OK readers I need you to help your girl out! I am baffled and need some understanding. Is common courtesy nonexistent? I mean if you saw someone in your path with a bright white cane, wouldn't you think to move out of the way? Remember this blog is based on the perceptions of 2 sisters; one blind, one sighted; Robin seemed to find my irritation funny, but I was quite flabbergasted! I was not a happy shopper and usually shopping brings me great joy! Here's what happened, *sigh*, so we're at the mall getting our mom's Christmas gift, Thursday evening, the mall wasn't too crowded, normal mall crowd and people still continued to walk straight into us. WTH?! Not just once, not just twice...multiple times! This girl had to pull her boyfriend out of the way! We're walking, they see us...keep walking...I'm thinking are they gonna shift to the side...nope, they keep coming. I'm telling Robin, "These people see us, headed straight towards us and they are not gonna move". Robin's laughing, "Yeah, it happens all the time." So, now I'm at the point where I'm refusing to move, they are going to have to get out of our path. Can you believe these people still would not move?! They got right up on us to the point we're all doing a two step shuffle to get around each other! Again, WTH?! Maybe I'm a bad guide. I know, I know, Robin's talked trash about my guiding skills, but I've gotten better! Seriously, I have lol! I don't know, maybe I'm confused, maybe I missed the memo that courtesy went out with last years fashion. Call me crazy, but doesn't it just make plain ol' good sense for someone to go around if they see someone is blind? Or were we supposed to move out of the way? Oh pardon me sighted person, although you see us and are walking directly in our path, let me guide my blind sister around you at the last minute to not inconvience you. All you, sighted person, had to do was take a few steps over to the side, while I have to direct my sister to go to the right, keep going, oh wait, hold on here's some more ding dongs who don't want to move out of the way...geez! My thinking is whoever has to make the less effort should move. If I see someone with a stroller, in a wheelchair, that's blind, on crutches, or someone who has shopped until they can't shop anymore and has more bags than they know they need, etc., I'm moving out of the way because it takes less effort for me to move than to make them move. C'mon people, let's keep down all of the unnecessary scuffle...share the mall hall! It could just be that some people are just rude and are that way regardless and it's more noticeable when their rudeness is towards someone with different abilities. They better not be shocked when they find a lump of coal in their stockings this year, lol!
It's the holidays, so while out and about, be kind, be courteous and most of all be fabulous! Smooches!!!
The holidays are crazy! We were at a busy festival and Steve told me to veer left and said this lady is trying to set her child on your guide dog!
ReplyDeleteOmg! LOL, now that is funny! :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a jungle out there. I've had more and more experiences like yours as the build-up to Christmas has gone on.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't pay to be too polite with my white cane, I've found. I find it works much better if I swing it from side to side determinedly as I walk, making quite a lot of noise in the process. Occasionally if I approach it like that, more people stay out of my way, but often they still don't. Some of them even tutt and throw their noses in the air in annoyance that I've got in THEIR way!
The truth of it seems to be that people are just totally distracted, obsessively looking for that XBox for little Johnny or whatever it is. This is not helped at all by people walking along texting or glued to their iPods. These gizmos command more attention than human beings.
Now and then, someone will wake from their reverie and realise they've got in my way and say sorry. But almost always they look at my assistant, not me, as they say sorry. Or so I'm told.
I've concluded that if they can't see a blooming great bright white cane that goes from the ground to about navel height, I'd better arm myself a bit better, and have bought a flashing dog collar that I thread through the handle of the cane. If that doesn't work, I've thought of rescuing the klaxon from my old bicycle, which is enough to wake the dead! Cyclists are also invisible to the great public, and you need every help you can get, so I've learned that kind of assertiveness already. (You'll be relieved to know I've actually given up riding my bike now!)
Season of goodwill???
I love January!
Seems that until something like this affects them or someone they know, lots of people don't get it. It's too bad.
ReplyDeleteI know my comment is a year after the original post, but I'll share what I think is a related funny story...
ReplyDeleteMy husband is legally blind (he has RP) but chooses, at this time, not to travel with his white cane. He can get around without it as long as he's cautious and concentrating. He walks by a training center for the blind on his way to work, and the past few days they've been doing cane training in large groups. Two days in a row, he has been concentrating on his walking, and then suddenly discovers there's this huge group of people with canes navigating around him! He's like a salmon swimming upstream. He's afraid they might think he's rude for not getting out of their way, but they don't realize that he's blind too...
So maybe, Toni, these people who won't get out of you and Robin's way are blind too? Haha, probably not :)