Judging from my own experience, and from all the different topics on the forum on dating, it isn't so much women who are blind don't want men who are blind as it is exactly what Dark says, the culture of the men needing to be the ones asking the women. This is somewhat less true regarding blind couples because there isn't that nonverbal communication gap, and I know plenty of blind couples who make it work just fine.

College helps definitely as a blind person. Since most entry level jobs are inaccessible, having the degree is helpful when looking for meaningful employment. The issue with college is, you really need the right degree to get into the right field. Education, which was my major, is very difficult to break through prejudice in the hiring process. People who are blind and successful, seem to be in insurance, computer science, or law. Yes the ADA has helped, but the ADA does not change people's minds just like there are still people who are racist, there are people who don't think blind people are capable, and some law passed in the nineties isn't going to make them think otherwise, it just makes them hide their prejudice behind, "hiring someone with more experience." Your last point about women leaving men behind in higher education though, that is true across the board, not just in the blind community.

As someone who just had this issue with Uber yesterday, I'm not sure your reasoning behind why a driver not allowing my service animal is not a huge issue? I rely on Uber to get me to work. How do you think employers would feel if several times a month you showed up late because, "I had access issues with my Uber driver," before they get sick of it and fire you? Or especially in my field of massage therapy, my clients expect me to be there on time for their appointment. this goes back to people's attitudes toward the disabled.

Seeing as how the people who are blind in manufacturing, unless you're working for the Washington Lighthouse for the Blind, in my experience are generally in sweat shops, working for not much more than minimum wage if they're even making minimum wage at all, I'm not sure where you're getting this the AI are going to take over their jobs. There is so much potential in so many other fields, it's just a matter of breaking down the barriers to getting hired, and making the one or two things in those fields that are not accessible accessible.

Honestly, most blind people I know are either unemployed because they make more on their benefits than they can at the jobs they are offered, work in call centers, are social workers, lawyers, or working with computers. I know one person in insurance, and plenty of massage therapists as well. Oh, and I know one person who got into education, but they ended up teaching at a braille jail, so despite their success, that's not where most people in education will end up, or want to end up.

All of this boils down into blindness being a minor issue, and society being the largest contributing factor to the lack of success among the visually disabled.

Okay. Point 1. I really can't comment here. Beyond my expertise as it were.
Point 2. College has become a one-size fits all for society in general here in the western world. Not just post-secondary, mind you, but specifically university it feels like. This is where I disagree with post 2. It's not necessarily college that's becoming more required. The reason why it seems that way is,because we've been focusing on send all of your kids to college. No matter what. I guess that might be a more U.S. mentality, though. See, what we need are more people still doing post-secondary, but taking the time to learn skilled labor jobs. Either associate's degree stuff, or otherwise licensed professional sort of work such as plumbing and HVAC. That tangent aside.
Point3 I mean, that sort of behavior has seemed to become a lot more common lately in general. Kind of sad really. One of the major reasons why things just feel more toxic and depressing lately, I guess. Also, the latter half of this point seems to contradict with your second point. That aside.
Point 4 I mean, I don't know. We should be focusing more on developing better methods for us to get into more of the in demand fields that I discussed above, I think. It would give blind people an edge going forward, if we could prove ourselves capable of working as electricians, plumbers, and so on without you know, creating a terrible fire risk or something. LOL!!!
(edit) I think Aaron kind of hit it on the head there. It would be nice if the various support organizations would focus on more development of better ways and technologies for us to advocate for ourselves, and competently do these jobs. I know they do to some extent, but as effective as group advocacy can be, personal advocacy tends to be more amicable and allows for better understanding rather than just fear.

College is unfortunately something that's being shoved down everyone's throats. College is not the be all end all solution for absolutely everyone. I have no plans on attending an actual College. I'm in the process of obtaining CompTIA IT certifications which should hopefully get me into the industry assuming I can get past all the misconceptions.

I'm actually curious to know what's so great about guide dogs? Maybe it's just because I'm not a dog fan, but I've never understood what was so great about them. Sure, they can help you avoid certain obstacles, but the dog won't get you from point a to point b without you knowing where you're going. The dog won't tell you what's around you in great detail. Is it simply a case of people wanting a dog that also acts as a guide, a method of gaining attention from others, or both? I'd really like to know. Personally, I think it would be much more valuable if we invested in some kind of super advanced GPS and object recognition system that would provide us with detailed information from the environment around us. Imagine having something that could tell you how far away and in what direction a door was. As you turned and got closer, this information would be updated accordingly. I'm imagining something like AIRA but without the human element and using the much more accurate Galileo GPS and/or indoor navigation. It would essentially fill the gap we currently have of not being able to glance around and quickly learn what's in our immediate environment that everyone else takes for granted.

