The skinny on blind people blind dating

Are you a sighted person wondering if blind people date? Do they stay with in the blind community? Or, do they branch out into the world of the cited? No matter how they date. The blind community has much XPerience with blind dating… pun intended lol

Another new interesting dynamic to the land of blind dating, is the new and wide spread phenomenon of online dating. It has opened a whole new door for the disabled community. It has allowed them to meet all kinds of new people they may not have otherwise had the chance to encounter. As some of you already know, I myself have embarked on an online dating journey. It wasn't intentional in my case. I did not seek comfort at eHarmony, mashed.com or one of those other fishy sites. Not that there is anything wrong with these of course. I simply wasn't looking for love when it came directly in front of me and struck me hard like a Mack truck. It was kind of rude actually, I wasn't even looking. Where is the respect?

Sometimes you find love when you least expect it. There is no need to be afraid of this. Embrace it! Don't give up on it! I thought about it for a second, and tell my boyfriend clued me in to reality. Love knows no boundaries. It is not aware of the true definition of distance. The heart wants what it wants.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

Many blind people date other blind people. There may be many theories to this. I personally think it can be a good idea for some. It allows two people to come together that have many things in common. They know the inns and outs, ups and downs and all other directions of blindness. They will understand when others may not be able.

Up until I met my current boyfriend on the playing the blind card Facebook page, I also only dated sighted people. This wasn't necessarily a choice. It was mostly lack of options. The town I live in doesn't have any other blind people my age. 

As absurd as it sounds, when I met my boyfriend Ryan, it didn't occur to me to even attempt to date a Nother blind person. It seems silly to me. I figured, I should be looking for someone who can see, can drive, and therefore better the situation that I was in before I met him.

A few of my friends and family told me how Insein the prospect of this theory was. You are a hypocrite! They scolded me right and left.

They were right. I totally knew they were right. The problem was, my heart had already been hurt several times. Yes, I admit it. I was and probably am still a little, a woman scorned. That's right, I've been through a lot. It's taking me a long time to admit that, but it is true.

In retrospect, that is probably the main reason I was so jaded about getting into a new relationship. It really wasn't anything to do with the fact that we are both blind. Instead, with the fact that my heart was still drying. You see, I had just recently applied the crazy glue and duct tape. I had actually been single for quite a wild. But only recently decided to even think about having my heart exposed even a little. That didn't mean I wanted to date. It just meant I was open to the idea of meeting someone new.

And then there came Ryan. He of course is Mr. wonderful! I never expected to meet him. I thank God every day that I did however. He has completely changed my life for the better. He makes me every day want to be a better person.

He is a smart ass just like me. Which of course, I love! What he doesn't think of, I do and vise versa. It is a perfect blind match in heaven! I would not have it any other way. I have decided to adopt a new mantra… blind dating is the new black…

I have decided to explore the prospect of blind dating more and more on this blog, on the Facebook page, and especially on my YouTube channel. I look forward to having more conversations with you about this topic. I plan to open up with you a lot soon. Ryan has even agreed to talk with me on the YouTube channel about it too! I am really excited about that. I have also been talking with other blind friends on Twitter and on Skype about joining me in this venture as well. I will keep you posted as more develops on this.

If you are interested in being interviewed through Skype in an audio only interview for the YouTube channel, please feel free to find me on Twitter or on Facebook and let me know either in a private message or by leaving me a comment. I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can. I look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible. It will be fun to get to know all of you and inform the world in the process.

As always, thank you for reading… And remember… Look before you leap

I Want To Talk To You!

I am interested in interviewing people for Playing The Blind Card. The beauty of it is you don’t even have to be blind or even visually impaired.

Do you have a blind friend or family member? If so I’d like to talk to you. Sighted people who interact regularly with the blind community have an interesting perspective on the subject of blindness. It is also possible that you have a funny story to share. Maybe you have a message you would like to share.

