[NFB-Talk] Advice Not Resentment

Fri Mar 26 15:38:44 UTC 2021

Hello everyone, for what it's worth, here are my two cents.

First, no one solution will be right for everyone. Second, some folks 
will feel more comfortable with one solution over another one depending 
on their own situation, confidence, and skill set. So, please take this 
into consideration as you continue to read what I have to offer.

Whenever I visit a retail store, I will do one of three things depending 
on time, location, and comfort level.

1. Use the structured discovery method and explore my own surroundings 
to find what I need. This can be the most time-consuming if it is a new 
store and if I am pressed for time because it can take the longest. That 
being said, if it is a store that I am familiar with, I can generally 
get to the area of things that I want and either ask a fellow shopper 
nearby in the aisle I am in for assistance if I need it, or I can use a 
scanning app from my smart phone. Again, for me this is quite tedious 
and time-consuming, but also gives me the freedom of not having to wait 
on an in-store assistant shopper.

2. Ask for in-store assistance. Like has been pointed out on this list, 
many folks will use in-store assistance. Many times the results will 
vary because the person assisting might not speak the local language or 
they may not be literate. Please do not get me wrong, I feel that there 
is a job for everyone, no matter the circumstances. However, there have 
been times that the in-store assistant shopper had the IQ of Bubba, the 
shrimp person from the movie, Forrest Gump. He was very nice, but he 
could not read very well and he didn't understand the differences 
between typical 2 percent milk, skim milk, and almond milk. He didn't 
understand the differences between the different steaks I wanted. In the 
end, he basically served as a sighted guide and I did the shopping my 
identifying the products I wanted myself. So, it was almost as 
time-consuming as my method 1 above. In fact, at our favorite and local 
H.E.B grocery store here in Texas, the customer service people know my 
wife and I so well that they know that when a shopper assistant helps us 
shop, they have to speak English and know how to read. It's sad that it 
has come to that requirement, but this is based on our own experience. 
One suggestion I can make about in-store shopping assistant people and 
requests is that if it's a store you shop at regularly, maybe give them 
a call ahead of time and ask when a good time might be for you to shop 
so that a person can be made available. I have found that doing this, 
especially if it is a store you frequent regularly, they are most 
accommodating. I am not a legal expert by any definition of the word, 
but I believe there is a gray area concerning the Americans With 
Disabilities Act and whether or not the store has to provide a shopper 
assistant person to begin with. I have heard Yes, No, and Maybe from 
people more intelligent than me, so if you really want to know, please 
find this out from someone who is an expert in this field.

3. Shop with a friend of volunteer. If you are not able to take the 
extra time of exploring things on your own and you don't want to take 
the risk of a bad in-store shopper, going shopping with someone external 
to the store might be a solution. This can be done through a volunteer 
service or through a trusted friend. Here in Houston, the Light House 
has a volunteer program that people with disabilities can sign up for to 
go and run errands. The local college also has volunteer services where 
college students who might be looking for hours will do services as 
well. While I can't give you specifics because everyone interested in my 
message will be in different parts of the country, I can say that this 
is not unique to Houston Texas. Of course, shopping with a friend who 
doesn't take over because they can see and you cannot is always a good 
thing. Not only do you trust them, but there may not be any time 
constraints. Then again, I have shopped a few times with a friend who 
was in a rush, so there are no guarantees.

In closing, if I choose the in-store shopper assistant and it's taking 
more than 10 or 15 minutes, I will not wait and fall back on structured 
discovery method. It has been my experience, and not that I do it for 
this reason, but that if store employees see a blind person going about 
on their own for shopping, in-store shopper assistant people tend to be 
available more quickly. Sadly, this is because of a lowering of 
expectations since many blind people are perfectly okay with shopping on 
their own. The times that I do it this way intentionally, I find that I 
get all kinds of help offers even if I don't want or need them. I will 
also sometimes use Be My Eyes or Aira, but this can present its own set 
of challenges because of signal quality inside the store and because not 
everyone pays for Aira or trusts a volunteer person from Be My Eyes, so 
this is why I didn't mention them too much.

I hope this helps as I have tried to be as thorough and as understanding 
as possible considering that everyone is different.

Thanks all.

Respectfully,
*Raul A. Gallegos* / President
National Association of Guide Dog Users, /NAGDU/
832.554.7285 | RGallegos at nagdu.org <mailto:rgallegos at nagdu.org>
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"Blindness is a characteristic, not a handicap." -- Dr. Kenneth Jernigan

On 3/26/2021 6:09 AM, Devin Prater via nFB-Talk wrote:
> There was one time, when I went to Walmart with a group of other 
> people, when wehad an hour to shop. I sat there at customer support, 
> in my mask, for that whole hour, with them assuring me that they’d get 
> someone to help me, but no one did. In the end, I left that store with 
> nothing that I came to get. Ah well, less money for them that day. 
> But, other times have been better. They just need more customer 
> support staff, trained to work with people with disabilities. Then 
> again, all their staff should be trained to work with people with 
> disabilities.
>
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