As for the lonely part, I'm not sure. Maybe it's because in a lot of ways we aren't fully equal to our peers. We can't fully participate with them in things like video games and other aspects of society.

1. Can't comment. I'm gay,, and to be blunt, I avoid most of the blind community like the plague. I have my own small (ish) circle of friends and mostly acquaintances. Most of the blind relationships fail because (1) Sleepovers on team talk. (2) Not communicating in a long distance relationship and (3) Most importantly, not meeting in person.

2. College is not the end all. In 2018, it's be at the right place at the right time if you're blind, expect to have many misconceptions about you and work to fix them.
3. These days, I'd take a dog over a kid. Most guide dogs are cleaner, more well mannered, and enjoyable to be around than most of these little brats who deserve nothing more than a good old smack on the bottom. Or maybe the parents should be the ones to blame. Still, though. I'm old school and think a kid on an iPad at the age of 4 is simply stupid. The kid doesn't want to play outside when there are things to be shot and blood spilling while he isn't even out of diapers yet right? That's extreme, but while we're on issues of that nature....this is why so many these days are depressed. Get outside. Enjoy the sunshine. Learn a few things that don't have to do with University or college - learn some labor skills. I know blind people that  do woodwork and carpentry. Work on cars. If you have an interest in something, go after it. Try and get some experience with it, even if it's just as a hobby. Nothing is stopping you.

Sure, GPS would be amazing. There are so many smart devices around these days. Who knows what they do? Where the information goes? Hell, in chrome and firefox alone there are minuscule packets of data going to all sorts of various places. Your smart tv, smart speaker, smart coffee maker, smart plugs and anything related to that transmit data all over the place to make your life easier. What happens if that got intercepted and used for bad things? Sure, there are doubtlessly tons of backup plans, but with a guide dog, (which I do not currently work with), the dog is always there. It has nothing to do with social interaction and has everything to do with getting to the destination more efficiently and quickly.

With aira, I'm still relying on the internet, but it's an actual human. This is what is wrong with our society today - everyone wants AI for this, AI for that. There goes even more jobs down the drain for folks. Getting a job? With the reliance on anything but human interaction, how can we actually get a job this way when it comes time for a face to face interview with a human being? What happens when that AI goes down?

So many parents of blind children just shove a computer in their hand and want them out of their lives. That's no way to learn social skills and by the time the child grows up, that's all they know.

I agree with Drums here about relationships, universities  and guide dogs. I'll also note that problems for men specifically with finding relationships and being accepted in university environments are not specific to blind people either, particularly since I'm afraid in all of the minority based identity boosting that's going on at the moment blindness tends to get completely forgotten.

As regards relationships specifically, I'll also note that specifically looking for relationships "within the blind community" is no better prejudice wise than looking outside it. My lady happens to be blind, this was not a requirement of either mine or hers for a partner, things just worked out that way.

As regards universities and employment, the problem ultimately has nothing to do with education specifically so much as the fact that employers have  no knowledge of, or insentive to employ blind people anyway, university qualifications or not, and that at the moment prejudice can go unnoticed. Sadly though the solution to this is a social, not technological one.

~As for the blind community getting bothered about so called "little things"

Well would you have said that black people in 1950's America who were not allowed to ride on busses or eat in the same restaurants as white people were being concerned about little things?"

I think not. Again, this is fairly simple prejudice. There isn't however really a solution since unfortunately the public perception of "disability" is so tied to either being in a wheel chair or autism blindness never gets a look in, that when disability prejudice is mentioned at all, which is increasingly less common these days given that promotion of minority interest has turned from something positive into a much more major focus on pure misandry.

To get onto a happier subject. I'm afraid I don't really see the arguement that guide dogs are "purely social"  or that what they do could be replaced by technology.

Firstly, yes, guide dogs do find there way around obstacles. Could you do this with a cane? Well of course you could, however which is easier, simply having your dog look around instantly see a way through given obstacles ahead and follow along, or having to concentrate, recalculate, reassess and perform all those logical operations necessary with a cane. This is also not to speak of crowds, where a guide dog will revel in the challenge of weaving in and out between a huge number of people in situations where using a cane would be dire.

