Three Tips When Encountering a Blind Person

Of the more than 6.2 million people over the age of sixteen in America who are visually disabled, only about two percent have no light perception at all. Since I’m one of those categorized as totally blind, it doesn’t really matter to me that this number can vary with smaller study groups. To me blind is just blind.

One thing I’ve noticed over the past twenty years of living in darkness is that many people struggle to know how to behave in the presence of a blind person. I’d like to address this issue by offering three important tips to help you relax.

Tip One: Blind People Are Normal.

For me, this one is the most important for you to remember. Unless the visual loss is the result of a devastating multi-faceted accident or complicated cerebrovascular incident, it’s only the eyesight that’s been lost. We’re normal people in every other way.

Try to picture yourself speaking to the person in a brightly-lit room. Suddenly, the lights flicker and the two of you are engulfed in darkness. Would you treat the individual any differently because you couldn’t see her? How about if she couldn’t see you?

Don’t stress about saying things like, “Can’t you see what I mean?” In fact, I frequently say, “Yes, I see,” when urging the speaker to continue. Of course I don’t see and he doesn’t think my eyes have suddenly been opened to light. Just use whatever expressions are normal to you; don’t walk on those visual eggshells on account of me.

Tip Two: Sight and Intelligence Aren’t a Single Unit

When I lost my eyesight, my intelligence quotient didn’t disappear with the perception of light. This point is especially important for those of you who deal with blind people in the course of your employment.

If the individual could respond to your request for contact information before going blind, it’s entirely possible that he still can tell you his own street or email address.

A few months ago, the bank rep, where I’d had an account since 1983, turned to my colleague standing next to me and said, “What is her Social Security Number?”

“I’m Swiss; I haven’t a clue. Why don’t you ask her?”

I recited the familiar numbers before he could ask. I don’t want to embarrass the people trying to do their jobs anymore than I want them to embarrass me by ignoring my existence.

Picture yourself on the other side of that reception counter. You’ve just had both of your eyes dilated by the optometrist. Unfortunately, your eyes are allergic to his new drops, and he’s had to secure eyepads to both of your eyes as part of the anti-allergic treatment. When the nurse takes you to the receptionist to ask her to arrange a follow-up appointment in the morning, would you expect the receptionist to look past you to your friend in the waiting room to ask if you could come in at ten the next morning? Wouldn’t you want to answer for yourself, even if you couldn’t see the person asking?

The blind individual may need to ask the person accompanying her for assistance; but if you’re the one on the requesting side of things, please direct your questions to us. Believe me; you’ll make my day if you do!

Tip Three: Blind People Aren’t Deaf

You may point out to me that I’ve erred in my statement, because there are 30,000-40,000 deaf-blind adults in America today. That doesn’t mean they can hear nothing and have no light perception, but fall into the pre-determined range of both hearing and vision loss. Helen Keller was one such individual.

Yes, like many blind people having reached a certain age, I‘ve noticed I need to increase volume slightly on my electronic devices to hear clearly. That’s not what I mean, either.

Let me offer an example to illustrate why I’ve drawn your attention to this tip.

Aware that folks can be helped to speak directly to me if I ask the friend who’s driven me to the appointment to have a seat, I stood alone at the receptionist’s counter. The friendly lady pushed a piece of paper over to me, saying, “Can you look at this and tell me if it’s the correct information for you?”

“Actually, I’m blind, but–” I said smiling and raising my white cane just a bit.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Then she increased her volume and repeated the same request.

At this point I said, “My hearing is really still pretty good. If you’ll just read the information to me, I’ll tell you if it’s okay. Or, you can ask me the questions, and I’ll give you the correct answers, if that works better for you.”

Sometimes I’ll laugh and throw in a comment about cool people wearing sunglasses inside, if the person sounds like someone who’ll be able to laugh with me. Not everyone can, so for those individuals, I’ll stick to a strictly business demeanor to help them do their job quickly.

I’m not sure why this is, but people often raise their voices to speak to me as soon as they hear I’m blind. I find that especially interesting because most people also believe the myth that when someone loses one sense, the others are heightened.

It isn’t true that a blind person has better hearing than a sighted person. No such automatic compensation for the loss is available to us. We just focus more on using the other senses to help us do without the one lost.

I do hope that the above will serve to help you relax the next time you encounter a blind person. We delight in interacting with you.

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