Category: Let's talk
So I was out shopping with a program for the blind here in my state and I don't know if the man was amazed or what, but he asked "Ma'am where did you all get the sticks from?" and our response to that was..."They aren't sticks they are our canes; we're blind" Have this ever happened to you or have you ever have someone/people never even realize that you were blind?
Pretty much any adult I've encountered knows what the white cane means. I've heard it called a stick numerous times, which annoys me, but I just politely tell them it's called a cane. The only ones I've encountered who haven't known what the cane means are children, and even most of them do, thanks to education in schools. But I don't mind children's curiosity. Questions are how people learn, and I try to be as kind and candid as possible where it comes to answering children's questions. Parents get uncomfortable with this, often trying to hush their kids or get them away from me, and that really pisses me off. I don't say anything to the parent when that happens, because it's not my business to interfere with how they parent, but it still makes me privately mad.
and then there are the people who refer to guide dogs as "blind dogs".
I know. That one cracks me up. People clearly do not think about their words, do they?
someone did once say to me, "oh, is that a blind dog?" to which I responded "I bloody hope not." grin.
I would definitely say something to the parent. I wouldn't be mean about it would would explain that it's good for the child to learn things and he/she isn't offending me. I also notice that alot of people call guide dogs Seeing Eye dogs. I must admit to being guilty of this myself before I learned the proper term and that there are other schools in the country where they are trained etc. I also get annoyed when people call my cane a stick but do the same and just inform them that it's a cane.
Yeah, I was guilty of the Seeing Eye dog thing until I started looking into getting one of my own back in 1998. That's when I figured out what a misnomer the term Seeing Eye dog was. Still, not nearly as bad as blind dog. LOL.
I do correct misconceptions.
Recently I was witness to a grandparent talking to her grandchild about the dog and she said: "that dog is very clever, it knows when the traffic lights are red and green and everything." so I said "actually, it doesn't," and before I could explain further she said "it doesn't? well then it's not very good, is it?" I did then proceed to explain how it works...
I hope she had a better understanding of how it works after your explanation.
Most people I've talked to about guide dogs seem to think that when a blind person is walking with one, that person doesn't have to know the route or do anything, that the dog can do it all. Even though I don't have a guide dog, I've had to explain how it works to many people.
Oh yeah. My mother's neighbor Gerilynn actually seems to have the same misconception about canes. She seems to expect that when you get out of the car at the store you should magically know where the doors to the store are regardless of where you are in the parking lot.
People don't realize I am blind because I don't "look" blind. One person thought my cane was some sort of fishing pole. Odd...looks nothing like one.
I remember one time i went to the store with her because for a while she got it into her head that she could, "save me," though what she was saving me from I don't quite know. Well anyway we got to the store (ot was a Low's as I recall), and we got out of the car. Gerilynn seemed to expect the cane to magically point toward where the entrance doors to the store were. THen when they didn't and she had to actually show me she later told my mom that I wasn't very good with my cane because I had no idea where the doors were. Uhm, hello? I'm not a big hardware store shopper. Anyway you don't always get the same parking spot when you go someplace so it would be imposible to know where the doors were every time without sight.
Oh wow! The Seeing Eye thing...feels um stupid...learned something from this board...
Claire, I too would have corrected the misconception that Grandmother had. You guys are right: when I had a guide dog, I experienced the same thing, as far as the public thinking the dog knew the route, the traffic lights, etc. Bryan, I've never had anyone think that the cane should magically know which way to point me. Rather, I've found that most of the public views those of us with guide dogs as truly independent, while those of us with canes are just kind of scraping by. I spent more time correcting misconceptions in the time I had a guide dog than I think I ever have in my whole life, and that's saying something. This does not mean I'm anti-dog by any stretch. Just that I found the public harder to deal with when I had one.
I try to correct the misconceptions that I can, when I can.