The energy factor and difference is staggering.

Secondly, finding places and things. One thing to remember, is that a guide dog is a thinking and logical creature and can perform the same sort of category judgements that a human can.
For example, the word "seat" can apply  to a massive category of objects, from  a garden bench to a plush arm chair. When a sighted person sees a "seat" their indirect perception autoamtically performs operations to see if the base characteristics of that object fulfill the properties of objects within the category "seat"
this sort of snap judgement and assessment is bloody hard to program into an Ai, even if you could have a camera to perform it.

Yet a guide dog has the same capacity to learn this sort of judgement as a human can. Not just seats, doors, counters in shops, exits , bus stops, road crossings,  post boxes etc.

Furthermore, a guide dog will understand where you are going and go there without need to correct. You need to "know" where your going yes, but you don't need to constantly monitor every tiny little thing, indeed learning routes with a guide dog is far easier than with a cane because while your not having to constantly look out for obstacles, pedestrians, your  relative to  traffic etc, which then leaves your over all mental capacity free  learn landmarks and turnings, or look at a satnav or whatever.

Lastly, while, as I've said a guide dog is massively useful for mobility in ways that go far beyond a long cane, don't under estimate the social or companionship element, since yes, sighted people often would rather interact with a blind person's dog than a blind person, which is inconvenient and annoying, but its a fact of life, and if a guide dog can help you get over the "whaaaa! he's blind" syndrome and finally approach that moment when people actually start thinking of you as a human being, all the better.
Oh, and if you are stuck on your own, well at least you've always got someone to talk to, particularly since dogs are largely much nicer company than most people .

is a guide dog for everyone? Certainly not, there are definite down sides, not the least is having to constantly take care of a dog, carry food with you, worry about where your dog will spend, never get a lie in due to having to get up with your dog etc.

There are also people who are just not themselves dog people, and don't get on as well with  which is fair enough.

However, I would always say if a person could! possibly have a guide dog, they should think about it.
After all, if a guide dog really was no help or was just equal in capacity to what you could do with a cane? Why would anyone  bother going through the actual hassle of having one in the first place?

Actually, if bench, chair, armchair and all other such things are programmed into AI, and if we get to a point where AI can park your car for you - we can already do this - and weave in and out of traffic - same deal, look at the way driverless cars are going - then this is very possible.
Also, I personally revel in crowds as a cane user. I can hear where and how people are moving enough that drafts, sound vectors and other such things inform how I move. do I ever whack shins? Sure I do. But I'm pretty gentle, and I don't mind, and most others don't seem to much either. I don't find myself wanting to find specific things in a way that would necessitate a dog, so a lot of the advantages I already have or don't care to have.

GPS systems can also be hacked and redirected by a malicious opponent as well. That is the problem with AIs -- its reliance on technology to work the way it works. With dogs, you don't suffer that problem.

Dogs can't be "hacked", it's true. But AI won't go snuffling for food, won't randomly chase squirrels, won't get sore feet, won't get distracted by other AI. And yes, I know most guide dogs don't actually chase squirrels, but I hope the point is made. Dogs are good, and they do many things insanely well, but they are biological creatures. Any argument you can make about AI being hackable, I can turn around and flip on its ear to say that dogs suffer marked decreases in reliability under certain conditions. And I'd think that, depending on the tech, it's more likely your dog gets sick than that your AI gets hacked.

But that is also YOU. Not everybody shares the opinion that an AI would solve everything (or even most). There are plenty of good things - see Amazon's new Alexa enabled Microwaves, that benefit blind people. But there are almost just as many bad (especially if we're talking about technology being relied on to navigate *that* heavily).

A prime example. Driving down a highway and the gps says to keep going. So we did. It said to turn right on a 2 lane road, we did that. It says that the destination is on our right. It's supposed to be a restaurant. Instead, it was a river.

The restaurant was 15 miles in the opposite direction, the maps for the area were updated 3 months ago, and even using my phone and google maps, which is usually foolproof,  netted the same results. Good ol human intervention saved us. And this isn't the first time. This was also just outside a big city.

Isolation is really a huge issue in the blind community. Stay isolated and away from people and what happens? How do you socialize when it actually comes time to interact? I can't use the self checkout at my supermarket because it's a touch screen. Am I butt hurt about that? No. I go up to the counter, say hi, how are you doing today (a seemingly unheard of thing  in this day and age, despite it being common 20 years ago) and god forbid I even said Merry Christmas before I left. The cashier actually sounded surprised that someone said it when she responded, in a slightly startled tone, well Merry Christmas to you too!

