Real Life Encounters of a blind kind
Even us blindies for life were shocked at discovering just how embedded the mysticism of lack of vision was entrenched in the Canadian psyche Four months of homelessness was our introduction to the cold shoulder of Canadian hospitality. It was the time between the sail of our family home of seventeen years and the completion of our charnel house to live out the rest of our lives. This unsettled time heightened our perceptions of the intolerance and ignorance of others to citizens who are blind. Guide dogs are a part of our person and our being as persons who are blind.
“That is a private garbage can! You can not put that in there” came the shrill banshee cry from way up the high-rise as we went to put a bag of dog shit in a garbage can. We had just arrived at the condominium complex which was to be our temporary home. This warm welcome was followed by the same lady shrieking out a sermon on the evils of dogs. When we yelled out” we belong here” we were told that no dogs were allowed and we were lyres. So all we could do was pick up our guide dogs handles and retreat to our apartment to lick our wounds of welcome.
Eventually it got so bad we had to make a visit to the office and show them the Blind Rights Act with its provisions for a $5000 fine and threaten to charge those who found it sporting to harass us every time we took our guide dogs out to the public park to relieve the working animals. Money talks and the threat of calling the police got us the peace we needed to survive where tolerance and inclusion had failed.
Because of our mobility aid we pick up all the baggage of the dog haters and lovers too.
It is not uncommon for us to be circling our dogs on a patch of grass at the back of the condo in the park and to be accosted by people demanding to know “is that a dog in training?” Not only do they interrupt the effort to relieve the guide dog they invade our privacy as they breath their stereotypical attitudes into our faces. The only explanation for this intrusive behaviour that we can think of is that people conclude that we are training the dogs to go straight on the path and the guide dogs just cant learn to go straight thus they go in circles.
Passer by’s right to judge our guide dogs performance is never ending. We can stop at a curb to orientate ourselves before crossing and be distracted by someone telling us our guide dog is stupid. “he does not know the way! He does not know the light is green!” On the contrary the guide dog is doing its job. Guide dogs are colour blind and it is the person who is blind who makes the decision to cross based on the environmental information available. The guide dogs patience and discipline contributes to our safety except when people rush up and start patting them. This has happened when they are moving as we cross a busy street. Standing in the path of moving vehicles arguing with someone about their right to pet our working animals is a very surreal encounter of a blind kind.
We do not see the world around us and thus are not conscious of the reaction of others to our passage through their sphere of awareness. A visitor told us that we were running a gantlet of staring folk every time we ventured out of the condo. “They just stare and stare” he said.
Giving a leash command to the guide dog or speaking clearly a command has elicited a rebuke from the onlookers. “We are going to have your dog taken away from you. We will call the CNIB”. Ignorance has no bounds. People who are blind are not policed by private charities and the CNIB has absolutely nothing to do with guide dogs.
Blindness is a licence for others to evaluate and judge our every action.
We took an escape weekend to Toronto. While at the hotel we called down to find out how to check for messages. After a protracted discussion the operator wanted to send up a bell person to operate the phone for us. In exasperation we blurted out” how do you think we called you?” All we wanted was the discription of the print function labels on the phone pad. All we got was an assumption that being blind means the absence of capability.
Arranging the transfer of services to our new home exposed us to more assumptions about the intellectual effects of lack of sight. An exasperated Canada Post functionary abstinently persisted to insist that if we wanted to retrieve our mail from the new community super mailboxes we would require sighted help. Customer service means total dependency when it comes to people who are blind regardless of the colour of our money. The smart home technology and the freedom it promised was a strong attraction to the new community for us. The reality we discovered was that the supplier, the many cells of Bell Canada, had made all this equipment sight dependent. We were looked on as freaks for wanting to know what information was displayed on screen phones, on screen television programming and security system status boards. The height of our unreasonableness was a desire to be able to independently program our furnace and air conditioning thermostat. We contacted Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation only to be referred to the CNIB, a not for profit charity, for the government service CNMHC eagerly peddled to sighted Canadians.