Passers by

I met my first blind adult recently – at the Olympics. It was really nice to have a conversation with a blind person about blindness and realise that it is not the defining feature of their existence. I am afraid that we (I) do still define strangers by their disability so it is really nice to get the opportunity to get past it and be normal human beings together, even if we are talking about living with a disability. We were standing at the barrier waiting for the men’s triathlon to start. I heard his mother talk about how he is blind so I really wanted to strike up a conversation but felt a bit awkward about just diving in. He had no visible signs of blindness - his eyes looked normal and his cane was folded away. I waited a while and had a much better opportunity when his mother gave him very specific directions about how to walk around a chair to get to a better spot. I said, “Oh, do you have a visual impairment? So does she [pointing to Ch].” After that, we had an excellent chat, I told him that he was the first blind adult I had met in real life. He replied that he doesn’t mind it if people stop him in the street but I fear that many would not be so amenable. In fact, the most useful titbit of information I gleaned is that Disneyland and other theme parks give discount entry and priority queueing to blind people and their companions! He said his friends make him go on all the rides, even when he feels green – shame on them! He has had some other health issues which have been ongoing since childhood but all in all, he was very good company and I left our encounter feeling thoroughly uplifted. Thanks stranger!