DEAR ABBY: Speaking as a visually impaired employee of the LightHouse for the Blind in San Francisco, I was pleased to read the recent letter from the woman who offered helpful suggestions for how one should "behave normally around blind people." The gist of her letter was to treat blind people like everyone else.
I would like to add a simple guideline: If you meet a blind person and you are nervous, pretend you are speaking to him or her on the telephone. When you talk to someone by phone, you don't know if that person is sighted or blind -- green or purple, for that matter -- unless he or she tells you.
Abby, it is truly refreshing when people like you use mainstream media to dispel rather than perpetuate misleading stereotypes about blindness. Thank you. -- DAMIAN PICKERING, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
DEAR DAMIAN: Thank you for the helpful suggestion. It makes sense to me.