Category: Travel and Tourism
I've travelled some places where being blind is nothing out of the ordinary. I've travelled places where they don't even bat an eyelash if you have to tell people, such as tour guides, that you're blind, but I've also travelled places where the staff at certain activities included in my family's vacation packages wouldn't even consider letting me participate on that basis, and there were some people who gave my family really dirty looks when they saw them with me in public. What are some of your experiences with this?
I really think it depends on whitch country you visit.
most of the third world is not blind friendly because very very few blind people participate in it in any useful way. most are looked after by family or beg because there's nothing else for them to do, though there are some acceptions to this.
However in these countries accessibility is not considered because it's unthinkable to these people that blind people would want to participate.
so, it's frouned upon when families from other countries don't treat their blind children/relatives in this way. to them, it's the families duty to take care of this person in every way, and they are not encouraged to participate or to want to participate.
I was on a tour in brunei and I was told by the guide that I was unlike blind people in his country because no blind person would ever leave the house without a sighted relative. other people would think that shocking.
I find the best way is to be totally insistant continually. I remember they didn't want me to go on the tour, but I just kept insisting, and I think they realised that I would cause a lot of trouble for them if they did not allow me to go. loudness, repetitiveness and unwavering desire are your friends here. never back down, and don't be afraid to yell and use such sayings as, 'in my country, we don't do this.' I've said it an awful lot in asian stopvers, and it's been my friend and helped me in a lot of places.
I tend to be respectful of culture however in every place but airports. My view is that if it's an airport and they want money from westerners, they should learn how westerners expect to be treated, or they can put up with the consiquences. in my case, it's me being very annoyed and in many cases rude if I think they are treating me like some child or something.
oh yes, and another word of advice to you all, don't ever let your passport out of your own hands if travelling alone in another country. even if the assistant asks you for it, especially in non-western countries.
Definitely some good advice. Thank you.
Who are they to frown on us? We are the tourists and if they don't want us in their country we will take our money and leave.
swiss thanks for the warning about the passport. Believe me, I've worked too hard to get that darned thing. If my boat is going down in flames, i'll leave everything else but stack that puppy down my shirt.
margorp, they don't consider it frowning on us. it is how they live. try thinking about hte other guy for a sec.
that's right, and like I said, i haven't a problem with their culture outside of the airport, because, if you leave the airport, it's your choice and you must be respectful to their cultural norms.
however, like I said, inside the airport, they should really know and understand how western people expect to be treated.
I do see both sides of this issue. Margorp, I understand where you're coming from. If they're going to treat us like that, then they don't deserve our money. Most countries like that cream themselves over Western money, and treatment like that makes me not even want to give it to them.
However, Loui and others are right too, it is a cultural thing. They don't consider it frowning upon us, even though we do. I once had the opportunity to go over to China with a group that taught English to school children, and did other kinds of volunteering. The organization was perfectly willing to let me go, had already accepted my application, etc. But when the Chinese government learned of it, they shut the whole thing down. They told the organization that if they brought me, they would not be allowed into China then, or ever again, that a blind person had no place teaching anyone, particularly the sighted, or in that kind of group. I was furious, but did not pursue it. The fault was not the organization's, it was the ignorance and backward thinking of the Chinese government. I was not about to jeopardize the organization's work over there because of that.
I did travel to the Dominican Republic back in 2004. I was with a group of Americans, but we did a lot of interacting with the Dominicans. Through an interpreter, a Dominican told me that he did not understand how I could live. He said I seemed happy, but that he could not understand how a blind person could possibly be happy, and that he'd never known a blind person who was. He wasn't being nasty, he was genuinely confused, not condescending. so it was easy for me to keep my cool, and try to explain to him as best I could why I could be blind and happy at the same time. If anything, I felt bad for the guy, that he did not get it, and certainly bad for any blind Dominicans.
Loui is right, too, you've got to be insistent. On my way back from the D.R., I had a Spanish-speaking employee try to make me sit in a wheelchair to be taken to my gate. As has been discussed on another topic in this category, I absolutely will not allow that. Thank God I had enough Spanish to tell the guy so, and to be insistent. We argued over it for a couple minutes, till he figured out he wasn't going to win, and let me walk with him.
Just my experiences.
If they're flexible, and/or willing to be open-minded about blindness, I will be the same about their cultural beliefs, but having said that, there are people in our culture who seem to think the same way about blind people, so it's not entirely cultural.
well, I tend to think that in western countries it's more ignorance, but it's getting better as we have more freedom. the point is, is that if a person in australia tried to sit a blind person in a wheelchair, and that blind person complained, most people would be sshocked and disgusted. However in a place like China, if the same thing happened, your complaint would be ignored because it is how they treat their own blind people. You also have to remember that in a lot of these places, the people have even less contact with the disabled than in western countries, so they are not encouraged to improve things for the disabled like happened in the west. If they are exposed to a blind person, most often it will be a person being taken care of by friends or family, or a poor begger. One very scarcely hear's of success stories in the third world.
Oh yeah, and if they try to manhandle me into a wheelchair, my new response is just to walk off in any direction.
There was a time when I told the assistant I didn't need a wheelchair, and she pointed me in the direction of my gate, and walked off, after explaining to me that denying a wheelchair was denying assistance.
in response to the last post, wow...that's a new one on me!!
that's where making these sorts of things public is your friend.
I keep telling people that nothing will change unless a lot of people make noise.
I make noise as much as I can, and I never get treated like that.
Agreed with Loui. If someone did that to me, Ocean, I would raise absolute hell about it.
Agreed. Though more and more anymore when I'm in airports I don't bother to get the asistance of the airport personell, except maybe asking at the counters of gates for information. You can get just as useful information, and not have to deal with waiting for them to take their sweet time to help you, just by asking the occasional person you pass along the way questions such as "which gate is this that we're by?" or "Is gate x that direction?"
In the end, I did make noise, and it worked, but...wow. What nerve. The person obviously knew I was capable of walking.
Turricane, I often do think of "the other guy" but surely it is still ignorance on their part?
I don't know why you like to battle me.
The only time that I wish I would've taken a wheelchair is when I missed my flight back in March. My plane arrived in Michigan very late, and I was exhausted from standing on my feet for over fourteen hours the day before, and also from having to do a lot of walking that day. If I had taken the wheelchair, I would've made my plane. Now, I don't fool with connecting flights if I can help it. I am all about the nonstop flight.:)
oh I agree. Connecting flights are a pain.