If you have never met a blind or visually impaired person I’d also like to talk to you. Just because you’ve never met one of us doesn’t mean you don’t have valuable thoughts or opinions to share with readers. We can have a conversation that might inform readers about preconceived notions or stereotypes you may have learned in your lifetime. Don’t worry! This is a learning exercise only! It is not to make a person feel bad for something that they do not know. After all, no question is a dumb question. And no opinion is a bad one as long as it’s respectful to others.

Are you a professional working in the disability field? Do you offer a special service for the blind or visually impaired? If so, Id’ also like to talk to you. I would love to have the opportunity to tell readers about the special service you provide. If I fall in love with it, I will even put a link to your site on Playing The Blind Card.

Last but especially not least, if you are blind or visually impaired I want to talk to you. This is a call to all my fellow Blindy’s! Standing together we can make a difference. I would like you to help me inform readers about blindness. Have you accomplished something that might surprise people? Do you have an interesting job? Do you have kids? Do you have a guide dog? Do you just have something to say?

`If you fit any of the descriptions above I want to talk to you. Please either leave a comment under this post or use the contact link to the right to Email me directly. I would love to interview you for future posts. I hope to hear from you soon and remember… Together we can make a difference!

Being Friends With A Blind person

Today I am interviewing a sighted friend of mine. This will give you an inside look on what it’s like to have a blind friend if you are sighted. I’m of course blind and she’s my friend so the questions will be personalized.


Me: How long have we been friends?

Ariane: I have known you for about thirteen years.

Me: You knew me when I was sighted as well as blind. Am I any different now that I can’t see?

Ariane: No not really. You are still the same person.

Me: Do you have to help me a lot?

Ariane: No not really, you are pretty independent.

Me: What types of things DO you help me with?

Ariane: Transportation, I read things to you, guide you around sometimes. And sometimes I guide you into traffic and I’m like OOPS lol

Me: You have four kids ranging in ages from five to twelve. How do they react to me?

Ariane: Fine, they don’t see you as any different. Half the time they forget you’re blind. My youngest son always wants to know why you can’t just drive over to my house. My oldest son likes to give you crap about it. He likes to joke with you about it. One time we were at a birthday party. You called him over to you and said you wanted to see how tall he was. He said it tripped him out because he was like she can see? It didn’t occur to him that you would need to feel the top of his head.

Me: Do people ever give you a weird reaction when they find out you’re friends with me?

Ariane: Sometimes. I’ve had a friend who wanted to know if it was difficult to be friends with someone who can’t see. They wanted to know what types of activities you could go and do with a blind person. It wasn’t hard for me to explain because I knew you as a sighted person. We know how to talk to each other. I can explain things to you and you get it because you were sighted and have memory of things. I can basically do anything with you that I do with anyone else… except I’m never riding shotgun with you lol

Me: There are a lot of people out there that are afraid to get to know a blind person. If you could say anything to those people what would you say?

Ariane: Talk to them before just grabbing their arm and walking them across the street lol. Don’t be afraid to talk to them but don’t talk down to them. They aren’t deaf or mental disabled or a child.

Me: Is there anything else you would like the world to know about having a blind friend or about blindness in general?

Ariane: It’s not contagious. You’re not gonna become blind with contact. I don’t see you as a different person. It’s not the most important part of you. Once you get to know someone who is blind you will not even notice the disability anymore. Your disability is a part of you but not all of you. It has taught you a lot. You may have doubts and fears but you do things anyway. There are a lot of things that you can do that I can’t do. It’s made you stronger.

Me: If you had never met me when I was sighted… if you met me for the first time when I was blind would you still be my friend?

Ariane: I don’t think I would not talk to you. I might not be as close right away. If I met a blind person tomorrow it’s not like I would be all no sorry I’ve already got one of you. I’ve already reached my quota. I would still talk to them and get to know them.


So as you can tell Ariane and I have a close friendship that allows us to joke around with each other. She would never say something to intentionally hurt my feelings nor would I hurt hers. We both feel that in a situation like this humor is the best medicine.