Controversial opinion.
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@NicksWorld @MariahL @Kingslayer Legally, it isn't. I never said it was. As a matter of fact, though, the stigma felt by many people is justified. It is accurate. Their acting on it is a legal, and I think it's a moral, wrong. However, they are correct in feeling it because it is a fact that it makes more work for them in many cases to interact with a blind person. Stigma is a feeling felt by others, after all, it's not some sort of objective thing, right?
@techsinger @NicksWorld @Kingslayer Oh I'm not talking legally. The law be damned. Nothing justifies the stigmas. Nothing. Especially now. It's 2026 and the attitudes and stereotypes should have died a long time ago. They should have died in the 70's when section 504 passed. They really should have died when the ADA was passed in the 90's. And yet? Here we are.
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@techsinger @NicksWorld @Kingslayer But that's not something a PWD can control. That way of thinking isn't necessarily great.
@MariahL @NicksWorld @Kingslayer It's true, though. I mean I think I have a duty to understand and acknowledge the truth, and that understanding helps in knowing what's going on. Turning away from truth just isn't helpful. I don't say, and don't believe, that PWDs should somehow not do things because of it, I'm afraid that, as a worker, I'm going to do my best to get what I want done and, if you suffer, I can only offer sympathy. I'm not going to lie to myself or others, though, saying that it's all the worker's imagination. It isn't.
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@techsinger @NicksWorld @Kingslayer Oh I'm not talking legally. The law be damned. Nothing justifies the stigmas. Nothing. Especially now. It's 2026 and the attitudes and stereotypes should have died a long time ago. They should have died in the 70's when section 504 passed. They really should have died when the ADA was passed in the 90's. And yet? Here we are.
@MariahL @techsinger @Kingslayer Yep, here we are. I'm not saying we've made no progress though because we definitely have.
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@NicksWorld @techsinger @Kingslayer Look at it from the other side, our lives are extra work that the average person doesn't have to deal with and will never deal with unless something happens to disable them. It's not our fault that there might be extra work as you say. The stigmas aren't justifiable anymore. It's 2026.
@MariahL @NicksWorld @Kingslayer <sigh>. The stigmas are present in reality due to actual facts. They are just as present now as they were a hundred years ago. Pretending they don't exist, or that the feeling of "oh God, here comes a blind person who is going to make my life slightly harder" is unjustified is just to ignore the facts in front of us. I don't argue that we should somehow avoid acting because we don't want to inconvenience anyone, but the feelings are there and they are accurate.
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@MariahL @NicksWorld @Kingslayer <sigh>. The stigmas are present in reality due to actual facts. They are just as present now as they were a hundred years ago. Pretending they don't exist, or that the feeling of "oh God, here comes a blind person who is going to make my life slightly harder" is unjustified is just to ignore the facts in front of us. I don't argue that we should somehow avoid acting because we don't want to inconvenience anyone, but the feelings are there and they are accurate.
@techsinger @MariahL @Kingslayer When I go out, I don't even consider the amount of work I make people do because I go out and have fun. Yes, I know I make people do theings they wouldn't normally do but at the end of the day, I'm not just gonna stay in my house to make other people ffeel comfortable. At that point, you might as well put me in a mental hospital.
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@techsinger @MariahL @vol4life8657 @Kingslayer Do you just not like being emotional? I'm not gonna judge of course, but I'm curious.
@NicksWorld @MariahL @vol4life8657 @Kingslayer What was the old joke? "I keep my emotions for the activities where they are qualified". Things are just things, they can be replaced with money. I can get emotional over living creatures, and deeply emotional over human beings, but things are just grist for the landfill.
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@techsinger @MariahL @Kingslayer When I go out, I don't even consider the amount of work I make people do because I go out and have fun. Yes, I know I make people do theings they wouldn't normally do but at the end of the day, I'm not just gonna stay in my house to make other people ffeel comfortable. At that point, you might as well put me in a mental hospital.
@NicksWorld @techsinger @Kingslayer If someone thinks that way that's not my problem. I refuse to be put in a box like that. I deserve to live to live my life like anyone else. You're allowed to have your opinion but wow.
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@techsinger @MariahL @Kingslayer It's that same stigma that makes it hard for blind people to be employed even if a blind person has the skills to do a good job in the field they are trying to work at.
@NicksWorld @MariahL @Kingslayer Yes indeed, it is. It's part of human nature, though. Eliminating it is seriously difficult if not impossible, and ignoring it is not going to make it go away. I'm physically blind. I can't afford to be mentally blind, too. I have to acknowledge truth wherever I it is, even though I don't like it.
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@NicksWorld @techsinger @Kingslayer If someone thinks that way that's not my problem. I refuse to be put in a box like that. I deserve to live to live my life like anyone else. You're allowed to have your opinion but wow.
@MariahL @techsinger @Kingslayer I'm only just saying that I go out because I have that right, and if people find it disturbing, that's their problem and not my own.
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@NicksWorld @MariahL @vol4life8657 @Kingslayer What was the old joke? "I keep my emotions for the activities where they are qualified". Things are just things, they can be replaced with money. I can get emotional over living creatures, and deeply emotional over human beings, but things are just grist for the landfill.
