Yes and no, personally. Although I may not understand “orange” in the same way a sighted person does, I still find it useful to know that my shirt is orange. To me, I use this information to understand if the color of an object matches or clashes, and what might look nice together. Blind or not, I’m still interested in art, color and design.

Other descriptions can add information, but I’m certainly not bothered by sighted people using color words.

Ummm, no? I do have some vision, but I’m colour blind. And if I ask someone what colour something is, I want to know what colour it is. I may not see red the same way a sighted person does, but if I ask you what colour my red shirt is and you tell me, “it tastes like strawberries”, that’s not helpful.

Now, if I ask you to describe the colour red, then, in that situation, I think you can use “the taste of strawberries, the smell of roses, the feel of velvet” or whatever other descriptions to give a sense of things that are red, and emotions which the colour red evokes.

I could see that being useful to understand a little more of what “red” means to a sighted person. But if I’m looking for the red crayon, just tell me which one is red.

You are missing the practical side of this. As a totally blind guy, I don’t need to know what a color looks like. I actually need to know what color certain things are. For example, if I need to describe what type of car I am being picked up in, I need to know what color it is to tell another sighted person. I may not know what Red looks like, but if the car my mom drives is Red, then that is helpful.

This is going to sound harsh but I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. I'm making a point and making it bluntly because I feel this is important.

If you're upset by this the problem might be you, not them.

I don't want sighted people to walk on eggshells around me. I don't want my friends to censor themselves - I want them to be themselves. I won't waste energy by being offended when no offense was intended and I won't insist they stop using visual comparisons just because I'm here.

Honestly, your post gives off "You're in America, speak English or leave!" vibes. I don't think you realized that and I think you're a good enough person to understand how ignorant and entitled that attitude sounds once it's brought to your attention. Some people speak with accents, others refer to distances in miles instead of kilometers, and I wouldn't dream of demanding they make an effort to speak in a way they're not comfortable with so I am more comfortable listening.

No I disagree with this respectfully but wholeheartedly. As somebody blind from birth (only light perception but no shadows or anything and certainly no colors) this is one of those things where we just kind of have to adapt by having a map in our mind of what different colors mean in my opinion. I'd equivocate this to the whole watching thing where sighted people sometimes try to avoid sight-centric language like watching a movie although on a lesser scale; what I mean by that is that this seems like something a sighted person would assume blind people would want.

There is a fantastic book called the black book of colors where it describes color as smells and tastes and such.

I don't think any way of describing is right or wrong. Color is just a characteristic or feature of things. It's all just best educated guess on what would be suitable to describe based on situations. A blind fellow who also lacks sense of taste won't like the description with taste.
I can see most of colors, but some just look like something else to me regardless of descriptions. For example, I find very dark shades of most colors as plain black, and white for very lighter ones.

The thing I don't understand is when people say they forget what colours are. I could see until I was 19, which isn't that old and was a long long time ago now, but I don't think I'm ever going to forget colours and some other things. My memory could be completely wrong at this point but every interaction and discussion I have about it tells me it isn't. Maybe it differs for different people, I don't know.

I disagree that they need to be careful, it's just everyday language.

I may not know what x colour is but I think as another poster says it's useful to know if the car I'm being picked up in is blue or whatever colour is it to help sighted people help me.

Some thoughts:

Wonder if keywords associated with each color would help for totally blind guys. Say, for things like hot, warm, fire, colors like red, orange and yellow would be associated. And from that, one can probably make educated guess about other hot things, say an engine of an airplane, or, even sun. Not that sun looks red, it looks very bright white to me. But is depicted red or yellow in kid's drawings, space photographs etc. But, Morning and evening sun does look orange or yellow mostly. And, extreamly hot fires can look blue or white as well. So, that's that.

For cool things, And I mean that in the temprature sense, not in that car is cool sense, colors like blue, white, and I don't know what other colors would be associated.

Then, you can go an associate each color with some keywards, and that can help one in making an educated guess about what a thing might look like.

Making educated guess is not the point. But, in a world where many things exist, and it's not always possible to ask what the hell every thing's color is, having basic assumptions can help. But basic assumptions will probably cause someone some day that Oh, Is that it's color! moment.

For me, not everything is visible, and even I make assumptions about a thing's color or it's size, simply because I didn't have time to ask anyone how that thing really looks like. Audio descriptions from movies also help.

There's a podcast called "Talk Description to me". Wonder if they have done an episode on colors yet.

The color wheel is useful. Also, learning fashion tips will always explain color matching.