Not wanting a dog is fine but let's not get ahead of ourselves and start replacing all companionship with technology. Read the Demon series by Daniel Suarez. The likelyhood of it actually happening is minimal, but what if it did? What would we do?

I do agree that a dog getting sick is about 100x more likely than AI being hacked, but with the increase in technology reliance it's going to be interesting going forward. Self driving cars are going to be super cool because of all the idiots driving down the road on their cell phones. But there are countless issues. Who is liable if the self driving car smashes into someone and kills them? What if a person, due to sheer idiocy, tries to run that car off the road? Either way, I look forward to  that progressing. I might even be able to afford one of them in my lifetime. I just hope there are still some mechanical features like door locks and actual physical latches that I need to use a door handle for.

Hello,
Sorry for entering late this conversation, but I just found the time to do this. I will try to answer your questions one by one, and I will answer where I have something relevant to say. 
Question 1: Relationships between blind and visually impaired people in many countries are discouraged due to the concept of disability they have. One of those arguments which pops up most of the time is: if I live everyday with a sighted person who helps me with anything I need, how in the world am I going to live with a blind person who has the same needs as me? This sighted person obviously is a member of their family, or a roommate. Please note, this approach is not held by all the blind communities in the world. That’s what I’ve noticed with many adults in my country and some articles I’ve read about other countries on this matter. One important point to be considered is the connection a blind individual has with his family. That’s where the initial approach I mentioned above starts to be constructed.
Question 2: colleage might not be the best answer to employment but it is one of the viable answers. Anyway, I don’t simply see colleage as a means of increasing your job opportunities, but also many other aspects. One of those is socialisation. When you go to a colleage, you become part of that community. You can participate in different activities such as debates, clubs, open lectures, excursions, student councils, student associations, and many more. What I’ve noticed, particularly on this forum as well as many other communities I’ve had the chance to meet or to learn about, is that most of the blind individuals are very lazy and passive to deal with university or colleage. Even if they decide to be part of colleage, they become completely detached from that community. To elaborate more on this, I’ve noticed, quite a lot of times, that they are not willing to read long lectures or dedicate long hours to reading books, analyzing and reflecting on different articles or afairs, prepare for final exams as well as write dissertations. At the university where I am currenly studying, I don’t have any form of support in terms of learning materials or accessible books. I have to scan most of the books I need to work with in daily basis and proofread them for spelling errors page by page. This semester, for instance, I have managed to obtain from my professors only two books out of four. The rest has to be scanned. On the other hand, what I’ve seen from universities in Europe or America, books or lectures are provided in electronic formats and scanned if existing only in hardcopy format. At this point, I don’t know what prevents many blind students from entering colleage.
Question 3: Placing much, or too much focus on trivial issues. Yes, I’ve seen this, particularly when they want to emphasise that they are blind, or that they don’t want, or are not willing to try something new, or cooperate. One of my friends was in Germany last year where she had to attend a conference along with a number of activities focusing on the interaction between blind and sighted people. At one point, the sighted participants started playing a game which was not quite accessible to the blind counterparts or perhaps unfamiliar to them. Most of their reactions were like: hey, I can’t do this; can’t you see that I’m blind? My question here is, why didn’t they try playing the game in the first place instead of immediately saying I can’t do it? That’s where question three makes sense in my opinion.
And question 4: What aren’t we focusing on? Or, what are we lacking? I believe contact with the sighted community. This should not be seen only from the judgement and the perspective of sighted people, but also from our own perspective as blind people, too. It is true, and I can’t deny that the sighted community hesitates to have contact with the blind community, but we do hesitate, too. We are those who should react in these circumstances. To be more specific, let’s suppose two citizens (first sighted and the other blind) meet in a work environment. Before beginning their interaction, both will ask questions like how do I look to him or her, what is his/her opinion for me, what is his/her consideration for me, and so on. The point here is, who, between these two, needs to be clearer in regards to the question he/she has in mind? Of course, the sighted citizen; he/she has not had as much contact as the blind citizen has had with his counterparts. That’s when the blind individual should consider reacting according to the situation. From my experience, I have noticed that most of the obstacles created during the initial contact between a blind and a sighted person are overcome through communication.

Sorry for the long post!