I’m afraid I don’t have much to go on. I read this book when I myself was a juvenile in the early to mid 70’s and I don’t remember it being dated at all, so I suspect that it was contemperaneous to the times.
The book was about a teenaged boy who loses his sight and his struggles dealing with this condition. He may or may not have received a guide dog. The only scene I truly remember from this book is when the boy is attending a school for the blind. At this school, there is something with a sharp corner (a fireplace mantle, maybe?) that the boy is warned to be aware of and avoid. The boy asks why this sharp corner isn’t padded to prevent injuries to those who can’t see it. And he is told in a teachable moment, that the corner isn’t padded because in the real world there will be many, many sharp corners to encounter that will never be padded to accomodate the sightless, and thus this corner isn’t either to enforce that lesson.
That’s it. I don’t remember anything else about the book, but I would like to locate it and maybe re-read it. Can anyone help?