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Living With Face Blindness

Face blindness causes difficulty recognizing people, severely impacting social interaction. For more information on face blindness, see my Face Blindness/Prosopagnosia page. There are many ways of coping with face blindness, some of which I'll describe below. Some of these methods may be appropriate for parents of face-blind children, while others will be useful face blind people themselves, in work or adult social situations.

Distinctive Clothing

Because of the difficulty in recognizing people, distinctive clothing worn by another person helps us to know who that person is. Someone who wants to meet with a face blind person might wear a bright orange shirt. If the face blind individual knows that this shirt will be worn, it can reduce a lot of stress. Even friends that we know can do this to help us out. For instance, a friend could arrange to have lunch with me and add, "I'll be wearing a bright red shirt." I'll be glad that my friend did this, because I will know that I will be able to recognize my friend in the restaurant.

Teachers and parents can also do this with children. During a field trip, for instance, it may be helpful for the teacher to wear some distinctive clothing so that the child will know which adult they are safe with. Parents meeting children where there may be other adults may also do this, as it will relieve a lot of anxiety in their children.

Team sports in school are similar. If there are colored jerseys available for playground and PE games, it will help the face-blind person to know who is on their side. They won't be able to recognize their teammates based on face alone.

Closed Captioning

When watching TV, I always try to use the closed captioning. This lets me get extra "clues" which I can use to figure out which actor is which. In addition, it helps me with my auditory processing problems.

Say You Forgot Their Name

If I don't recognize someone that I think I probably met recently (for instance, at a party where most of the people are unknown to me), I will simply say, "I'm very sorry, but I can't remember your name." While face blindness isn't a problem with remembering names (which I also have a very difficult time doing), this will usually get an answer. In addition, there are not many social problems that arise due to forgetting the name of someone you recently met, so you won't have to explain about face blindness or autism. Of course, this only works when you know you met the other person recently, so the usefulness of this technique is very limited.

Enlist Your Friends

Ask your friends for help! They can mention the name of "new arrivals" when you are in a public situation, since they will often share many of your relationships. For instance, if you are standing in a restaurant with your friends waiting for a table, they might greet Bob by name when your friends see that he is also waiting for a table. The face blind person can listen for this greeting to figure out that they know that other person.

Office "Names"

On my first day of work in a new building, I'll walk around the building. As I'm walking, I'll memorize the building's layout. Once I get back to my office, I'll draw a map of the building. I'll then find a friendly coworker who will be willing to help me label each office with the name of the appropriate employee. Within a week, I usually have memorized which employees work in which offices. I use this to find employees. If I need to talk to Bob, I'll keep visiting his office until there is only one person in it - at that point, I know that person is Bob. I can also leave papers on their desk or chair if they aren't in. To me, names belong to offices - not faces.

Use The Telephone

Another method I use is the telephone. Rather then trying to recognize someone in person, I may call them and ask for them to find me. This eliminates the stress I would normally feel if I had to recognize someone else. Email can also be used.

Arriving Early

When I have to meet a friend somewhere, I make sure that I arrive very early, so that I know they won't be there yet. This places the burden of recognition on the other person, rather then myself.