Ask one verbal question to figure out who is blind and who is mute among three persons

Question

This is another "You can ask only one question" puzzle. This is an edited very restricted version

There may be multiple answers but I could come up with only one.

There are three persons in three seperate rooms. They have no idea about each other what-so-ever. They do not know that other persons are there in other rooms either.

Two have disabilities: One blind and the other is mute (can hear but unfortunately can't talk). They do not know each other. From their physical appearance you cannot know of their disabilities. The third one has no disability. There is no color blindness among the two either.

You need to ask one question verbally to all three going in the three rooms. Same exact question needs to be repeated in all three rooms in same exact way. YOU CANNOT MENTION ANY DISABILITY IN THE QUESTION.

They will answer only by raising their hands. Right hand for YES, Left hand for NO. If they cannot answer they are instructed to stay silent. They will be truthful.

After their answer you need to pin point who is blind and who is mute and the remaining.

State any assumption you have for your answer. The question needs to be objective so the three can only have those 3 answers. Question like "Do you think I am fat?" can be considered very subjective.

I do understand that there could be multiple answers but I hope the moderators don't consider this an open ended question.

Answer 1

I think this could be an answer:

Can you pronounce this word? (pointing to some written word)

- The non-impaired: YES (right hand up)
- The mute: NO (left hand up)
- The blind: No answer (No hand up due to lack of information: What word?)

Answer 2

"What would you say, if I asked if you were blind, and you were allowed to respond verbally?"

so that:

Blind person raises hand for yes. Non-disabled person raises hand for no. Mute person would not be able to respond verbally, and raises no hands. You only said that it must have those three answers - not that it must be a standard yes/no question.

Answer 3

I would ask:

Is there a mute in the room?

Such that:

1. The blind and the abled person don't know if there is, so they will wait (and see)
2. The mute will raise their hand right away
3. The abled person now knows that there is a mute, and will respond to that by raising their hand. Which happens clearly after the mute did
4. The blind person, unable to see what is going on will keep their hands down

Answer 4

I would ask:

Could you honestly say my eyes are blue? (or some other truthful visual fact about yourself)

That way:

The blind person can't know whether the fact is true or not, so will raise no hands. The mute person can't speak so would raise their left hand. The neither blind nor mute person would be able to know and speak truthfully so would raise their right hand.

And I would know who's who.

Answer 5

Edit: Deleted completely rubbish answer.

Original Incorrect Answer: Before question was edited.
You could

Write on a piece of paper "Are you mute?" and show it to them.

The question does not state that asking be done verbally.

Result

The blind person won't raise any hand, the mute person will raise their right hand and the other person will raise their left hand

Answer 6

The question would be

Raise my hand, and then ask, If you are mute lie, am I raising my hand?

Explanation

Blind won't raise his hand. Mute will raise his left and the third will raise his right.

Answer 7

You say:

One of you is blind, another is mute and the other is normal. If I was to add either $0$ or $1$ to the number of people with disabilities you can see, would you have a number greater than $1$?

And then:

The blind person sees $0$, the mute can see $1$, the normal $2$.
The sum results in: $0+0\lor1\le1,1+0\lor1\ge1,2+0\lor1\gt1$
So 'No, Don't Know (the mute now has either $1$ or $2$), Yes' indicate 'Blind, Mute, Normal' respectively.

Answer 8

Here's a somewhat simpler answer that doesn't need props or nested questions:

"Does your disability prevent you from speaking?"

Mute: Signals Yes
Blind: Signals No
Able: Explicitly has no disability, thus cannot answer.

Answer 9

You could simply ask "Is there a person to your left that you can talk to?"

Explanation

The Blind person will always stay still. They do not know if there is anyone to their left.
The Mute person will always answer "No". They cannot talk.
The Able person will always answer "Yes", Unless there is nobody on their left.
If two people answer "No Then that means the able person is on the far left (from their perspective) because that is the only position that they could say "no". So the other "No" therefor must be the mute.

Answer 10

You could ask (not really a question, but could probably be worded that way).

"When I raise my index finger, please raise the hand that corresponds to whether you are mute."

This means that

The blind person will not answer (cannot see visual cue), the mute should raise their right hand, and the other person should raise their left hand.

Old (incorrect answer)

"What would you vocalize if I were to ask you 'Am I holding up three fingers'?", but actually only hold up two fingers for them to see.

This would mean that...

The blind man person would stay silent, since he cannot see and verify the number of fingers held up. The one with no disability should answer "No", since he can see they are wrong. The mute person should stay silent as well, since they cannot normally vocalize either "Yes" or "No".

Answer 11

Observation: Blindness is a perceptual, muteness an expressive disability. Therefore compose the question as a conjunction of two yes/no questions, one of which requires perception, the other the capability of articulatory expression to be answered. This question would elicit a 'YES' from the unimpeded respondent, a 'DO NOT KNOW' from the blind, and a 'NO' from the mute one.

Example:
'Do I have blond hair and can you give me a phone call later this week ?' [assuming that the interrogator has blond hair]

blind: Does nothing, as the answer would depend on the hair color.
mute: No
other: Yes

The only caveat is the indirect reference to the disability of muteness, though there is no explicit mention.

Answer 12

I would try

Without losing your disabilities, if you see someone you know, can you go and talk to him/her ?

That way

Obviously no-disability says yes and mute says no
Blind should say nothing since the "if" doesn't make sense to him

Answer 13

I find the cleanest solution is:

"Would you be able to tell me what this object is?" while pointing to an object. The blind person would give no answer, as they don't know if they would know what the object is or not, the mute would answer no, and the third would answer yes

Answer 14

Is your disability being blind?

That means that

The blind person would say yes, the mute person no and the third person doesn't have a disability so he stays silent.

Answer 15

Many of the answers seem to violate the question of not being able to mention any disability in the question, or ignore the fact that the three people don't know of each other and aren't in the same room.

The question says we can't mention any disability, so instead we have to ask a question that implies the opposite, that is, whether or not the person can do something, or is able.

"Giving the same answer that you would have given had you been required to speak it aloud instead of giving hand signals, can you identify the color of my shirt?"

Blind person: No (they can't see the shirt)
Mute person: No answer (they can't speak and would not be able to give an answer aloud, so cannot answer using a sign)
Sighted person: Yes (question stipulates no color blindness)

Updated to hopefully eliminate the irreal spotted by @JanusBahsJacquet

Answer 16

Maybe not the perfect answer but I would...

Hold up a book and ask Could you read aloud from this book? 1. The mute would raise their hand for no, as they cannot speak. 2. The Blind person would not answer, as the book could be written in print, or it could be written in braille. 3. The able bodied person would raise their hand for yes.

Answer 17

Question (even better if not facing the people in the room while asking, but turn around to see potential answer): Can you see?

Mute will do nothing, able-bodied person will raise right hand, blind person will raise left.

Answer 18

Could you sing a song (even if it’s off pitch). Well, in all honesty I had forgotten about the third not disabled person. But perhaps a visual cue like an eye roll would help.