Make them explain why they find it funny. Act dumb. “I don’t get it. Explain it to me.”

If they’re decent human beings they’ll realize pretty quickly that explaining that a blind animal is a punchline to a person with visual impairments may not be as funny as they initially believed.

“So you think whenever the dog acts like a dumbass, it’s because he’s blind? What’s your excuse then?” (Actually, you probably shouldn’t say that but they would deserve it IMO.)

In addition to other advice here - either your family are a bunch of assholes who are aware of the connection, or you get by so well that it didn’t even occur to them.

In either case, your feelings are valid and it’s not a matter of “rocking the boat”. You are perfectly in your right and handling it very productively to just say “I feel like blindness is an insult/butt of your jokes about doggo being kinda useless and it’s really tough for me to hear that’s how you perceive it.”

Maybe when they say a joke like that again, say to the dog in a baby voice, "Oh, dearie, are they being mean to you, again? It's OK. You and I both know that being blind doesn't make you clumsy, silly!"

You may want to suggest that the dog might have Addison's disease which is an adrenal kidney issue that causes confusion and disorientation in older dogs. It is easily corrected with a monthly injection.

The dog will still be blind, of course, and they may still be cruel and insensitive about it, of course. We currently have an elder foster dog almost 14 who is mostly blind, mostly deaf and has early stage kidney failure. She is also the one of the sweetest dogs we have known. We've noticed that blind people really identify with this dog though and she has been a favourite among the many foster dogs we have cared for over the years.

You are not wrong in reading that when they make rude or insensitive comments about the poor dog that they are one step away from making the same comments about you or other blind people. It is quite possible that they do say mean things behind your back as jokes, "Didn't see that, well neither did Brad" or equally bad taste. In the right circumstances it might be OK for you to make the joke "You didn't see that? Well neither did I." but it is probably not appropriate for a sighted person to make it about a specific blind person. Many people find even jokes like "You know what Stevie Wonder hasn't seen" trope offensive even if it is just a riff on the "Yo mamma so fat" jokes.

I wish I knew what to suggest for how to handle the situation with your relatives. The right answer, if there is one, is going to depend a lot on who they are and how they are likely to respond to various approaches. Maybe just focus on one person, not to complain or whine to them but someone who would be an ally in helping change the attitude and behaviour of the rest of the group. This might be someone else your own age or an older person who seems to have more empathy and self consciousness. Catch them alone with the dog in the room and mention that you don't like how the dog is treated. It might be as easy as saying "You wouldn't say that about a child to their face so it seems wrong to say it about a dog." If they can't understand that saying mean things just because they can do so without consequences is still bad, whelp, that's unfortunately where too much of the country seems to be right now. Best of luck though.

I’m not an animal person but I disagree about the dog not having feelings.

Perhaps they’re not in the ways we experience them, but they exist, they can hear tone and sense things we can’t, such as fear.

Any update?

People often joke about what they are afraid of. It could be that they are trying to deal with your blindness in a lame round about way. Talk about it openly, see it as an invitation to explain how you deal. People invite discussion in all sorts of fucked up ways. Ask them if they are afraid of going blind when they get old? How they would cope. Most of all, don't sweat it, the term "blind" is used all the time, it doesn't have to be about you. I'd like to think you are confident enough in yourself that such a term means little. Sounds like they need new material.

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