[blindlaw] Refusal To Use A Cane

[Mark BurningHawk]

Just to complete my shunning, I really wish that guiding tactics and use with blind people would be discouraged.  IN the "real world," I've heard so much talk of, adults do not lead other adults around by the arm or hand.  Children are led.  Guiding blind people and teaching blind people to be guided as a normal recourse just cements the stance of blind adults as 3/5 of a person (this comes from the southern Reconstruction period, when a newly freed black person was counted at 3/5 of a vote in elections).  Guiding isn't a replacement for independence.  And, yes, I sometimes have no choice but to use guiding also, simply because the system is in place and one maverick's opinion isn't going to change it, but I abhor touching or being touched by strangers (another thing blind people are expected to endure, physical contact), and I see the attitude change toward me, from respect to polite dismissal or humoring, once I have conceded to being led around.  Really, we NEED to develop or teach less guiding, less demand for protection, less back-seat status, and we need to stop practicing amongst ourselves tactics and mannerisms that encourage it.

Mark BurningHawk
Skype and Twitter:  BurningHawk1969
Home page:  Http://MarkBurningHawk.net/