[nabs-l] Cuts in line?

[T. Joseph Carter]

Arielle,

I ask to be moved to the front of the line ONLY in the case of big 
movie opening days with long lines to get in.  Reason being that I 
have some residual vision and can see the movie if I sit front row, 
center.  Most people find this a somewhat uncomfortable place to sit, 
and so it's not a desirable place to people who aren't me.

Otherwise, I'll wait if they'll let me.

They do not always let me in the event of boarding an airline.  I 
don't find it convenient to board first, so I generally try to resist 
this.  It doesn't take me longer to board, and it only takes me a 
moment to find someplace to stuff the cane.

Joseph


On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 03:05:46PM +1000, Arielle Silverman wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I think this topic is very interesting and an important one for us to
>discuss periodically, and to examine from all sides.
>
>Personally, like many of you, I’ve always had an aversion to using
>things like handicapped parking passes, cuts in line or discounts
>because of my blindness (I don’t have additional disabilities). It’s
>something I don’t have to think about; just on the gut level I tend to
>get angry when people try to force these things on me, and have been
>this way since I was a child. I never quite understood why I had this
>strong reaction until a couple years ago when I really started to
>think about it from a psychology  perspective. For me, I realize it’s
>not just about the ethics of taking something I don’t really need or
>using a limited resource (like handicapped parking space) that really
>belongs to someone else. My motive is a lot more self-interested than
>that. I think that as blind people we are constantly having to balance
>our fundamental desire to see ourselves as competent, strong,
>effective individuals against the negative messages we continually get
>from society about how weak, incompetent, and “handicapped” we are
>because of our blindness. If I accept a perk such as a disability
>discount or a pass meant for those with physical disabilities, it’s
>threatening to my self-concept—I start to see myself as “handicapped”
>or “broken” which threatens my concept of myself as a healthy and
>effective person. So I tend to avoid taking these perks as much as
>possible in order to preserve my positive self-concept, and I think
>that’s why a lot of us avoid them on principle even if no one else is
>watching and even if it’s not really hurting anyone else.
>
>However, Jim brings up the other side of the issue which I think is
>worth exploring. One could say, “Why is it bad to use a disability
>discount but OK to use a student discount or for our parents to use an
>AARP/senior privilege?” After all, if blindness is just a
>characteristic then why not take advantage of whatever we can get by
>virtue of having that characteristic? Why is blindness any different?
>
>Indeed, I have no qualms about using my student bus pass or a student
>discount at the movies, but would consistently protest using a
>disability bus fare. And if you think about it, why are students and
>seniors getting discounts? Does it mean that students and seniors are
>perpetually poor and can’t pay the full fare, like we argue that
>disability discounts imply that disabled people can’t be gainfully
>employed?
>
>I don’t know the whole answer to this question but I suspect part of
>it lies in the fact that being a student or a senior is a temporary
>condition, whereas being blind usually is a stable (and more or less
>permanent) characteristic. I don’t find it threatening to accept a
>student discount but I would be uncomfortable with paying a lower fare
>because I am a woman, for instance, and would find the existence of
>special  perks for women quite demeaning. I will (hopefully) not be a
>student for the rest of my life, but I plan on remaining blind and
>female forever and so accepting special treatment or advantages based
>on either of these characteristics feels threatening to my overall
>concept of who I am. I think that disability-related special treatment
>is also more stigmatizing because people with disabilities are such a
>small minority (and the blind are an even smaller group), so we tend
>to feel more “singled out” by being treated differently than if we
>were part of a larger group. I have told a story here in the past
>about a time when I was required to use an elevator rather than the
>stairs on a middle school field trip, and how awful the experience
>felt for me then. I won’t go into the details again, but just point
>out that even though taking the elevator was physically easier, I paid
>the price of being singled out and separated from everyone else (there
>was just one other student in the elevator and he had a broken leg).
>
>Of course, there are times when we legitimately need special
>treatment, and even a few situations in which having a special parking
>pass might be warranted. I don’t think we should all try to be
>superheroes and do everything exactly the same way as the sighted in
>order to preserve our positive views of ourselves. But, in cases where
>special treatment is nice but not necessary, there is something to be
>said for politely declining, blending into the crowd, and maybe
>challenging yourself a bit in the process. For example, if I’m not in
>a rush, I generally don’t use an escort at the airport and I don’t
>preboard. Sure, I could preboard and it wouldn’t negatively impact any
>other passengers. But, I’ve learned a lot, met some interesting
>people, and definitely refined my travel and problem-solving skills by
>doing it this way. And, it just feels really liberating to blend in
>and to be able to tell yourself, “I did this and blindness didn’t even
>factor into the equation”.
>
>What do you guys think?
>
>Arielle