Then you've never met Gerilynn. LOL. She's also of the "why don't you have a guide dog?" mentality. Actually the main reason I don't have one is that I want to be absolutely certain I'll have the financial resources to care for him or her. But Gerilynn literally seemed to think that the cane told you where the doors to the store were regardless of where you were in the parking lot. So then when I didn't know where the doors were and Gerilynn had to direct me, she went to my mom and told her that I wasn't good with my cane. I need hardly point out that when my mother told the mobility instructor I was working with what Gerilynn had said I thought she was going to have a heart attack from laughing. I may not be the best cane traveller in the world (in fact far from it), but I'm generally able to get where I need to go safely, even if I do occasionally get confused en route.
Talking about misconceptions, I get that when I tell people about jaws all the time, and what a screen reader is, and they're always like...oh so you talk to the computer using a microphone and it does what you ask? I'm like no, that's voice recognission software, jaws uses a synthetic speach, and it always ends up me doing stuff on the system before they get it, very anoying. These are the same people who are like you have a movie on the desktop? I'm like no!
I once told people I was a programmer and one person was like:
"wow, I know you people have screen reading software and it reads what you type but how do you write code?" I wanted to say
"um, I type." I just said something kind of funny because the conversation hurt my head and I wanted to leave.
I do as little as possible with explanations anymore unless someone genuinely wants to know. Most times people believe what they want and work damned hard at defending their belief. So they believe the world is flat? You could put 'em on a plane, fly 'em to Australia and they'd still come up with a convoluted reason for believing it.
Probably the most disheartening experiences I had with this was in 1999, people afraid of the supposed y2K supercrash that was supposed to destroy everything. yes there were problems and yes they got fixed, but most these people really wanted to believe that stuff. They'd ask questions about cock-eyed theories they'd seen on TV from supposed experts, and Margorp you're most ignorant students never ever presented you with such whacked stuff about code, trust me on that one.
But if I explained what the situation was, and wasn't, they just worked really hard to maintain their belief.
I saw the same attitudes in the food vendors program, you either had normal people approach your stand and buy stuff, or ask for new product or just shoot the shit or whatever. However, you'd have some people come by over and over, always wanting to make a point about how you couldn't possibly do x or y. Frankly if they have such little deductive reasoning abilities, I am definitely not equipped to help them: someone in the mental health profession is closer to that.
I don't know anyone I have convinced, who used to be down on us doing stuff, to change their thinking. I know people who simply didn't know: but hell I didn't know a quadropleigic could lift a forty-pound computer case either. I wasn't being weird around him but when I saw him do it, from then on I knew he could. I didn't do weird stuff like continue to always put everything at a certain height and certainly didn't make comment before or after. All he had to do was make a point of showing me, because I couldn't see he had been doing it for awhile. If I had been sighted, I would have seen him do it before and it would have even been less an issue.
I just don't think you can take someone who wants to believe a certain way, aka acts really weird about stuff continually, and show them any different. I could be wrong, and some of you involved in activism or more public type stuff may have been successful. Would be interesting to actually hear of or from someone who was totally like that and had some sort of epiphany. Till then I'm kinda jaded now.
actually I don't care so much if people call my cane a stick. the only thing that really gets me is out and out stupidity, which I treat with the contempt it deserves.
I remember a group of us were out for lunch and a guy thought that the one guidedog among us was guiding all 5 of us. and I just laughed at him.
another said to me in the street, 'all you need now is a set of skis' and I muttered something like 'all you need is another half a brain'.
I don't mind people who ask questions, as long as they are not rude, but i can't stand jokers or stupid people.
Amen to all that, Loui!
Renegade, I get that too, where people think JAWS is a voice recognition program. Then they think my keyboard is Brailled. And it's like, "Can you type without looking at your hands? and most go, "Yeah." So okay, I simply don't have the option of looking at them. Not to mention that the lack of said option often makes me a faster and more accurate typist than most sighted people I know.
Many people call my cane a stick, but I just correct them saying: "This is a cane. Sticks come off of trees."
