Blindie fails and wins in Davis.

[squonk.livejournal.com]

- Two barking, snarling bulldogs pinning me and my guide dog to the wall on Elm and Day Streets yesterday afternoon. The dogs were on-leash, but it took both the owner and another gentleman to physically pull the dogs away. My guide dog was okay. I was less okay, emotionally (but fine physically). It takes a lot to get me to scream.

+ The owner making a point of coming into Starbucks, identifying himself, and apologizing profusely. It was clear that he felt absolutely terrible, and I give him significant credit for actively taking responsibility, which a lot of other people would not have done.

- My being too rattled to say this to him at the time: Please do not walk your aggressive dogs in a public space, especially in the middle of the afternoon, when they're clearly not under your control and a danger to others. They need to be muzzled or they need to stay home. (I'm not trying to be passive-aggressive by posting this here; again, I was just too unnerved at the time to say or do anything useful.) Had my guide dog been injured, all the apologies of the world could not have mitigated the damage to my life.

+ The witness who ended up in front of me in the line at Starbucks expressing her compassion, then proceeding to pay for my drink. Wow. I think her name was Christina, and she made things much more bearable.

- Feeling calmer and proceeding toward home, only to be treated hostilely by another denizen because I did not want to cross Chester Street exactly when she told me to. When I said I was trying to listen to the traffic first, she snapped, "Fine--all you're hearing is a parked car running right now, so you do what you want!" Dear Self-Appointed Crossing Guard: a. I've been crossing streets all by myself for my entire adult life, and since I am an adult, you don't get to make my mobility decisions for me; b. You forgot to ask me if I needed or wanted assistance (a request may well be appreciated; an assumption/insistence never is); c. Your shouting, "It's safe! Go! I said it's safe! CROSS! IT'S SAFE! I'M STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!" oddly does not inspire a lot of confidence; d. Feel free to go back and stand in the middle of the street for a while, IYKWIM.

- Not wanting to leave my house today.

+ Remembering that Davis Square-ians are actually on the whole some of the most educated, respectful, and generous people I've met anywhere, and that I love living here. Maybe I will leave the house after all.

Comments

[brewso.livejournal.com]

OK, I *really* hope this doesn't get taken the wrong way or trounced all over, because it is truly a serious question:

How are you posting on livejournal if you are blind?

Ugh, I feel ignorant. I hope this question doesn't offend you. I'm just curious. And I'm very sorry to hear about the incidents you encountered and glad to hear you and your dog are OK.

[wavilyem.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised how many different types of software and peripherals are available to assist people with disabilities use computers these days! Although I can't speak for the OP, many people who are blind or visually impaired use screen reading software to listen to emails, web pages, etc. and are able to touch type on a standard keyboard after some practice.

[yourenotwithme.livejournal.com]

There are also refreshable braille writers that can display text in braille for the blind to read.

The company I used to work for, National Braille Press, is developing some new technology like this now... www.nbp.org has some information. It is really interesting and a wonderful step for the blind so that information can be accessed by all.

To the OP, I am glad that you are ok. That must have been a terrifying situation and I am disheartened by the fact that there are still so many ignorant people out there. It is good to read though that this experience has not made you want to stay inside forever. There is too much life to live!

[squonk.livejournal.com]

The level of disability-related ignorance still out there in the wider world is actually kind of mind-numbing, when it's not making you want to scream. As far as individual locales go, though, Boston really is pretty great.

[squonk.livejournal.com]

At the moment I use a combination of large, bold fonts and an assistive technology application called ZoomText (http://www.aisquared.com/zoomtext/) to access the computer. ZoomText will magnify the screen contents and/or read them aloud to you; I use these features both independently and in combination. Other blind folks use straight-up screenreaders like JAWS (http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp) or Window-Eyes (http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/), which just read the screen to you without magnification. Still other folks use the newer Macs, which now come with screenreading and magnification right out of the box. Braille readers can also use refreshable braille displays (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_Braille_display), either alone or in combination with other assistive tech.

Hope that's helpful! :)