June 30 - Disability Concessions for Vision Impairment

I am never quite sure of how I feel about concessions for people with a disability. On a general level, I support the idea of universal access. On a personal level, a disability concession seems to emphasize that people with a disability are different from the mainstream of the population. For the most part, I don’t like this feeling of “difference”, but at other times I appreciate it when a concession is made to accommodate my vision impairment.  It is a puzzle. What do I really want?

While I don’t expect or need concessions for certain occasions, it would be nice have some sort of concession on others. So, where to draw the line? I think that travelling on public transport where I need to be accompanied by a guide is one of the times when a concession would be appropriate. Some cities are great with this and others not so much! Should I be expected to pay two fares, one for myself and the other for my guide, or for that matter should my volunteer guide be expected to pay for his/her own fare as well as the donation of time?

Let me take another example. When I attend a live show or performance, or for that matter a movie or other visual presentation, I don’t get much out of it unless I am sitting in the very front row. Some theatres are accommodating and reserve from row seats for people with mobility or vision disabilities without pumping up the cost of the tickets. Other theatres recognize that front row seating is prime and so the cost of these seats is also top value.

Recently, when we were in Charlottetown, Lyle and I attended a performance of Anne and Gilbert. The show was top notch but we knew that if I was to enjoy the show at all, we needed front row seating. There was no concession in the price of the tickets. During the performance I noticed that in addition to Lyle and myself, there was only one other group of four in the front row. The woman in the group used a walking frame and would not have been able to climb the stairs. So, there we were – two small groups in disabled and expensive seating while those who could climb stairs and were able to see chose seats at reduced costs.

It is a conundrum. What are my expectations? I’m sure I don’t really know but as I say, it is certainly nice when concessions are made but I continue to struggle with the stigma of “difference”.

June 23 - Prince Edward Island

It’s lobster season in the Maritimes and if you like seafood, Prince Edward Island is the place to be. Of course, this isn’t to take anything away from Nova Scotia, Cape Breton or Newfoundland, but a person can only be in one place at the same time. Lyle and I have just come home from two weeks in PEI and it was great!

It was an interesting holiday. We chose PEI because our son-in-law was to attend a conference in Charlottetown and we all wanted to spend some vacation time together as a family. That is indeed what happened.

For the first week we rented two cabins in a resort near Cavendish Beach.  The tourist season hadn’t yet started and so it was fairly quiet and definitely still cool. When we stood on the beach I had a feeling that we were quite close to the North Pole! We had no inclination to swim and usually wore our jackets down to the sand. Our granddaughter loved it all, running constantly and filling her little red pail with rocks, sand, or seawater. She was the only one to dip her feet in the icy waves. I heard a local say that June was the month that jellyfish were around and that was the reason that nobody was swimming. You could have fooled me. I’m quite sure that the temperature of the ocean had much more to do with it.

So, for that first week when we played on the beach, or went to the playground, or drank coffee, or ate tons of seafood. I rarely used my cane. There was no need. It was a wonderful sense of freedom.

For seafood lovers I highly recommend the New Glasgow experience with its all you can eat meal of chowder, salad, mussels, lobster and pie.  We also ate at the restaurant at the Jam and Preserve place where I had very good seafood chowder and excellent pie. On another occasion, our son-in-law went to a local fish market and with his purchases cooked up an amazing seafood platter. Andrew fits very well into our family. He likes to cook and we like to eat!

For the second week, we moved to Charlottetown where the conference was to be held. For this week I used my cane constantly. There were many walking hazards – parking meters, light posts, advertising bulletin boards, chairs and tables for the many coffee shops and restaurants, other pedestrians, the usual fire hydrants and uneven sidewalks with dips and bumps. I suppose that the good thing about the city is that it is small enough that a person can walk pretty well anywhere.

For this week, the tourist season had begun and the little souvenir shops were all open. There were lots of places to eat, drink and be merry. We ate at the Water Prince Corner Shop. I think that it was one of my best seafood meals. We did need a reservation. The restaurant is small but does a thriving business and after eating there I can well understand why.

So, that was our June holiday on Prince Edward Island. I have included a couple of pictures with this post. The first is of me standing beside a large lobster sculpture down by the harbour. We walked down to the harbour each day of our stay in the city.

The second picture shows me standing behind a cut out board of a bagpipe player. It was my disappointment of our time on PEI that I didn’t once here the bagpipes played. I have always enjoyed bagpipe music. 

Sue with big lobster

Sue the bagpiper

June 9 - Speak Up, Please!

I find it very disconcerting to have someone walk right beside me when I have no idea that they are there until ...there they are! Come and gone without a whisper of sound. It would be so much nicer if the approaching person could speak up and alert me to their presence. A simple Hi, or Hello or How’s it going? would be sufficient. Just some sound to let me know that they are there before we almost bump elbows.

I have two examples of this from my walk yesterday. I was crossing the footbridge when I heard someone coming. I heard this because this person was humming a little tune. I immediately moved further to the side knowing that there were now two of us on the bridge. This was a good thing.

Further along, I was walking along a more narrow sidewalk when out of the blue, a bicycle passed me by. Yes, the cyclist was indeed close enough to rub elbows and I jumped in surprise. I was walking at a reasonably brisk pace and the bike was moving quickly in the opposite direction. I had no idea that anyone was coming until the bike was beside me. My heart did a little thump, thump and behind me I heard a voice trailing away in the distance. “Sorry,” he said.

So my plea to those of you who are sighted is this. If you see someone coming your way and if that person is using a white cane, please speak up! If you are riding a bike, perhaps you should stay on the road, or at least ring your bell.