I never encountered a person who thought my cane pointed me in any direction I willed, but that would be awesome if that was how they worked.
Yeah, I always chuckle when people call guidedogs blind dogs. Not many people I've worked with have called guidedogs seeing-eye dogs, but I never recognized the error in that.
SD, totally agree with you.
I remember at Frankfurt airport the customs guy getting all surprised that I had a laptop, he was like 'but how do you use it'
and I was so taken aback that I didn't know what he meant. I just said 'what do you mean?'
and he said 'well you're blind right?' and I said I was and he wanted to know how exactly I could possibly type and use it. I told him about jaws and he couldn't understand how I could type without looking at the keys.
I just told him that most typests worth their pay don't look at the keyboard.
Blind dogs? If and when I get a guide dog I've already worked out what I'll say if I run into that.
Passerby: Is that one of those blind dogs?
Me: I certainly hope this dog isn't blind!
I agree completely about people and their misconceptions. Some people will fight to the death, so to speak, to defend their belief systems, however absurd they may be. My grandmother is one of those tpes. You could bring her concrete, tangible evidence that she's wrong and she'd probably still hold onto a belief. Some people are like that with regard to us and will remain so even if we do manage to someday convince the vast majority that we can in fact function.
As far as the typing without looking at your hands, this is what I usually tell them. most schools, when they taught typing, either way back in the day on a typewriter, or on keyboards when computers came out, would put sheets of paper over students hands so they could not look at them. Most sighted people I've talked to had that experience when they were taught how to type. So I just tell them that the only difference for me was that I never needed the paper. Now of course, people pretty much already know how to type by the time they even hit school, so I dont' know how it's handled. LOL. I'm getting old.
Me too. LOL. Another similar question was how do we eat. Not how do we cook, but how we eat. Granted I only got asked this question once and that was a kid in grade school but it was still one of the more absurd questions I'd ever been asked and remains so to this day. I could only respond with the same way you do I'd imagine. But you can't see your mouth. Uhm, can you see yours? I think not, unless of course you have a mirror in front of you. And I'm sorry, but if you have to have a mirror in front of you while you're eating then you have a problem.
maybe it's just me, but I really don't get bogged down by this stuff. it's just a fact of life; as long as you're secure in yourself, that should be all that matters.
I don't think anyone is saying they're bogged down. I think this is just a discussion of some of the more absurd things people have been asked about. Well, the topic was started about the use of the word stick, and that really doesn't bother me. It's not proper, but so what. If you want to call it a stick, as long as I'm not going to interact with you on a daily basis, I let it slide. I don't really feel the need to correct a random person on such a simple matter. As for blind dogs, that's a new one. I never heard anybody say that, but that's just ridiculous. I too had the misconception for a long time of calling all guide dogs seeing eye dogs, but I guess after I found out there were other schools besides the Seeing Eye, I stopped saying that.
Ironically my wife who was a teacher is more likely to call it a cane, and I'm more likely to call it a stick. I've never met a blind person who got upset over the use of the word 'stick' which is a generic term.
I agree with Turtle. I don't get bogged down by this. If I did, I would be nothing but an angry and bitter person. But I think that's why you see topics like this: a lot of us probably need to vent, so we don't become angry or bitter.
I don't seen anyone getting angry or bitter and you SisterDawn among others have been quite informative.
So not to be controversial or anything what is it that bothers you about calling a cane a stic? I'm only curious / want to become informed.
I guess thinking back when I was a kid, my friends probably called it one, I know my uncles did, and it sounded less clinical / you used to think of the old guy hobbling along with a cane. But if it's your stick, blade, whacker, whatever it's less clinical, or at least that's how I think I saw it, then I never really changed that over the years.
Whacker? That's a new one. LOL. As for the stick thing, a stick is something you find on the grass, something that falls from a tree. But that doesn't irritate me near as much as people who go out of their way to avoid using the word blind or try to change their wording of perfectly ordinary questions to avoid offending me. What's the big deal with asking me if I've seen that movie?
