Sometimes
when I am using my white cane I feel as if I stand out from the crowd like a
sore thumb. At other times I feel as if I am disappearing into the
woodwork. An instance of this latter
feeling resurfaced on our flight between Vancouver and Sydney.
In most
ways, the fifteen and a half hour flight was as good as could be expected. The
one instance of invisibility occurred right before take-off. Lyle and I had
been seated separately on the flight. The arrangement wasn’t ideal but not too
terrible either. However, just as I was
settling in I noticed one of the flight crew having a whispered conversation
with Lyle. I was idly curious and afterwards asked him what was going on.
Apparently,
the flight attendant had been asking Lyle if I needed a pre-flight safety
briefing. Here I was, sitting just a few
seats away, and she was asking him this question!
I find this
kind of response to my white cane both puzzling and irritating. Obviously the
flight attendant had seen my cane and recognized its significance. What she
failed to do was to recognize that as the cane user, I was a person who was
perfectly capable of speaking for myself. It was as if I had suddenly donned the
Harry Potter cloak of invisibility.
I am always
mildly annoyed when others address my guide as if I was not present. Along the
same line, sometimes other people will answer a question on my behalf when it
has been directed to me.
I know that
I am super sensitive about this issue and I try to remind myself that these responses
are basically well intentioned, and fortunately occur fairly infrequently. I
try to take a deep breath and relax knowing that people are just trying to act
in what they believe to be my best interests. I try to educate by example. My interactions must always be with the person
directly, and not with the accompanying guide.
Lyle and I
have now settled in to our rental unit about an hour north of Sydney and in my
next post I hope to write more about our experiences here.
No comments:
Post a Comment