I just mutter directions to myself and make echolocating clicks as I walk along and nobody bothers me. I'm thinking of adding a pentagram necklace to the mix as a bonus

The worse is when they pretend to not see you at all and don't even acknowledge you said anything or exist.

This happened once in public, and when the person did decide to speak to us, they only spoke to my husband.

My advice to you is to ask a very direct question that they should be able to answer.

For me, I asked the individual what they thought about adding zeolites to fertilizers in order to control nitrogen release and help prevent environmental contamination.

In a church setting, I would ask for their thoughts about a particular passage in the bible. Like, I would ask them what they thought about 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 6 and how they plan on implicating that lesson into their life, and ask them if they found the current situation an appropriate time to use the lesson taught in that verse.

If they say something like, "I'm not familiar with such a passage." Then I would say something like, "Oh, I apologize then, I just assumed you had a valid reason to believe your IQ was higher than mine other than my blindness, but I can certainly understand the misunderstanding and I shalt make such assumptions again. I hope you have a good day." Then I'd walk away.

At this stage in my life, I ain't trying to be everybody's friend and have no problem calling bad apples out. The only thing I'm tired of is people telling me just to accept other people's arrogance because I shouldn't make people think the Blind community is mean.

But above all, remember your emotional intelligence and intuition will offend everyone who can't run game on you.

Sorry you’re deemed as mentally ill, because you don’t talk. That is actually pretty offensive.

I still talk to them anyway, slowly they will get it some people get it most don’t church isn’t really the place where I make the most friends anyway. The message is good but I can’t connect with anyone. Precisely because of this. I am naturally extroverted and a lot of times they can’t take me seriously. A few people do for sure but most of them? No. I want to help out with something else besides greeting at the doors which I am fairly good at being an extrovert but doesn’t mean I enjoy it after years of doing it. I have thought about helping with the AV but even asking for a more accessible site is difficult.

I am already very jovial and very outspoken.

The women especially the older ones won’t talk to me, or include me, there was a woman’s night which we were suppose to turn to our neighbors and tell them who we related to in the bible. No one cared, or even wanted to include me, after I said who would and they did it because they felt bad they didn’t want to hear me out anyway.

Haha! Just to think if I was to tell them I probably relate to solomon and that I find that I’ve done the entire knowledge thing and philosophy thing. They all think I am adorable, cute, and huggable without really knowing who I am. Hahaha! I mean not quite me, at all.

I actually am quite a bit of a theology nerd more then them, a lot of them.

Most of them refuse to get to know me in church and don’t know who I am not even the women but just people in general. I am actually female but already can’t much relate to males.

Most of them content to feel sorry for me and think probably I am pretty cool because I can walk around church by myself, though they insist on walking me to a chair and stuff.

When I speak up and complain they ignore it or try to appease me but that’s it.


I get along fine outside of church and find that I function at least decently. I mean sometimes you do get that but it’s much more easy at least a bit then at church which is a not at all thing.

Did anyone actually say they thought you were mentally ill? Do you have a white cane or something else to gently remind people that you’re blind without you having to spell it out? They make ID canes for this even if you don’t need one all the time for navigation.
Usually at churches people are eager to lend a hand if they know you can't see, even if it isn't necessarily welcome. When that happens to me I gently disengage myself (they always think you need to be physically steered for some reason) and explain how I want to be helped. Or if I don't need help, I'll tell them so politely. I try to be as pleasant as possible, even if I'm annoyed. I know it can be tough, especially if you're coping with recent vision loss or just now trying to live independently. No it's not fair that you have to play ambassador all the time.

I've had mostly positive experiences when showing up alone at churches randomly on a Sunday morning, and this is including churches where the primary language is not English and where there are cultural differences layered on top of my disability.

It's all about attitude. This is a difficult lesson I didn't learn myself until my mid 30s, and I was born blind.

I red this, and felt very angry, was gonna write out a reply saying how you should ignore those people for entire life, but, later calmed down and thought, anger won't provide a solution.

In very crowded situation, 90% of the time, you might be ignored not because they want to ignore or anything, but simply because they couldn't here you. Sighted people deal with this, by constantly looking around, and, say, their eyes lands on me, and if I am a sighted person, I'll see that it's the right time to speak something to them, so I'll do that if I want to, otherwise just smile or something. They might also tap on each other sholders to get attention. But, as a blind person, I can't obviously see if they are looking at me. The best bet is to make sure that they can't ignore me, by shouting their name first before asking the question, or, asking someone near by to fetch them to me. Yeah, the blind card works wonders if you use it wisely.

In classroom situations, or a conference or something, usually raising your hand, or standing up makes it damn obvious that you wanna say something. If you are still being ignored, then those are shitty classes or conferences, deliberately ignoring, get the hell out of there. Unless you were standing up or raising hands in an empty classroom, Lol!

If you don't want to be labled introvert, non-talkative, not friendly, mentally challenged or whatever, I feel that showing your inteligence and other qualities is the best solution. Simply dressing up and showing up is not enough. You have to speak up, you have to question, provide answers to others. In other words, make damn sure that they can't lable you something which you are not.

What? this never happens to me. People come up and talk to me at church quite often. I'm also usually talking to the people who brought me.

If you don’t mind my asking, what is the reason you don’t want to talk with people at church? I am blind as well and I know that sometimes in crowded and noisy areas I frankly find it disorienting trying to carry any conversation. I can’t see where the person is and I can’t really hear them either so I tend to just be quiet. Concerts are a good example of this. Is that what you are experiencing?