Visual literacy can be defined as a way of using sight to evaluate, apply, or create. Education, art history, art criticism, philosophy, graphic designers, and more use the term “visual literacy” to mean different things. The term is widely contested. Wikipedia defines it as “the ability to interpret, negotiate and derive meaning from information presented in the form of an image”. There are many definitions used to define the term and all of them are lacking. No single definition will suffice to encompass the entire definition. Studying visual literacy means understanding the process of formal analysis of art or architecture; identify who, what, when, where, why and how, together with the formal identifying elements of line, colour, medium, structure, shape, space. Visual and aesthetic qualities must also be considered: composition, movement, scale, light, atmosphere, meaning and style. The use of formal analysis, formal elements, and visual and aesthetic qualities builds a foundation upon which an artist or expert critic forms an opinion about a piece. Normally sighted people think of visual literacy as how we interpret and decode meaning in advertising, signage, art, and so on. What this visual literacy course has taught me is that the term "visual literacy" can be modified depending on a person's individual visual sense. James Elkins comes closest to the best description of visual literacy: “Understanding how people perceive objects. Interpret what they see and what they learn from them.”What happens when the artist or viewer has a different sense of vision. Examining three different cases in Oliver Sacks An Anthropologist on Mars; Seven paradoxical stories, “The case of color…… at the center of paper…… and fresco painting. Visual literacy is not just about what we see but what is perceived. There are many art critics who will discredit work that they themselves could not create. It's not even the thought that really counts, cases like Stephen's demonstrate this. So how do we define an artist or art? It's simply the intent. Being visually literate means using the visual world around you to create. Whether you are autistic, color blind or “normal”. References Elkins, J (2010) The concept of visual literacy and its limits, in: Visual Literacy. New York, New York: Routledge. (217) Sacks, O. (1995) An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales. New York, New York: Vintage Books. (3-41,107-152,188 - 243) Visual literacy. (February 22, 2011). Retrieved June 5, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_literacy