It wasn't over the word stick. It was because of the fact that he didn't know what a cane was and it was about the whole question...I had never ran in to that before...
Maybe I should've been more specific and explained that up above.
Agreed with Bryan. Stick is the piece of wood in the grass, the limb off a tree, whatever. The cane is the mobility aid I use. That one is only a minor annoyance to me. I couldn't decide whether to laugh my head off or be annoyed when I had an elderly person ask me why I carried a fishing pole everywhere with me. Geez!
Yes, bryan, people who ask me if I've heard the movie, for example, really do get on my nerves. But, my internal annoyance is more than I usually show to that person.
I agree with finding it annoying when people won't use the word blind. it's ok to use the b word, really.
In my mind a cane had always been a wooden stick with a curved handle, used by the elderly or by sick people. Then I was introduced to the world of mobility aids and other gadgetry. At first I was confused when people told me the stick I'd be using to guide myself was called a cane because it didn't fit the description or the mental image in my mind, and it also served a totally different purpose.
But in my mind I had always pictured a cane as being a stick with a curved handle, used for support. Then they started making them out of aluminum. I don't know the history of canes used by the blind, but I'm sure they were once made out of wood.
Even now I still think of a cane as a wooden stick with a curved handle, and say white cane to distinguish between the two.
If you've ever eaten a sugar cane, it's also shaped and curved like a wooden cane.
White canes look more like poles because they're not actually used for support.
So maybe this is what causes some of the confusion.
Oh my grapes! My college roommate is one of those people who liked to correct me when I said I saw or didn't see something. She'd say: "You mean you heard it." or "You mean you felt it." "No, I mean what I said." I don't know if she was just being a smart ass or whatever, but she didn't understand the phrase "seeing with my hands/ears. Quite irksome.
Ugh, I hate when people do that too. I had this really horrible English teacher in 7th grade who always criticized my writing whenever I said look or see. She said, "you're not entitled to use those words because you can't possibly understand them." She would always try to make me correct the paper and eliminate such words, but I said the hell with that.
Ok? That, as far as I'm concerned, is complete and utter bullshit. You watch a movie. You watch a program on TV. You hear a song on the radio. Or you hear a talk show. Maybe we don't literally see the movie the way others do but we still have the right to use the same words as the rest of the world. If I'd ever had a teacher like that (which thankfully I didn't), I'd have done the same and continued to write how I wanted. That reminds me of a friend of mine who was also blind. Well for class in I believe fifth grade we had to read that story Abel's Island, about the mouse who gets swept away in a flood while trying to retrieve his wife's scarf and ends up living on a deserted island for a year. Well we got an assignment to list the five methods Abel used in his attempts to escape the island. Well naturally by this point in our education we were both proficient enough in grade 2 Braille that that was how we wrote since it saves a lot of space. Well when Lisamaria turned in her paper the teacher flat ot said "You look like you only have two answers." So Lisamaria had to write it all out word for word in grade 1 just so this idiot of a teacher could feel like it was actually a long enough assignment. Quite riddiculous if you ask me.
Well the situation you describe with your teacher illustrates how I've felt for many years:
- If you don't use visual references people complain because it doesn't represent how they see things.
If you do, they complain that you have no right or whatever.
The bottom line is kiddies, people complain, and they work harder at doing that than they do at anything else. If you alleviate their complaints, it's upsetting because most of all, they really want something about which they can complain profusely. So, just do the best you can and leave it at that.
Personally I choose to use visual frames of reference because of the multidimensionality of it, and because most people relate that way. However, you won't answer those who want to complain because that's for them what it's all about: the capacity to make distorted noise and generally belly-ache.
Consider how if you need help with something, someone is likely to complain. But if you just happen to be in a situation where you're totally handling everything and maybe burning the candle at both ends because, well, the situation just happens to call for that, you can get belly-aching from the same person.
