When blind people bring up all this bullshit I immediately find myself wanting to know how many hours a week they spend doing something not related to being blind. I wonder how often that figure is amazingly close to zero. And for people who aren't members of the minority groups they're so desperately white knighting for, please shut up and go away. The last thing I personally need is a bunch of weird groupies who seem desperate to persuade the rest of society that I am an easily offended wallflower around whom everyone must walk on eggshells.

I have met some real snobby Deaf people lately. Pffft.

I am visually impaired, or legally blind. That's the sum of it, and I don't need a fancier way of saying it to get it across. A physical limitation is an impairment, and dressing up the name is just a way to boost ones ego - which just makes it a pain for everyone else. Goodness.

Sometimes I'll say "blind-ish" if I don't feel like using all the words, but there is absolutely no reason to skirt around the issue with us. Kind of you to ask though!

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Actually had a laugh about this with some family members tonight.

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From now on, I would like to be labelled as "audio blessed", thank you!

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haha...

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Sorry, and I know you're just trying to be polite and respectful. Seriously, wouldn't worry about it though. If anyone is offended by you calling them blind, that's their problem, not yours.

I've read that some people in the deaf community treat their deafness like it's their only personality trait and like it's something to be proud of. I've even heard of deaf parents feeling betrayed when their deaf child opts for a cochlear implant. Some people in the deaf community are weirdly fanatical about their deafness.

I am legally blind. It's a disability that causes me lots of little frustrations daily. I am not "differently abled." I find that term so patronizing. Being blind IS a disability. It means that I can't do a lot of things that able-sighted people can do, like read menu boards at fast food restaurants, find my friends in a crowd, or read anything on my phone unless it's three inches from my face. It's stressful and it causes a lot of strangers to comment on how close I'm looking at things, and makes strangers constantly think that I'm drunk or on drugs or illiterate. To try to frame it as "differently abled" or add fancy words to it doesn't help the daily struggles that I live with. Even the push to say "a person who is blind" rather than "a blind person" is annoying to me. I'm a blind person. Calling it by any other name won't make me less blind. It's an annoying disability, but it's also only one aspect of who I am, so I don't dwell enough on it to be like, "Hey, people should start calling me 'blessed with distinct visual capabilities' rather than 'blind.'"

Sorry to come off so curmudgeonly, but like, bigger fish to fry!

It’s always best to just ask. With blindness, everyone feels differently about it. The pc, legal, and default term is visually impaired. However we tend to refer to ourselves collectively as the blind community.
I personally ask people to just use blind. It’s pretty true in my case and I’ve been hurt by the term visually impaired. But I’ll never insist on anyone using blind to describe themselves if it’s not a comfortable fit for them.

So grateful for everyone’s responses - and humor! Happy 2020 y’all!

I don't know, blind as a bat works just fine for me.

Honestly, just "blind" works. People like to call me visually impaired--I guess they figure it's more sensitive or whatever, but for my vision to be impaired I first need to have vision. I mean whatever gets them through the night, so long as it doesn't actually affect me, but nope. I'm blind as hell and prettying it up won't change that.

I asked this same question once to in a class on disability studies. We had a blind professor as a guest lecturer. His response was great. He said that the blind community is way less organized than the deaf community and do not have the same cultural influences so it doesn’t really matter. He also suggested asking first but visually impaired is not offensive.

There are so many different types of blindness and visual impairments, that I could not even name them all. I have been called "blind" or "visually impaired", but my favorite is "handicapable". :-D

I’m blind and always will be so calling me blind is fine.

I just say Legally Blind about myself. But I’m not offended by any label. People get so hung up on labels. Poor sighted people trip all over themselves trying not to offend me.

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