my hearing relatively well using increasingly sophisticated technology until this summer, when I ran out of technology, so from my perspective, I abruptly lost all of my hearing all at once. However, it's been some time now, not even half a year though, an my brain is already processing input from other senses as sound. I know where my brain is getting this information, but at the same time, my brain is causing me to "hear" the sounds things are making through my imaginary ear. Uh, perhaps an example. I used to have an air bed, but recently it has been losing too much air. My aunt got a boyfriend and moved away, as she frequently does, and so she gifted me her bed when she left. This new bed has an inner-spring mattress. It seems the springs inside the mattress vibrate to certain frequencies that happen in this house, and so I feel the vibration in my legs. Also, when I'm alone in my kitchen and somebody comes in the room behind me and starts walking around, I know they're there. I usually even know who they are even when I'm not expecting anybody. I can turn directly to them. This is because I can feel their vibration in the floor. I never realised how receptive my feet were. I bet if music were converted digitally to a low enough frequency, it could be perceived through the feet. I find it fascinating how my feet are able to tell what direction the vibration is coming from every bit as accurately as my ears ever were. There are so many other senses that my body and brain collect and use to create the sound of the world around me when my ears no longer contribute to it, and I know that this is only the beginning. While I was at our concert the other day, I realised that my feet (even inside my dress shoes) could feel the piano playing in the floor of the stage, and I could feel it well enough to be able to find my spot on the page in the music.
When I first lost my hearing, nothing seemed real without sound. But now, my whole world is alive and communicating with me better than ever!
Off topic: Our ASL instructor was telling us all about Deaf culture and how proud he was to be a part of it, and how losing his hearing opened up a whole new world for him. One student then told him that he should face the facts that hearing loss is an impairment, that it is a health problem that should be solved. Being as that was the beginning of the class, our instructor spent the next hour in a rant, telling us that hearing is the impairment, and that it already has a cure: an operation to cut the auditory nerves. I believed he was just offended and defending his position. But now, I'm able to see how one might truly believe that.
Back on topic: I think this all boils down to the fact that our brains are always wanting to build a model of the world around us through whatever means it as at its disposal. If it doesn't have sound, it will use any and all other senses. If it doesn't have vision, it will do the same thing. It may not actually be a picture, as I've said many times in this thread, but it will certainly be a direct, non-ambiguous representation of our physical world filled with every detail it can get its imaginary hands on, and anything it doesn't know, it will fill in with its imagination. There is still no computer or supercomputer in the world capable of filling in the blanks to the level of accuracy the human brain does it every second of every day. What we're describing to each other is largely our memory of our imagination, and since we use the same terms to describe things to each other, and if we didn't know what senses each of us didn't have, we might assume everybody has the same array of senses.
You already know your car. I dont think about its description or visualize it. Its already in my subconscious , I know what I am looking for without consciously thinking. Though if I parked it a specific lot, where I know its number.. I keep it in my and remember it again while looking for the car , like A34 .
) If you've grown up signing, do you think in sign? I was in class the other day, and I was fascinated to watch my teacher trying to write a word on the board. Halfway through, he fingerspelled it to himself to make sure he was writing it correctly. Now as a hearing person, if I were trying to spell something, I would just sound it out to myself, but obviously that wouldn't work the same way for everyone. So when you have a conversation, or when you write a sentence down, do you think it in sign? Or just in concepts or images?
You're welcome! 