In short it basically doesn't matter what you do, you'll get belly-aching for it by those whose primary modus operandi is to complain. So I personally just go for it, do what's gotta be done, or what it is I'm planning on doing, let the whiners carry on like a dripping rain. Gets old fast, but I'll tell you, once you realize this, you'll quit trying to answer complaints. You can't look good or bad enough, you can't perform enough, you can't be either successful or demure enough, those who want to complain will do so, and often.
It definitely gets old fast. So old in fact that I want to put tape over the person's mouth.
Haha totally agreed with the last post. As I said, I wrote whatever I damn well felt like, and eventually she stopped saying stuff about it, she just had a bitchy attitude towards me in general.
I agree with you there. I haven't had any teachers who acted that way, though there were some students who did.
Well, my teacher isn't bitchy about it, but she made a little funky comment when I said "When I looked it online." and she was like, "Looked at it?" So I had to simply had to say "listened to it!"
Even though she was joking around, that was uncalled for...and a pole? I can't stand that term. I had someone do that today and my reaction was hmmmmmmmmmmmmm that person sure wasn't talking about me...
It's the same sort of thing that sometimes happens when you're waiting to cross a street and someone honks at you to try to get you to go. Excuse me, but were you honking at me? I'm sorry but I don't speak Honk.
On the subject of guide dogs knowing routes and being able to tell when the light changes or whatnot, I wonder if such people understand the limitations of a dog's eyes and brain, or do they believe guide dogs are some sort of genetically engineered doglike thing that happens to have a human brain implanted in it? I remember hearing stories of guide dog owners being asked if the dog helps them with various domestic tasks, such as doing homework or picking out clothes, sort of an all-around personal care attendant in a dog's body. It's a shame people's sarcasm-processing circuits tend to crash upon sight of a blind person, for if I had a guide dog and somebody asked such things, I'd tell them my dog could play guitar better than Jimi Hendrix and was working on developing a new rocket fuel that would revolutionize space travel and is just about ready to invent time travel shoes and is beta-testing a transporter system like that in Star Trek. LOL!
One time, when I was in school, a bunch of kids came up to me and said, "Hey, can I use your stick?". I said, "Go out into the forest. There are plenty of them there". I've also heard a lot of people call my cane my "walking stick". Wow. I didn't think it looked anything like a walking stick.
My mom's neighbor used to call them that as well, even before she told my mom I wasn't good with mine because I didn't magically know where the doors to the store were from any position in the parking lot. She's a wonderful lady and she's always been there if I ever needed help with something or a ride somewhere and my folks weren't available but she's as naive as all get out. She actually just recently returnd to Twin Falls after living for three years in Washington. And hasn't changed much. And she thinks my mother's changed a whole lot. She also seemed to think that all blind people learned routes by counting steps from one place to another. Maybe some people do indeed learn this way but if I tried that on a route longer than a block or so I'd more than likely lose count and have to start over.
Do people also think you can magically find water with your cane, um, er, stick? See, to me, a stick is some random piece of wood you find on the ground, a bit of a tree branch or scrap wood or something a dog will want you to throw so they can fetch it, that there's a stick! This mobility aid made out of graphite and elastic cord and other things, that's not a stick, that's a cane, and yeah, it has no supernatural properties or intelligence. I have to actually use my fullsized, perfectly functional, 45-year-old adult-type brain when I use it. It is just an inanimate object, thankyaverymuch. LOL!
Hahah. I totally agree with the last poster, and I can't stand it when people expect me to learn how to get somewhere by counting steps, especially long distances. Everybody's steps are slightly different lenghts each time, so the number will vary slightly, and that has nothing whatsoever to do with being blind.
Exactly. And that's one thing Gerilynn didn't seem to grasp.It was funny in some ways but it did get annoying.
