[nabs-l] Public humiliation because of blindness.

[Brandon Keith Biggs]

Hello,
I doubt you will encounter that guy again, but what you may wish to do is 
find the person in charge of the carnival and explain to them about 
blindness and needing workers who are willing to let you explore. If they 
give you some **** about safety being an issue, say that you're perfectly 
willing to sign a waver. Often times they get a little speechless and don't 
know what to say. At that point you explain to them that you have had 
extensive training starting from a very young age on how to navigate your 
world and because of this highly advanced training, the haunted house 
provides a very fun exercise in navigating active surroundings.
If that guy does come to you again, I would ask to speak to his boss after 
he refuses to leave you alone.

We just got to remember there are some people in this world who never learn 
and he may be one of them.
Thank you,

Brandon Keith Biggs
-----Original Message----- 
From: John Moore
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2012 5:08 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] Public humiliation because of blindness.

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.
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