So you really need to go but notice two of the three stalls are occupied with the third left open. You push on the stall door and notice a small flyer advertising the establishment’s products. Naturally, you ignore it since it’s an emergency and proceed to go about your business.

The problem is that for a person with visual impairment, that piece of paper on the stall door could mean anything. What if it’s an out-of-order notice that turns your emergency into a total nightmare?

Blindness has always been associated with being a handicap so it’s very common for blind people to be written off on a systemic level before being given the chance to demonstrate their abilities. There was a time when the blind were placed in “sheltered workshops” that trained them to complete menial tasks. That’s the only way a factory hired them where they got paid pennies on the dollar for labor.

Sheltered workshops are not as common today but the blind still encounter lowered expectations in modern society.

If you find yourself invited to a blind person’s home, remember to not move anything without saying something or asking permission to do so. They rely on regularity and memorization, so detailed mental maps of the physical world they are in exist in their minds. Having them navigate new environments is extremely difficult.

This is why blind people are always with someone who can help them find their way around new places.

There is a growing trend of braille illiteracy with some blind readers finding braille clumsy, difficult to learn, and slow to process. Braille does takes up a lot more room on a page. A braille book is much longer than the same one in normal print.

The National Federation for the Blind says that less than 10% of the legally blind population can read braille. The blame is on the larger social failings on the part of the sighted world: “[in] order to have people who are literate who are blind, you have to have folks who believe in blind people, who believe in Braille, and somebody prepared to produce it.”

Bad enough that we 20/20 vision people struggle with overly wrapped packages, but imagine what it must be like for those with low vision. Think of how most bottles are sealed in at least three different ways. It’s a few minutes wasted for trial and error in itself.

Tamper-proof seals are another issue for those who cannot see. Talk about difficulty.

Far too often, we take colors for granted, only being meticulous when buying say a car or that expensive pair of shoes. But for blind people, color is an abstract concept they need to connect with something they may understand.

Redditor /u/thetj87 explained his tactic for understanding color by associating “colors with concepts… i.e., red = fire, blue = water, white = snow, brown = mud.”

He also went on to add, “the comparison of brown to mud was challenging due to also knowing I have brown hair and would like to think my hair isn’t similar to mud.”

It is so easy to reach into the fridge for juice, or for that coffee pot isn’t it? And it is so satisfying to pour liquid into a glass or mug with ease.

But a blind person has to be extra careful, or they will spill coffee all over the counter or themselves. Sure there are liquid indicators to help, but others with low vision will place a finger into the glass and stop once their finger is wet.

Though of course even a person with normal vision can spill hot coffee all over themselves when distracted.

There’s always some sort of software that helps translate the words on screen into audio messages. But the truth is, most of these systems aren’t very high-tech.

According to Paul Schroeder, VP of Programs and Policy for the American Foundation for the Blind, “When you log onto a website using screen reading software, what you start with is a site that tells you how many lines, and some basic structure – but not very much. When you’re experiencing a cluttered site, the information you want may be 300-400 lines in, and if you’re going line by line, or section by section, it can take you a very long time to find what you want.”

Technology may be of great help, but blind people might have to listen to the entire contents of a webpage in linear order and that wastes time.

Try to walk around your house with both eyes closed. Difficult, right? Now try it in your city. For most blind people, doing so means keeping a clear mental image of their surroundings and hard-wiring the memory in their minds.

“Most of my navigation is based upon mental mapping,” said Redditor /u/thetj87. “I am fortunate to have a really strong sense of direction and the ability to memorize things very quickly.”

That sticker on fruits and even vegetables need to be removed before being consumed or prepped for cooking. They stick so well that it makes them difficult to discern by touch. You’d have to look closely and see where you can begin peeling it off.

So for a blind person, trying to figure out where the sticker is and how to peel it off can be very time consuming.

A lot of people with visual impairment don’t really consider blindness a disability. They just process information differently. The problem is many others don’t change the way they view people with vision problems.

Blind Redditor /u/thetj87 said in a Q&A, that the hardest part about being blind is “getting people to move beyond their own preconceived notions and expectations of a blind person.”

He was asked if people were condescending to him, and he said:

“Yes, this is something I experience pretty frequently. Often I find that people expect me to have much more limited capabilities, due to my blindness. Frequently if I’m out at a restaurant, the server will ask whoever I’m with what I would like rather than asking me, as if somehow blindness means I will be unable to communicate to them my desire.”

For the blind, handling cash presents many issues. It’s far too difficult for them to differentiate between the denominations. And dealing with a dishonest cashier or seller is all too real.

The UK government did try to address this problem in 2017. The country’s new £10 note featured raised dots in the upper-left corner meant to help blind people identify the bill with less difficulty.

Some ATMs do offer the option of using headphones to listen to prompts, but they are rare so if an ATM doesn’t talk, the machine is inaccessible to a blind person. Braille on the buttons are useless since they can’t see the corresponding messages and numbers on the screen.

Even ATM machines that offer audio messages won’t help the process of fitting a card into the slot. Then there are various aural prompts that can take several minutes.

Many of us have the impression that the blind walk around with their eyes closed, but that’s not the case. In legal terms, a person can be blind and still retain a certain level of sight. To be considered legally blind, the eyes must operate at 20/200 vision or worse. That means their eyes are 10% as strong as those without visual impairment.

The National Federation of the Blind says they “encourage persons to consider themselves to be blind if their sight is bad enough – even with corrective lenses – that they must use alternative methods to engage in any activity that persons with normal vision would do using their eyes.”