How Does a Blind Person Know What to Wear?

A blind person puts their pants on "one leg at a time" as some one once said. Blind people have worked out many interesting and ingenious ways to figure out what they're putting on. There are high tec ways, and low tec ways. And some blind people do away with choice all together.

Some blind people try and make it as easy as possible. I have heard people refer to the blind uniform-black pants and a white, or light shirt. For many blind people, it is much easier not to have to choose. But this is no different than many sighted people. Many people ware the same or similar clothing day in and day out. My sister loves black. I've heard commercials for a popular men's ware store The Men's Warehouse, which use this as a marketing tool. They tell men to buy suits because then they don't have to figure out what goes with the pants they're wearing. This is a lot easier for men than for women. I myself can get buy with lots of pairs of jeans and khakis. But how does a blind person know what shirt they're wearing? I use my sense of touch.

I rarely purchase two shirts which feel the same. Often I remember a shirt by its feel. I may not remember what the pattern of colors looks like, but I will remember that a particular shirt goes with brown pants.

Some blind people organize their closets in a special way, and many label their clothes. There are so many systems of labeling that I won't discuss them here. They range from Braille tags to numbered safety pins and even talking labels.

There are small machines called barcode readers. You may have seen them used at the store by the cashier. These can also be used to identify tags placed inside of clothing. The specialized barcode reader has a recording device inside. When the tag is scanned, the machine reads the recording. "green with thin black lines." The label talks!

Another way of identifying things is by using a color detector. There are several handheld color detectors on the market. You put a shirt up to the lens and press a button, and a voice says, "olive green."

Usually when people ask, "How does a blind person dress themselves?" this question comes out of a sense of fear. They don't know what they would do if they went blind, so they can't imagine a way that it might be done. Sometimes the questions come out of curiosity as well, and I like curiosity because it helps us learn.