I'm sure in the past people have thought I counted steps, and I know they've thought I spoke to my computer instead of typed. The whole thing about visual language is quite tiring. I'll have to go with LeoGuardian's take on it and just say do what you will and stop trying to please people by either using or not using visual terms because if you try and please people in that regard you're just never going to win that one. Write them off as members of the flat earth society I guess. LOL!
Umkay, this happened to me recently, but have you ever had someone come up to you and ask how do you get dressed or do you need help getting dressed?
Just asking because I found this one annoying too.
Yes I did when I was younger. I tried to act surprised and said: "Oh, you mean I'm not naked? And I thought I've been running around butt naked." The woman kinda left in a shocked huff I think, but I was a bit buzzed. Nonetheless they dish it out, they gotta be willing to take it back.
lol
I'd probably have done the same thing. The most memorable one for me wa how do you eat? Not how do you cook but how do you eat. And there reasoning was I couldn't see my mouth. Uhm, ok? The only way that would be possible for a sighted person would be if they had a mirror in front of them while they ate. And I'm surry, but if you have to have a mirror in front of you so you can see your mouth while you're eating then you have a problem.
People often seem to think we count steps. For whatever reason, they can't think of other ways we could use to get around and find destinations.
Yeah, that is odd and Bryan, that food thing, just wow!
When the postmanmistakenly gave somebody on a nearby street some of our mail, the lady came over to give it to us and somehow my fiancee's blindness came up. First thing out of this lady's mouth in a voice full of awe and wonder was, "How did you answer the door?" That gave us both a giggle. I mean, maybe if we just moved into the house that day finding the front door might be very slightly difficult, but once you are familiar with a place there's a certain spacial familiarity that goes on. I think the thing that amuses me is that people believe it is difficult for us to do things that they don't even use eyesight in order to manage the task, such as finding the mouth when eating, which is another spacial memory thing I would imagine. But I'm convinced that blindness just gets lumped in with any disability, so what's difficult for somebody to do whose arms and legs don't function, well, somebody with eyes that don't work just has to have the same problem, I mean, they just gotta! LOL!
Before I got my guide dog, I was at a party with a cane and this girl came up and asked me if I'd had a nice round of golf that day. Her friends all appologized for her rudeness and proceeded to leave her when they moved on.
What I find annoying is if my cane hits something that is in the way some people act as if I had actually ran in to it. Almost as if the cane is a part of you.
as a new guide dog user, I'm constantly amazed at what people say. this morning this really nice man said to me on the elevator "ma'am i'd just like to inform you that your companion assistance guidingcanine is extremely attractive." I cracked up and said "i thank you for the compliment. that is too many big words before cffeine. sara is a guide dog." he chuckled and said "thank god."
Hey this is stepheno3, I have had that happen to me, sometimes when I go out here in chattanooga Tennessee, people will ask me are those num chucks, And I just tell them thats My cane! I guess it's something you have to get use too!
Strange.
Hmm I had a set of real chucks when I was single. They don't look anything like a cane. I guess if you had a folded one in an odd position it might look like a flimsy set ... but still, that one would make me laugh.
Hi, all. Yes, I have been asked if I need help getting dressed or undressed, particularly at the doctor's office when they have to do some intimate exam that requires taking off my clothes. They've also offered to give me extra time for this, which I don't need, either.
And I have also had people ask me how I eat. I've been asked both how I find the food on my plate, but also how I find my mouth, and manage not to miss it. That one really cracked me up. I asked them how they found their mouth, and if they looked in a mirror while they ate to make sure they didn't miss it. That showed them the idiocy of their question, thankfully.
I've been asked if I speak to my computer, people seem to find it amazing that I can type. Many think I use a Braille keyboard as well when they learn that I do type.
I actually started off with braille on the keys of my computer. That was really really annoying. I ripped them off about three weeks after learning the computer. I was only four at that time. Oh yeah, and when I said to my mom "See you later", my first grade teacher pulled me aside and screamed at me that "You should never say things like that. Never!" I din't hear any reason why not.
