Reality is not based upon our perception.

its an interesting question, my question for you though is what do you mean by reality? reality isn't the physical universe in how we use the word, reality is what we percepive as the physical world and define it as according to our senses. our senses are our filters of what we define as reality, so no they arn't really part of reality in the same way as what we sense i have to disagree with you, reality can't be absolute because then every psycotic person with some sort of mental disorder is right and shouldn't be on drugs and are normal, but we know they arn't or they wouldn't think zombies wern't out to eat thier brainswhat you mean isn't reality, but the physical nature of the universe, which isn't really the samething. we call the physical world reality since it is reality to us, but blind people might consider the dark reality or the guy that thinks his dilusions are real

no, what i'm saying is reality is just a word that we use to relate to the universe, reality isn't a thing its what we define by our minds as the thing, maybe my word usage was a bit confusing, reality includes a lot of things, but the OP considers reality an absolute but its not really what he thinks it is. what i was pointing out is if it is absolute then we are in some nutcases crazy delusion then, since this is that persons reality.
the physical universe doesn't need us to exist to exist, but you need people to have a reality, since it is perception of the physical by lifes sensesis this the case ??
i hope this makes sense

so does the turtle have color vision with a blind spot, and stand between 5-6 feet? does it have clam-like shaped ears to hear the same as a human?
i don't think i've ever heard of a turtle like that, they useally don't see far and hear that well or are very large
as i said, reality is not the same thing as the physical universe, its a perception of the physical universe, they really arn't the same.
our senses change our reality in little ways, it may sound strange to people, but we tend to use words for things that really don't mean what people think they do.
i guess its a matter of what we mean by reality