[BlindTlk] Dating as a Blind Person: Revisited

[Carly Mihalakis]

Evening, Hamburto and others,

I first met someone off of a dating phone system 
while in High School and for a couple years 
thereafter. My experience has taught me that you 
must absolutely disclose your blindness 
beforehand--you don't want to freak 'em out too bad, right?
It's not a big deal--what do they say, like your 
eye or hair color?" If that's truly all blindness 
is, why then must there be a reluctance to be open about it?
Anyway, you probably won't regret just being 
streight with Ol'Sighty about it.  At 12:46 PM 
3/12/2022, Humberto Avila via BlindTlk wrote:

Furthermore, for many of us, there exists not an 
option of disclosing or not disclosing  because 
some of us ddon't even have eyes!
Ask me anything.
Car
>Dear Everybody,
>
>I hope your weekends are going very well, and 
>you are in good health and spirits.
>
>I am slightly following up on a question I've 
>asked earlier on this list and am thankful to 
>Marion Gwisdala, Judy and others who have 
>responded to my many curious and perhaps dumb and silly questions.
>
>Anyways, I am interested in your experience with 
>dating sighted partners, specifically with 
>regards to getting around, and demonstrating 
>your mobility and other alternative blindness 
>skills in front of said person. Let's say, I am 
>beginning to chat with someone over an online 
>dating website, or at work. She asks me out (or 
>I do, for that matter) and we both agree to go 
>to a public venue (E.G. coffee house) to meet 
>up. According to my early research on this 
>subject, online dating app experts highly 
>recommend both parties procure their own 
>transportation to and from the site, for if 
>something were to go wrong during the encounter.
>
>To cut to the chase here: What has been your 
>experiences with dating for the first time, and 
>dealing with transportation-related barriers? I 
>know that in bigger cities there is a lot more 
>flexibility with rideshares being more 
>accessible, and buses running more times. But I 
>now live in a city that doesn't have a lot of 
>those options and their paratransit is, for lack 
>of a nicer word, horrible, and doesn't run most 
>evenings — time of day usually reserved for the 
>actiivity I am trying to undertake. Did you have 
>to disclose your blindness, merely because of 
>the transit issues you experience, and not for 
>anything else? For those of you living with / or 
>lived with parents or loved ones when starting 
>their dating journey: did they assist or provide 
>with any accommodations so that your experience 
>is smooth, despite the awkwardness?
>
>Over all, your solutions and challenges you 
>undertook when dating sighted partners in a 
>sighted world for the first time will be 
>appreciated. I know these discussions can get 
>heated sometimes but this is very relevant as we 
>transition into a world that is going more and more physical and in-person.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Humberto
>
>
>“Be kind; for everyone you meet is fighting a 
>really hard battle.” — πλατο
>
>
>________________________________________________ 
>BlindTlk mailing list BlindTlk at nfbnet.org 
>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk_nfbnet.org 
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get 
>your account info for BlindTlk: 
>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindtlk_nfbnet.org/carlymih%40comcast.net