How strange.
damn those people who think it's not okay for a blind person to use words like see or watch. well, what the hell else are we supposed to use in place of those? Fortunately, I haven't run into that kind of ignorance, but that's not to say it won't happen ...
Time and time again I've had overly-helpful people tell me when it's safe to cross the street at busy intersections. I usually just say thank you and go on my merry way. Deep down, I'm thinking, "Grrr, damn it. I know what I'm doing." I find trying to restrain myself from acting like a jerk after that has happened one too many times to be rather difficult. gotta work on staying calm, but not sure where to start. easier said than done.
people are annoying..
Joann, Karrie, I can't help but agree. I usually try to stay calm, unless the person trying to "help" me is someone I've known for a relatively long time; a person who is completely aware of the fact that I know how to travel independently, then I usually end up snapping at them. I usually don't mean for the things I say or want to say to them to be disrespectful, but sighted people being that ignorant can get really agrivated at times, especially when they continue to treet us like two year olds, after we've politely explained to them that we don't need as much help as they're trying to offer.
I have had the problem with people telling me how do I do things with my child. I feel like telling them I am just like you.
As far as the hole cane thing yes I have had children come up to me and ask me about the cane and I do explain myself to them.
I have two beautiful sighted children (my son is 3 & my daughter is almost 2) & I get asked if they help me get dressed. What the fuck? No, I help them get dressed, not the other way around!
lol Seriously? Someone went as far as asking you if *your* children help you get dressed? And I thought I've been asked interesting questions? sorry, but that just seems a bit...anyway, as I've said on several other topics regarding this issue before, if someone asks a reasonable question rather than trying to assume for themselves what I can and can't do, that usually doesn't bother me. What bothers me, is when people deliberately do things they know will aggravate me, such as like I said, assuming things, or asking questions, and when I actually answer them, they still assume I don't know what I'm talking about and they do, because they're sighted, and I'm not. Yes, I know some people who still assume things even after I've repetedly explained to them how I do certain things. I'm not saying all sighted people do this, but I know a few who do. Hope that made sense.
in regards to canes being refered to as sticks, to me I honestly could care less what word they use it as long as they know what its for and I think after observing me use it, its pretty self explanotory.
With dog guides, I don't have one, but have seen my friends get aproached on the streets and they were asked if that dog was also able to talk and actually proceeded in asking the person if they can ask the dog directions. I really hope they were being humorous when they said that.
As for screen readers, I tend to provide very technical explainations as to what exactly they do to discourage them from asking me anymore about it. I find my dad who is a programmer is the one explaining about jaws and how it works if I am with him.
With putting on clothes, thankfully I was never asked about that but I remember in college I would be walking down the hallway and I can hear people around me say, look at that blind guy go with someone else ask, I wonder if he's a ninja and is using his abilities to get around and is using that stick of his as a channeling tool for his energy discharge. I had to laugh out loud when I heard that.
In closing, I think it is pretty unfair to classify sighted individuals as iggnorant on the basis of them asking questions such as, how do you dress or how you use the computer. Afterall, it is most likely the first time for them to bare whitness to such things as dogs guiding people or people using a white staff to travel. Patience is definitely the forte in such situations.
Now to get people to quit steering the cane as if it is a pointer.
No kidding. I used to get that all the time.
I usually just let them call it whatever they want, cane, stick poll, or whatever, the only thing is I try not to laugh, the only problem is when they get insistent and unhelpful and demanding, otherwise I don't mind, and most people who are curious, want to hear me out except the older folks who find out and then brush me off.
Yes that is the way of the older ones.
I've noticed that as well. The only time I've ever had people get rally intrusive were while I was travelling on a bus in Oregon. One time I had a woman get on the bus and rudely demand that I give her the seat I was sitting in. Then on another trip I had a woman mistake my cane for one of the support poles next to some of the seats. Granted she was nicer about it so I didn't make an issue of it.
I had that happen. The person felt they were intitled and so leaned on my cane and I felt it bend and I spoke up about it.