SSI and SSDI unfair advantage to the blind?

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I am looking at the SSI and SSDI qualifications for disability benefits. I am trying to find the exact page with the dollar amounts again but I have to look through all the articles again to find it. But I noticed that it said that if you are blind you are allowed to make up to $1,800 (not sure if that is the exact amount but it is very close to that) a month and still be considered disabled but for every other disability you are only allowed to make up to $1,180 a month. If you make any more than that you cannot be considered disabled. Why do the blind get such a drastically higher cutoff?

Do you mean the blind as opposed to (say) the deaf?

Or do you mean "the blind" as opposed to yourself (the autistic)?

If the former then that might be a fair (if academic) question for this site.

But if you mean the later then...do you REALLY need that explained to you?

It literally said, as opposed to every other disability.

And you still need to explain the latter to me even though I had not thought of that specifically until you said it. But now that you have mentioned it, yeah, please explain it. I have blind people in my family. I also have friends who are blind and they are much more functional than I am and always have been. They have always been more functional than I ever have been or will ever be. They finished school with high degrees and have very good jobs.

Many of the people I know who are blind, some are completely blind and others are legally blind in various degrees, do not consider themselves particularly impaired especially if they have been blind from birth or from early childhood. Nor do many of them have all of the different multiples of issues that I have with Autism. I cannot manage to keep work or gainful employ because of the multiple issues that I have which can severely impair me on a daily basis even though I am considered a very high functioning Autistic. In 15 years, I have never been able to keep any job, I have had about 53, and I have never in my life made more than $9000 in one year and that was only one year because I was paid a high wage for my job. But that job did not even last a year because I could not keep it due to Autistic reasons. The other years I worked, I never managed to make more than $3000. I was told by a judge that I cannot be disabled because one year in my entire life I managed to make $9000 so therefore I cannot be disabled and I should be able to support myself. If the cutoff were the same that is is for a blind person, I would have been able to be declared disabled.

So please explain to me why the monetary cutoff amount for me to be considered disabled is so much less than it is for a blind person.

I actually just asked a disability lawyer this question. He said it's because the blind community has better lobbyists.

I dunno.

All know is that I have a lousy job. BUT I also know that no blind person could POSSIBLY do it (even a little bit do it). With all of the support in the world including a seeing eye dog no blind person could do that nor any of the other(most sh***y ) jobs I have ever earned money doing. So its really hard for me to think of blind folks as being enviable in any way. Except for Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.

But I have never actually known a blind person in real life. Probably never even met one.

The fact that you have more than one blind person in your aquaintence makes you unusual. That they all have high powered jobs … I dunno if that's typical of blind folks or not. But your unique life experience gives you a very different pov than I.

I am also part of a group that teaches whitewater kayaking to the blind. I know of many blind people who are very successful in very good jobs and who live completely independently and raise nice families and everything else. Many are much more successful and much more independent than I could ever be.

If you are not personally familiar with a group of people, you should be careful not to make assumptions about them. Blind people, just like deaf people, are just as diverse as any other group. We get very upset when people make erroneous or ignorant assumptions about us. We should not do that to other people.

I noticed that too. I have a rare low vision disorder but I'm not blind so that amount doesn't apply to me. I made more money than the blind amount when I was working at times when I was allowed to make overtime while I was on SSI & I was never considered nondisabled but that's cuz I still had my disabilities. I just didn't qualify for any SSI money when I was making too much but other months my income was alot lower & I did quality for some SSI money. I know things are different on Social Security Disability thou.