People who use their eyes to receive information are called sighted. Legal sight means visual acuity more than 20/200 in the better eye without correction or an angle of vision wider than 20 degrees. They enjoy rich full lives, work, play, and raise families. They run businesses, hold public office and teach your children!

Sighted people may walk or ride public transportation, but most choose to travel by using their own motor vehicles. They have had many hours of training to learn the rules of the road to gain independence. Once that road to freedom has been mastered, they earn a Driver's License. It allows them to operate a private vehicle independently. They cannot function well in low-light conditions and are generally completely helpless in total darkness. Their homes are usually very brightly lit at great expense, as are businesses that cater to the sighted consumer.

Sighted people know the world in visual terms. This means that often, they won’t be able to communicate orally and may point or use other gestures. They may also use subtle facial expressions to convey feelings in social situations. Calmly alert them to their surroundings by speaking slowly, in a normal tone of voice. There is no need to raise your voice when addressing them. Questions directed to them help them focus on verbal rather than visual and gestural communication.

Sighted people may need help finding things, mainly when operating a car. Your advance knowledge of routes and landmarks, turns and lights, will help the driver find the way quickly and easily. Your knowledge of building layouts can assist them in navigating complex shopping malls and offices. Sighted people are proud and won’t ask for assistance. Be gentle, but firm.

Sighted people read by a system called Print. It is a series of images drawn in a two dimensional plane. Because the sighted person relies only on visual information, attention span tends to fade quickly when reading long texts. People who are sighted generally have a poorly developed sense of touch. Braille is completely foreign to the sighted person and it takes longer to learn the code and be limited by his or her visual senses.

Computer information is presented to the sighted in a Graphical User Interface or GUI. Sighted people often suffer from hand-eye coordination problems and poor memories. To accommodate these difficulties, they use a mouse. It is a device that slides along the desk top to save confusing keystrokes. With one button, the sighted person can move around his or her computer screen quickly and easily. People who are sighted are not accustomed to synthetic speech and may have great difficulty understanding even the clearest synthesizer. Be patient and prepared to explain many times how your computer equipment works.

Sighted people do not want your charity. They want to live, work and play with you. The best thing to support sighted people is to open yourself to their world. These are vital, contributing members of society. Take a sighted person to lunch!