If you are meeting a blind or partially sighted person for the first time, you may wonder how to behave. The obvious advice 'behave normally' may not be much help. Here are some suggestions, gleaned mostly from blind and partially sighted people, to put you and your friends at ease. Blind people Blind and partially sighted people come from all sorts of backgrounds. There are blind sportsmen and women, gardeners and chess players, teachers and typists, lawyers and housewives, computer programmers and physiotherapists, social workers and telephonists.
Some blind people are young, but most are elderly because sight loss is most common in later life.
In conversation Talk naturally. Don't talk down, or address all your remarks to a companion as though the blind person were not there. Don't be afraid to say 'nice to see you'. Blind people say it too. The words to avoid are the pitying and sentimental ones like 'Oh, poor thing, what a terrible affliction'.