AliMcGraw

One of my best friends is totally blind (since birth), and what he found really difficult was dating, especially first and second dates. To eat out, he needs a friend with him who can describe for him the place setting and help him locate his glass and so on; it's a bit of a learned skill and so tricky for a sighted person on a first date to know how to do. (He also needs someone to read him the menu, but that's easy.) He could either date women he was already friends with, who knew how to help him with those things; or go on double dates for a first date; or go to one of two or three restaurants in town where he went a lot and they knew him and could help him out. (He had one Italian place where they knew him really well, always gave him the same waitress, made sure his place setting was impeccably arranged and always exactly the same, sat him in a quiet booth so he could hear really well, and knew how to accommodate him generally; that was his preferred first date spot.)

Also since he had a guide dog he couldn't really date women who were allergic to dogs! He also worried a lot about his socks matching and preferred not to wear shorts, in case they didn't match and someone noticed.

I used to nanny a little boy who would throw EPIC meltdown tantrums whenever his mom left, sobbing and wailing "BUT MOMMY I NEED YOU! DON'T LEAVE ME! I'M NOT OKAY! I NEED YOU MOMMY! I MIGHT FROW UP!" and chasing her out the door and clinging to her leg and the whole nine yards. As soon as he heard the garage door start to close (meaning her car had left), he'd stop crying, sniffle once or twice, and turn to me and be like, "Let's play, Ali! You be train driver and I be passenger!" and was completely fine. The mom's-leaving meltdowns got him a lot of attention and reaction and reassurance, but they were very much a reflection of wanting attention, and not a reflection of his "real" mental state about mom leaving.

If she managed to sneak out while he was distracted, he'd call, "Mommy? Snack?" half an hour later when he wanted a snack, and I said, "She left, bud," and he'd just shrug and be like "Oh. Can you get me snack?"

My grandfather was a civil engineer in the Navy, he sat in Washington DC and answered questions like "Can we drive a tank across this rickety bridge to get to Paris?" and he drew up plans for field hospitals and barracks and temporary bridges and things like that, taking into account local materials and what supplies could be shipped in.

Once someone points it out to you, you're like, "whoa, of course someone had to do that part!" but most people never think about it until someone does!

A lot of disabled people like to vacation in America because of the accessibility laws! Plus hardly any of our buildings are more than 200 years old so not a lot of steep and narrow staircases generally. Do come visit one day, almost everything will be accessible to you, and tourist attractions are very used to making accommodations. Even taxi fleets have to have a certain percentage of wheelchair-accessible cars and provide them quickly when requested!