Final answer:
The statement is false; while blind individuals may lack traditional sight, they can possess different forms of visual awareness, as vision involves complex brain processes, not solely the function of the eyes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that blind people lack visual processes, and as a result, have no visual awareness, is false. Vision is a complex process involving multiple brain areas and pathways, not just the eyes themselves. For instance, the ventral and dorsal visual streams from the primary visual cortex highlight the complexity of visual processing, with one stream extending to the temporal lobe and the other into the parietal lobe. Disorders such as prosopagnosia, or face blindness, illustrate that the failure of particular visual processes can result in specific recognition difficulties without affecting other aspects of visual perception.
In terms of visual awareness, even those with visual impairments can have a form of awareness that is non-visual. Research in areas like inattentional blindness reveals that our awareness is limited and can be focused away from certain stimuli, further complicating the relationship between sensory input and awareness. Moreover, other aspects of vision, such as color constancy and edge detection, indicate that processing occurs both within the eye and brain to construct the reality we perceive. Therefore, while blind individuals may not have traditional sight, to say they have no visual awareness oversimplifies the complexities of perception and neural processing.