[Ohio-Talk] Blindness based discrimination at port Clinton thrift shop

[Cheree Heppe]

In Port Clinton, Ohio, there is a thrift store on Second Street called Portage. It is said that proceeds from this thrift store go to help disadvantaged individuals and some of the service agencies operating in the town.

Although I am totally blind and cannot see signage regarding COVID mask safety precautions, I am almost certain, based on the sound of people's voices, that there are no signs requiring masks for the store and that very few people in the store are wearing masks.

Today, October 3, I entered the store alone with my white travel cane seeking a picture that a woman named Patty showed me a day or two ago. The tasteful picture, framed in wood, a modern art piece, they intended to send with me without wrapping or protecting in any way until I asked them to have people in the back room wrap the picture for transport. When others bring goods that might get damaged to the front counter, staff automatically wrap items in protective paper or cardboard for these customers.

One of the women working there who remained anonymous and didn't introduce herself, walked with me into the room where furniture is kept. When no one was around, this woman engaged me by saying that she didn't know why I wanted to be in the store because she understood that I had problems with the store. She sought to create confrontation. Her plan seemed to be to engage in social disturbance, rather than to solve a customer shopping request.

I suggested that we continue with the project of looking for and obtaining the item I required. The 1930s underwood portable manual typewriter the Woman store employee represented as old and not very good, the Be My Eyes app phone volunteer described as nearly new.

The 1930s underwood portable manual typewriter had a sticker of $150. I verified the price with the Be My Eyes volunteer. I require the typewriter because I cannot hand write anything legibly, or, at least, I am concerned that my handwriting won't be legible enough to address packages and envelopes and communicate information of an important nature. This typewriter has no ribbon. I will have to look for one. I do not have a printer.

Someone working at Portage consistently attempts hostility and unhelpfulness toward me and appears to be signaling to keep others from approaching or interacting with me,. This includes discouraging new employees from assisting. From nearly the beginning of my contact with this business in November of last year, there have been disability aversive issues. Discrimination is not solely restricted to me. The same store personnel are extremely aversive to anyone who is a person of color.

I find myself being left in empty spaces in rooms where I'm seeking products without employee assistance. The woman operating the front counter will say that they have no extra people on staff to help or that the place is terribly busy when I can hear only one or two customers in the store.

It says in the Bible that "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Nicer products are either not shown to me or represented to me by store personnel as being damaged or unattractive or with some other negative feature. This to a totally blind person who can't see to verify the true state of affairs. I used the Be My Eyes app and discovered that when a Portage product is represented like this to me, it means that it's something nice that the people working there don't want to sell to someone who is blind.

The staff at Portage don't introduce themselves. They are simply anonymous old women with outdated attitudes making unconscionable assumptions and acting on them when they see someone who is blind. Although I could use the Be My Eyes app and have the volunteers navigate for me and tell me what's going on so that I don't get the kind of discrimination I am experiencing, I would prefer to have access to a thrift store in the same way as other people. It's really time to retire some of these outdated attitudes.

Sent from Cheree's iPhone