Thank you for reminding me of this one. You're right it is far more common and equally as cringey as the unsolicited comments.

I'm sighted, but I roll my eyes whenever I see a video about a blind person doing something and all the comments are "this made me cry" etc, it seems so patronizing!

I agree, as far as I know it's not wrong to pray for someone without permission. I wonder what the person gets out of announcing the act of doing so. The nun would have shocked me! What can a person even say to that except thank you lol Hopefully you were somewhere a person would expect to encounter a nun and not just waiting for a bus or something!

once a stranger told me I should play the piano because it fits blind people well. I mean, I do like music and singing and I sometimes bring instruments to the campus to play with my friends but that was weird. The guy was really sad I don't like the piano.

That is awesome on your parents for teaching you to not be afraid to address comments like that and especially on you for looking out for opportunities to engage and advocate. It ain't easy but it's honest work you're doing.

Christians lack all logic. Look at it this way. If God is supposed to make no mistakes, and God made me blind, what makes you think that praying over me is going to fix that? Wouldn’t that be not a mistake since God never makes those?

This is really helpful knowing you have tried to explain and found it exhausting more than anything. I'm kind of scheming business cards with QR codes that can bring people to a site with good info on the general questions as a solution. I see how people get tired of constantly explaining how they use the computer here on reddit. Maybe I can link people to the facts already out there in real life too lol

Lol jeeze, I hope they brace themselves for Google Glass if it ever becomes a thing. Not like we aren't all holding up our phones everywhere we go that have cameras on the back or anything already haha

I love the idea of using humor to shut down the "amazement" in a friendly way. I think that's a good approach for kids too! I will brace them for Dare Devil references lol

That happens regularly in the Western world.

I must be special then

The ASL comment made me laugh out loud, mostly the "so we can keep talking" part. Though the glasses one is pretty rich too. Imagine being like, "wow you're right, glasses is totally what I've been missing all along"

Totally, thanks so much for sharing your experience and insight. I'm sorry you have to have these experiences even as an adult. For someone to say, "wow that is so impressive you're living your day to day life" is a low key way of saying "my expectations for blind people are so low that I am shocked seeing you out here being a person"... To say that a blind person needs prayer or healing is to imply the need to be "fixed" when really, the disability has shaped the person, they are whole, they don't need to be any other way or have sight to be valid. Also less menacing things like going on about a blind relative is not mean but how awkward would it be to go up to a black person and be like, "My best friend in highschool was black" implying that relationship makes you know this other black person's life more intimately.

I totally agree, saying things like, "I'm on a lesson I can't talk right now" or "I have to focus on my route" or just ignoring them is the best way to stay safe and move on with life. I want my students (or myself) to learn to shut these people down and make them think about what their words are really saying. Of course in a way that is respectful and won't put them in any dangerous situations. Do you ever worry that challenging what people say could put you at risk? I have never tried to do so with confidence because I agree, I want them to just go away instead of getting defensive or weirder. But I also hate that they might think that they have done a kind deed through the interaction instead of what they are really doing which is reinforcing their own perceptions and being awkward lol

It's perfectly fine to talk to us, but please just say hello and ask us if we need help. Don't assume that we want to be prayed for or cured, don't grab us or our cane or guide dog, and don't tell us that you find us inspirational. Here's why it's bad for you to see us as inspirational: https://www.ted.com/talks/stella_young_i_m_not_your_inspiration_thank_you_very_much/transcript?language=en

It’s not that you should avoid talking to blind people you don’t know. However, you should be careful about the manner in which you address the person. Do not make assumptions or ask overly personal questions that you wouldn’t ask any sighted stranger. The other day I was on the sidewalk walking competently forward. A woman came up beside me, walking in the same direction, and asked if I was ok. This created a very temporary dilemma for me. I could tell that if I answered in the affirmative, it wasn’t going to be the end of the conversation. I don’t know quite how to explain it but I could tell. I live in a very urban area with a lot of pedestrians. Sometimes we just have to ignore people. Homeless people, people in general. Not all communications are desire. She then asked me if I was ok again in a much louder and more forward way. You have to understand that there was no reason for her to ask the question. I was walking along at a fairly fast pace in an area free of any major obstacles or anything except for one. There was an entrance to a parking garage just ahead. In distraction while trying to respond to her, I did not hear a car exiting the parking structure. Consequently, the car ran over my cane and broke it. The vehicle stopped while one of the tires was still on my cane. The driver, another bystander, and the woman who had asked me the original question were still around. When the driver and the other person started to ask me questions, the original woman told them she thought I was deaf. I told them all I was not deaf. The driver dispassionately backed the vehicle sufficiently for me to remove my broken cane from under the tire and departed. I then turned back and began the painful walk home with a broken cane tip. I do not think anyone really understood that I was going to have a very difficult time traveling with the cane in that condition. The only point I am trying to make is that interactions can be interesting and turn out in ways we might not anticipate. I went from a simple quandary about how to respond to a question about whether I was ok to a broken cane. I will never know if the distraction contributed to my failure to hear the vehicle. I believe it did. In the current state of things, I am a lot less forgiving of idiots I encounter in public who are trying to be helpful and failing miserably. I do not want people needlessly violating my personal space for no good reason when it is obvious I don’t need them to grab and shove me in a direction I likely am not trying to travel. So, unfortunately, I am not always as able to be as polite as some people might recommend. I do not thank people effusively for doing something stupid. If I tell someone once or twice that I do not need them to do something, I expect them to understand and if they don’t, I tend to get a little more blunt and demand that they try to understand my position. Sometimes it works.. Last week, I was intentionally walking directly toward a wooden construction barrier that I intended to move around at the appropriate time. My judgment of appropriateness was apparently not equivalent to that guy running to save me from behind. I am not even going to try to describe the interaction except to say that it was as if the world was literally coming to an end. I attempted to tell him to stop but it just didn’t work. I attempted to explain that I wanted to contact the construction barrier with my cane so that I could make a very precise determination about how to circumvent it. None of it did any good. He stubbornly insisted on putting his arm around me and physically trying to push me into the street and around the barrier. I did not tolerate it. While I understand why people might not have enough knowledge to comprehend how a blind person travels or does whatever is necessary, if I make several attempts to explain it and someone still does not appear to be listening, it becomes very frustrating.

Oh, no! Sighted people often have to initiate conversations so it is appreciated when you do in most cases. I would just break the ice with the weather, maybe you like their outfit, ask where they are headed, how the day is going.