Episode: 706
Title: HPR0706: What to do when confronted with a blind person
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0706/hpr0706.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 01:15:53

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Hello, hacker public radio. This is Jonathan NATO from Frostbite Systems and Frostbite
Media. I had recently submitted a show to hacker public radio and can fell and emailed
me and had some questions. I thought this would be an interesting topic and he gave me
the idea to go ahead and submit this to hacker public radio. The topic of this podcast
is what to do when you're confronted with dealing with a blind person or how do you handle
dealing with a blind person. He brought some interesting questions and some of them
are sort of like little pet peeves of mine. This is just a giving idea and before I get
too far into this, these are just my opinions. I'm not speaking for the entire blind community.
Everyone has their own opinions of what bothers them and what doesn't obviously. These are
just some things to maybe take into consideration if you are confronted with. If you're onto
a blind person out in public, what should you say, what should you say or how do you interact
with them or whatever. The first thing for me, I go to college right now and when I'm walking,
this is one of my pet peeves and it really kind of annoys me, but I could be walking down the
hall after class or whatever. Obviously, there's a decent amount of people walking down the
hallways and whatever and usually I stay close to the wall to use a micane and I keep track
where I am by the different, you know, hover many doors I pass and stuff like that. So I could
be walking down the hall and I can tell there's people in front of me because I can hear them
talking or I can just like, it's hard to explain, but I can just kind of, I just kind of know
they're there and they'll see me coming. They can see me coming from 20, 30 feet away.
However far away they can see me down the hallway. They can see me coming and yet they do not say,
like, oh, hey, I'm here, you know, they could just say, like, hi, just so I know they're there,
but instead of like bump into them or since I know they're there, I'll just walk around them
and then go back to the wall. All it takes is a simple just, hi, hey, how are you doing?
Or, you know, oh, I'm here, watch out and that way I don't bump into you and just, I feel like,
I feel like I'm a new sense if I bump into you and then just, you know, all it takes is saying one word,
just let me know that you're there. So that way, you know, I don't bump into you or whatever,
but it's been like that for even when I was in high school, the kids are the same way and
they see me coming and they wouldn't say anything and they'd like squeeze up against the wall
as close as they could. I hope and I wouldn't bump into them. So all you got to do is if you see a
blind person, just a little look at there, oh, hey, how you doing? Just say, you know, hello or whatever,
just let them know that you're there. And that's just one of my pet peeves. That's probably really
the only thing that bugs me. Actually, you know what, no, I take that back. Another thing that bugs
me like today that actually has happened to me, there's a room in one of the buildings where you
kind of like hang out, they're like couches and chairs or whatever and if I have some downtown,
I'll go in there and use my computer. And when I go in the room, there's always people in there
and you can obviously you can tell I'm looking for a place to sit and I'll walk in the room and
I'll just like walk around bumping into people like, you know, I'll kind of like swing my cane around
and make sure no one's sitting on a couch or whatever and like, oh, you know, hit people's feet or
whatever. And so when I hit them, I'm just like, oh, sorry. And they're like, oh, no problem. But
they won't say, oh, are you looking for a seat? There's one over here. Not one person ever does that.
I always have to like keep whacking people with my cane until like, I find a place to sit and,
you know, it would just be, obviously, I'm looking for a place to sit so someone can just speak up
and be like, oh, hey, there's an open seat right here. That'd be very helpful.
Yeah, another thing and one of the questions that Ken wrote is, you know, should you ever ask if
you need help or should you not ask? And I would say, you're always better off asking, at least for me,
if I'm walking down the hall and someone would say, oh, sir, can I help you? I'm going somewhere and
I'll say, if I know exactly where I am or where I'm going, I'll say, oh, no, thanks. I'm all set.
No, no, no. I'll just keep walking. But maybe they can tell I'm kind of like, I'm not sure if I'm
where I need to be or it might be kind of a new place. And they'll say, oh, certainly need me help.
And I'll say, yeah, actually, I do. I'm looking for XYZ room or, you know, do you know where I can
find so and so. And then they'll help me. So, you know, for me, you're always better off just asking,
like I said, if I'm also, I'll just let you know. And if I need help, I'll say, yeah, actually I
could use help. Some blind people, though, are like out to prove a point. Like, you know, I don't
need any help from a side to person. I can do everything on my own. And I wasn't brought up that
way. I mean, I wasn't born blind. I could see up until it was 14. And I got in a car accident
and I lost my sight from that. And from what I've experienced, some people that are born blind,
they're kind of taught, you know, don't ask for help. You know, you can do everything on your own.
And so like, that's why I said it's beginning of this episode. I'm not speaking for everyone.
These are just my opinions. And me personally, you know, you're better off asking if I need help
and not. It's helpful. It's nice. Another thing that can ask the question was, you know,
is it okay to say, like, see you later. And this is another thing that baffles me if it does
bother blind people. Like, oh, hey, did you watch this movie or, oh, see you later or, you know,
things like that. To me, that doesn't bother me at all. I mean, these are part of a vocabulary.
I mean, it'd be ridiculous if I were to say, oh, you offended me by saying, see, I can't see.
So how can I, therefore, see you later? I mean, that's just ridiculous. I'm not offended by that at
all. I'm not offended by being called blind. You know, I think saying, like, visually impaired or
like visually challenged or whatever the politically correct thing is known to say, I mean, I find
nothing offensive with blind either. I think that's fine. I have no idea, you know, who would think
that there's something wrong with that. But again, these are all my opinions. I'm glad
can, you know, suggested something like this. I thought it'd be interesting because I guess
people are afraid to like ask, you know, what can I say to you or what can I say to you or, you know,
and I'm just like the recipe guy is dealing with differences, you know, from walk around
the blind fold, basically. But yeah, so, you know, I appreciate the opportunity for doing this
episode. I hope this information was helpful. There's nothing else I can think of that would be
if any use that I know of. But if anyone does have any questions, you could email me at feedback
at frostbitemedia.org. And I could answer your questions if anyone has any other questions or
maybe I could do an update to this podcast or whatever. But I just thought it was interesting
that Ken had those questions. Oh, one last one that I thought of actually, sorry. He was asking,
like, how would I help a blind person like cross the street or whatever? The best way,
if you're going to help a blind person go somewhere, don't like grab them and try and drag them around
or whatever, like grab their arm and pull them. The best way is for you to just walk like you
normally would and let the blind person just kind of grab on, you know, hang on to your shoulder,
or not your shoulder or your elbow. And we'll just follow you and you know, walk like you normally
would and we can just hang on to your elbow and just follow you and go where we need to go. That's
really the best way to handle, you know, helping a blind person out, never just like grab them and
kind of pull and just let them follow you. We'll hang on to your elbow and just walk with you. So,
yeah, that was the last question actually that popped in my head. So again, if anyone wants to
get a hold of me, feedback at frostplaymedia.org. And like I said, if anyone has any questions,
email me even if you have a question, not pertaining to this, drop me a line. And hey, thanks a lot.
I hope everyone's having a great day and we'll speak to you soon.
Thank you for listening to HACRA Public Radio.
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