I've been online dating since TheSpark became OkCupid. i lost my vision in 2014, but it didn't stop me from dating. I met my wife on OkCupid, we started off in an open relationship and are now in an ethically non-monogamous open marriage, and I've had a lot of experience using various apps and sites for meeting other partners.

For the most part, yes, online dating is a very visual medium. Ultimately it just comes down to how well you present yourself in your profiles, how well you write messages, and go into dates without any expectations other than just taking time to learn about someone new. I disclose that I'm blind within the first line of all my profiles, and I find that it weeds out people who find that to be a dealbreaker. I've met, played with, and dated both sighted and blind people, and it doesn't come down to preference as much as how well we click and how we connect.

The apps have a variety of accessibility issues, from crappy photo uploding and management issues, to broken parameters for age preference and distance filters, to just bad UX in general. My wife has helped me work through some of those boundaries, and I will always send in support tickets and push the developers to fix their bugs, though that can take a lot of persistence. Be My Eyes and Aira can help people set up profiles, but once they are set up, the overall matching mechanics are easy to pick up.

For OkCupid, I always recommend that users answer as many questions as they can on the website since the iOS app sucks for that, and also to refresh their answers every few years since tastes and interests change. I've had a lot of luck with the various dating and hook up subreddits here, through groups on Kik and through social media, and just being open, honest, and up front about what I'm looking for. I even wrote a dating primer that I send to dates to help with the logistics of meeting up for a date and what to expect when meeting up with a blind guy. It's a few posts down, but $1

Edit: as for attraction, I always go by common interests in the profiles I come across, then it's voice, smell, and our mutual chemistry when we meet in person. I'm body and sex positive and don't really have a type, and it's been fun creating new experiences with the people I've met off of OkCupid, Tinder, Facebook Dating, reddit, and others.

I met my husband on tinder. He knew I was visually impaired by the picture I used. He himself is sighted. Matched just a few days after signing up. He's funny, kind, smart, loyal. He's got a great laugh. He's understanding.

And he's handsome. He's 40 and has those crinkles around his eyes I just love. He's a big teddy bear and great at cuddling. He's also childfree which is great because kids are a deal breaker for me. We both prefer Marvel over DC. He supports my dragon obsession. Lol

It's not so much looks but personality that's attractive. Who he is as a person, having the same values. He's an atheist, I'm discovering and he let's me do that because he knows I won't bring him into it. Our differences and similarities work well together.

Honestly I've never dated, even before going blind. That's probably the least successful aspect of my life. Since growing up that I've had a really easy and good life, except for the first 5 years after losing my sight, but have always been worse than bad at getting people to find me interesting. My guess is that I put too much emphasis into respecting people because I'm very open and straightforward with everyone, so I kind of expect people to be the same, meaning that when people say no I take it as the truth and never bother them again, even if it hurts. I'm also very good at controlling my emotions, so it's also possible that I play my cards way too close to my chest. I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm not a virgin at 38, as I've had lots of paid sex since my early 20s, because fortunately prostitution is legal in my country.

As for what I find attractive, I'm still too attached to sight, so besides the voice I tend to listen to other people's physical descriptions of the person, though I do avoid asking them directly because I don't like to demonstrate interest. I'm attracted to women much older or much younger than me, with sizable boobs, and as natural as possible, because I hate the smell of cosmetics and never found them visually attractive either. Mentally speaking I do find intelligence, honesty, respect, and true altruism highly attractive.

I hope I won't sound involuntarily celibate when I say this but I think that part of the reason the people I've had crushes on have not seen me as more than a friend is because of my blindness. I've been told I can be romantic and funny and charming, but right now just single, but it's not like anyone can go on dates in this age of the virus anyway.

I take online dating all the way back to the height of yahoo chat in the late 90s and early 2000s. By the time POF and OKCupid were popular I was a pro at it. Sure there were people who were uncomfortable but I just moved on to someone else who wasn’t. I never had a lack of dates.

I haven’t ever dated a blind woman. I have nothing against it it just never happened.

As far as attraction goes voice was a big one. I often enjoyed dating women with different backgrounds and interests who I could learn from. Although I have dated different body types there is one I prefer the feel of.

I met my wife in 09 and a lot has probably changed since then.

Whether a person is blind or sighted isn’t really a factor in my decision to date or sleep with them. Physical attraction is largely determined by the sound of her voice, but mental compatibility is also very important to me.

The apps are… not the best, but I’ve met and got with girls off of them (before the pandemic turned the world upside down). Lots of reading bios (As I can’t see pictures) and hoping for the best.