[nabs-l] Public humiliation because of blindness.

[John Moore]

I'm wondering if anyone else besides me has had an incident like the one I'm about to discuss. This does not have to necessarily be at a carnival; this can be anywhere. I am trying to figure out what to do to take action against the person involved in this situation and am looking for advice.

I went to our state fair today to hang out at the carnival. I always have fun and today was no exception. I am a very big fan of walking through funhouses, especially the ones that are like obstacle courses with moving floors, turntables, and the like. My favorite one is a massive 4-story one called the King's Circus. First, let me say that it is absolutely crucial that a blind person get help when he/she walks through this. There are openings that you have to watch out for while navigating certain tricks and also some tricky maneuvering if you use a long cane. For instance, the first thing you encounter is a large turntable that you step on to to ride around to the entrance. You have to watch for an opening and the gap is too narrow to put your cane through once you step on and grab the pole. You have to step off while said platform is spinning and could have a really nasty accident if someone is not there to make sure you didn't miss it; I nearly have planted my face in the wall when trying to do it independently. I have been through this funhouse five times, not counting today, and have had no issues with getting help from attendants. The guys who ran it in the past were totally awesome and did not treat blindness as an issue. Today they didn't either. However, there was one attendant in particular who decided that it was necessary to publicly embarrass me. He asked my companion if he had ever heard of the school for the blind; I only found this out later because I went up to go down the 4-story slide from the top of the building. My companion chose not to as he is a big guy and the slide is a tight fit. No problem. HOwever, he then proceeded to yell to the entire funhouse that a blind person was there and getting ready to come down. I understand that I needed to wait until the person I was with got down the stairs, but was totally embarrassed by his actions. He did not let me get a word in either. This was the culmination of a series of incidents. First he made everyone cut in front of me at a particular floor trick that he thought I could not do. I proved him wrong on that one. However, he would not allow me to explore on my own like the other guys used to do. I was usually followed at a respectful distance and left to my own devices once I got past the entry turntable and moving stairs, only getting help when I needed to check that the path was clear and also to help me bypass things I did not want to do, like the hamster wheel. I do not mind waiting to go down the slide as someone has always told me when it is clear. He also made everyone go ahead of me because of blindness. Again, I could not get a word in to him to ask him to back off. I am trying to figure out what to do to take action against this person. I never got his name, but I do have a recording of the walk as evidence of what happened. Mind you, the funhouse was crowded today so I understand that I could not explore too much. But this guy clearly had low expectations and did not expect me to do anything independently.