I once had a guy behind a counter ask me, "What are you, deaf or something?"
I got to turn and show him the hearing aids in both ears. Boy, did he feel stupid.
I've done the same thing - TWICE!!
I gave a form to a client once and when he didn't appear to be reading it I said, "What are you, blind?" He replied, "Yes, I am".
I proceeded to shrink to a 2" height.
A couple of years later we went into a restaurant in Northern Michigan while on vacation. We were seated by a young man and then waited and waited.
I finally went up to the behind -the-counter cook and complained about the long wait.
He told me that most of the staff had called in that day and they were extremely short staffed. He said they had no one to take our order.
I told them that someone had seated us and why couldn't he take our order.
The cook replied, "He isn't able to".
I said, "What is he - retarded?"
The cook replied, "Yes sir, he is". (the guy did not have Down's Syndrome and looked perfectly normal)
This time I shrank down to a 1 1/2" height.
I might be a slow learner - but twice was enough. I never make statements like that anymore!
Happens to me all the time. I generally smile and say something like "I'm glad you brought that up," as I turn side to side to show my plugs.