(no subject)

[rivka]

Walking back home from the cafe where I had brunch, I saw a blind guy standing on the streetcorner waiting for the light to change.

A car pulled up on the cross street, and the passenger jumped out and jogged up to the blind guy. "Hey, do you need some help getting across the street?"

"No," the other guy said politely, "I'm just waiting for the light."

At that moment, the light changed. The sighted guy said so, and walked across the street alongside the blind guy. Then he came back, got in the car, and drove away.

I know that the sighted guy was just trying to be helpful and nice. But my question is this: how did he think the blind guy got to that corner, anyway? Didn't it occur to him to wonder how the guy handled every other intersection between his point of origin and his destination? Didn't he wonder why someone would head out alone for a walk if he wasn't capable of handling basic walking tasks like crossing the street?

I would certainly point out any unusual barriers to a blind person - "hey, they've got the sidewalk blocked off up ahead, so you might want to cross over to the other side of Read Street." But, for the most part, I assume that people with disabilities don't start off doing things that they're not capable of doing. Maybe that's just me.

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Sometimes people are getting on with things, and sometimes they're standing around looking confused. There's a difference.

I was once in King's Cross underground station in London on the Piccadilly line platform when I saw a blind man ahead of me on the platform, having just got off the same train I'd got off, looking uncertain uncertain. Everyone was walking, he was standing still frowning. I asked if he needed a hand, and he asked to be directed to the Metropolitan line platform. Now this is by no means an intuitive place to find even if you can see, up several staircases and around several corners, and it happened to be where I was also going. So I said this, and offered my elbow and started walking. Once given the direction, he immediately hared off at top speed, much faster than I can walk, and I had to explain that in fact we were re-enacting a Biblical proverb here...

[minimo.livejournal.com]

Rather than assuming handicapped people are not going somewhere that they are unable to get to alone, I assume they may be depending on small amounts of help from random people that they are certain to encounter along the way.
I often ask "Do you need any help?" And they will often reply something like "Just let me know if this is the last step down."
Maybe they are patronizing *me*? Ha ha!