@techsinger @NicksWorld @MariahL @vol4life8657 @Kingslayer so about the guide dog thing, the real reason why i don't want one yet are my o&m skills are not as great, and i'm ttoo used to using my cane
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@techsinger @NicksWorld @MariahL @Kingslayer I understand that position. Sometimes I'm even apolegetic. And honestly showing yo understand taht helps in a lot of cases.
@vol4life8657 @NicksWorld @MariahL @Kingslayer I agree. it's always helpful to try to see the other person's point of view, even if you aren't able to resolve the problem.
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@vol4life8657 @NicksWorld @MariahL @Kingslayer I agree. it's always helpful to try to see the other person's point of view, even if you aren't able to resolve the problem.
@techsinger @NicksWorld @MariahL @Kingslayer Yes it is.
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@MariahL @techsinger @Kingslayer I'm only just saying that I go out because I have that right, and if people find it disturbing, that's their problem and not my own.
@NicksWorld @techsinger @Kingslayer There are things I have to deal with like how the world isn't meant for me, but I don't have to deal with attitudes that make me feel like it's my fault for having my disability. Someone thinks I create too much work for them? Fuck off, then. I've wrestled with feeling like a burden all my life and I don't need that toxic bullshit. Another way I see it is welcome to my world. I have extra work I have to do for even simple tasks sometimes.
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@techsinger @NicksWorld @Kingslayer Oh I'm not talking legally. The law be damned. Nothing justifies the stigmas. Nothing. Especially now. It's 2026 and the attitudes and stereotypes should have died a long time ago. They should have died in the 70's when section 504 passed. They really should have died when the ADA was passed in the 90's. And yet? Here we are.
@MariahL @NicksWorld @Kingslayer They're built in. They're never going to die because they're part of what it is to be human. It's amazing to me that, when I read stuff from the early 1600s, I can basically match up the attitudes towards blind people I see in the books with the ones I see towards myself and people I know on the street. Very little has changed, sometimes I think nothing at all has changed. The only steps forward we can take are through technology and the law. Attitudes are set in solid rock.
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@techsinger @MariahL @Kingslayer When I go out, I don't even consider the amount of work I make people do because I go out and have fun. Yes, I know I make people do theings they wouldn't normally do but at the end of the day, I'm not just gonna stay in my house to make other people ffeel comfortable. At that point, you might as well put me in a mental hospital.
@NicksWorld @MariahL @Kingslayer I don't recall recommending staying in your house
Frankly, I don't even recommend considering the extra work when you're doing stuff, though I know some people would disagree. What I do myself is to know that's a factor for most people. I can't pretend it's not. -
@NicksWorld @techsinger @Kingslayer There are things I have to deal with like how the world isn't meant for me, but I don't have to deal with attitudes that make me feel like it's my fault for having my disability. Someone thinks I create too much work for them? Fuck off, then. I've wrestled with feeling like a burden all my life and I don't need that toxic bullshit. Another way I see it is welcome to my world. I have extra work I have to do for even simple tasks sometimes.
@MariahL @techsinger @Kingslayer I'm in full agreement with you.
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@MariahL @vol4life8657 @NicksWorld Honestly that's the kind of stuff that really made me want to get a guide dog. I'm just a very anxious person and not good with confrontation so my main fear was all the assholes. But man, the idea of being able to get around faster and with more confidence and having an extra set of senses on the lookout while navigating and just the companionship of traveling with a dog all sound like the dream!
@MariahL @Kingslayer @NicksWorld @vol4life8657 they really are the dream. You can walk a lot faster and look much more confident with a dog. What's not the dream is all the access issues, ride share problems, and people calling their dogs emotional support animals when they have no documentation to prove it.
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@MariahL @Kingslayer @NicksWorld @vol4life8657 they really are the dream. You can walk a lot faster and look much more confident with a dog. What's not the dream is all the access issues, ride share problems, and people calling their dogs emotional support animals when they have no documentation to prove it.
@Cam @MariahL @NicksWorld @vol4life8657 Agreed. Those things are what scared me the most about getting a guide dog.
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Controversial opinion. I don't want a service dog purely because I don't want to deal with the bullshit of the human race. A cane at least is less of a problem, to most people, its just a stick. Nobody has a problem with a stick. #Blind
@NicksWorld I don't think that's as controversial as you might think. Many years ago, my dad we helping me to fill out my application. Right near the end, I realized I was applying because I should, not because I wanted to, so I asked Dad to tear up the application and forget about it.
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@MariahL @NicksWorld @Kingslayer I agree with that. When I had my guide dog, the only way I can describe it is liberating. Once you learn to put your trust in the dog, and you both learn to work as a team, everything just goes way through the roof. And I agree on the dog making one more approachable. Everything just goes up.
@vol4life8657 @MariahL @NicksWorld @Kingslayer I've been reading this thread, and perhaps shouldn't break in--but those of us who have been part of a great person/guide dog team no there's absolutely nothing in this world that is more liberating, and it's something I never felt as a cane user. I think the reason it is so liberating is that dog and handler are working together, and when you know one another well, and trust one another, it's like knowing you can go almost anywhere and know you'll get through it together. Yes, you both need proper skills so you can direct your dog, but with the right skills and relationship, that partnership is beyond anything I've ever experienced.
