While both are valid readings of 私, I would still hesitate to hold them exactly equivalent; it's just that there's got to be a better way to translate あたい without it being flat-out wrong.
In the あたい = "eye" case, it's not saying あたい literally means someone's eyeball; it's just a way to indicate that the word "I" is being said in a goofy/dumb way.
This was a bit of a translation mishap, though, because 私=あたい is actually something dialectic, as shown by two other characters (Komachi and Orin) also using it, neither of whom is portrayed as dumb.
If it's dialectical, then the ideal solution is to just import some oddball English variant of "I". Southern American English sometimes uses "Ah" for I (that is, with a long "a" sound). I think Kansai dialect speakers are sometimes translated as using a Southern drawl.
I don't think people would accept southerner Cirno that well though.
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