It’s a Wednesday afternoon in Newton Centre, and James Phillips is learning how to see without seeing. Phillips, 21, is functionally blind, owing to a visual impairment that has gradually gotten worse. With a blindfold on and an instructor at his side, he’s tapping and sliding his Hoover long cane–the red-tipped white aid–down crowded sidewalks, across major roads, and along the bumpy edge of a T platform. This is all part of a training regiment at the nearby Carroll Center for the Blind.