Asking for and accepting help is one of the most controversial topics for blind people. Each person has their views and reasons, thus there isn’t one good way, only a preferred way. In this post, I will try to review some of the arguments and give some advice on how to offer help.
Accepting Help
Some people feel that due to their blindness, there are many things they are not able to do or only able to do with some assistance. It is therefore reasonable to ask for help as needed. People in general use each other’s help in all areas of life, so why not ask for it because of blindness?
Here there are also two trends, one says that it is not fair to ask just anybody for help, they have their own things to do and they are not there to help. These people generally try to look for someone who works at a given location and it is their responsibility to provide accommodation and offer help as needed. Others feel that it is fair game to just ask anybody who walks by, after all, if somebody would need help they would also be able to offer it to them.
Not Accepting Help
The other group of people believes that people are not there to help blind people, and we should be prepared, and learn how to do what we need to do independently. They would generally only accept the type of help they would accept is they could see, or in extreme cases where without vision something would be impossible to resolve.
These days there is another avenue that has become available with mobile phones, there are services that one can contact through an app, and paid professionals or volunteers are there to provide assistance by using the phone’s camera, which can also solve most problems while we don’t have to rely on people passing by.
Don’t Judge
One thing I think for sure most blind people agree with, it is not fair game to ask for assistance in something that we are capable of doing, just to take advantage of being blind and other people’s kindness. But this threshold may be different for each person. What are we capable of doing? Who is qualified to tell? This is a difficult question.
People ask for assistance for many different reasons. It can depend on background, education, experience, other disabilities, etc. Some people grew up being overprotected by their parents and relatives. Often they have learned to do much less than what their abilities would allow. The reality is that they are where they are today, maybe they would be happy if they could be independent, but they aren’t. Some people received limited education about what blind people can do.
The level of such education widely differs between countries, even if blind people go to school and they are not overprotected. Others just lost their vision, and as much as they would like to be independent, they haven’t had the time to learn all the skills they need. In other instances, a person’s blindness is not their only disability, in addition, they may have cognitive or physical disabilities. In this case, trivial-sounding things can be extremely difficult or impossible.
Examples
Let’s consider a few random examples where blind people would potentially ask for help.
1) Crossing the Street
Probably one of the most typical examples, where someone needs help to cross the street. It can be because there isn’t an audible traffic light, the street just sounds too busy and dangerous, or simply they are not confident crossing the street alone.
2) Recognizing Money
Though it assumes a level of trust, let’s face it, in some countries, including the United States, change we get back in the store is not recognizable for blind people, and they need to know what type of bills they have received. Here one can most likely ask for help at the store where they shop. There are ways for blind people to recognize money with technology, but it is not always convenient.
3) Shopping
Though there are ways to recognize goods in a store with a phone when the packaging has a bar code, it is relatively difficult to go through a shelf of goods just to find out that they don’t even have what we are looking for. At this point, one can ask for help from an employee.
4) Bust stops and train stations
It is sometimes difficult or impossible to identify the right bus or train.
5) Restaurants
Though there are apps which can read a menu, sometimes it is not accurate and it may be much easier to ask the waiter.
How can you help?
Generally, do not assume. I would suggest not helping a blind person more than you would help a sighted one without asking. Few are the situations when it is an emergency and it is our human obligation to help. There may be instances when somebody looks lost or confused. It is generally helpful to go and offer assistance if you can. If you feel that somebody may need help but don’t know if there is someone nearby, it is always reasonable to go up to the person and ask if you can help.
Address the person as best as you can so they know that you are talking to them, such as a young lady, sir, etc. Let people tell you if they need help, and what kind of help they need. Do not feel insulted if they do not need help, they simply know what they are doing and do not want to waste your time. There is much more about how to help properly, but it is much more than one can cover in an article. Just one more pointer: do not ever touch blind people’s canes or guide dogs when helping. This is more destruction than help.
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