This post leads to a really good site- answering questions that I've thought about but never asked. Another great guy for this sort of stuff is $1

I've heard a lot of similar stories from a blind friend of mine, and I've been there to witness some of the uncomfortable and invasive questions that she gets, when we've been out in public together. I'm amazed (in a bad way) at the questions she gets in public, and the assumption that she is obligated to answer them. And it never ends -- on almost every bus ride, she gets questions or comments that are either directly or indirectly about her blindness. I know it's frustrating and sometimes exhausting, and that has been an education for me.

I can understand asking a blind person a few questions about her blindness, once you've gotten to know her and sort of "earned" the right to ask those questions. But I also feel like I have an obligation to simply learn things on my own, by paying attention and being a good listener / observer, instead of asking invasive questions, so that learning about a person's blindness is just part of learning about the person in general.

Good stuff. I often get asked some odd things. I don't really mind if it's not insulting, though I'm puzzled at how much sighted people depend on sight for things, or think they do.

Of course another issue is how these questions probably have as many answers as there are blind people. We don't all do the same things the same way, or have the same skills. But I suppose it's always easier to think of us as a group. I imagine not all sighted people are the same in those regards, either; for example some can touch-type, some can't; some prefer the keybaord, some the mouse, etc.

This was well done. I feel like it should get a link from our sighted FAQ in the Wiki. Thoughts? The article is by someone I vaguely know (as in, have spoken too online 2 or 3 times 10 years ago, and is still on my Facebook) so I may have a slight bias.