[nabs-l] Public humiliation because of blindness.

[Carly Mihalakis]

Good evening, carnival chick,

Let it go! Just consider what the attendant's attentions probably 
were and his experience with blindness. He probably has neither. At 
05:08 PM 10/19/2012, you wrote:
>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.
>_______________________________________________
>nabs-l mailing list
>nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l:
>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/carlymih%40comcast.net