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Thank you!
Never in my life have I been so thankful for friendship such as my wife and I experienced during the national ACB convention in Louisville, Ky., this past July. When the phone call came advising us that my father had taken a turn for the worse, I don’t know what we would have done without all the help that everyone offered to assist us in readying ourselves to return home. I wish to thank the ACB chapters and members, the volunteers and everyone who took over and helped us pack, cancel our remaining convention plans, make reservations home, and see that we got to the airport in time for our flight. The love offering taken up for us at such a traumatic time showed us exactly what true friends mean at a time of this magnitude. We were fortunate to arrive home in time to spend the last few hours of his life with my father. He died early Friday morning, July 7th. Thank you for your generosity, thoughtfulness, help and especially your prayers.
Sincerely, Olen “Buddy” Hoggle, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Letters About Travel
Train Travel Travails
I’m writing to respond to your “President’s Message” in the July issue of “The Braille Forum.” I have some comments to make about our own travel horrors. As for airlines, I’ve received fairly good assistance from the airline staff the few times I have flown, but our recent trips on Amtrak were a different story.
Both my boyfriend and I are blind, and I have a guide dog. We went to visit his parents in California in March of this year. We spent three days on a train from Staunton, Va. to Bakersfield, CA, with transfers in Chicago and Los Angeles.
The crew on our excursion via motor coach from Bakersfield to San Bernardino treated my guide dog like a stuffed animal — “with no bodily functions whatsoever.” (Those were the exact words I used in my letter of complaint to Amtrak headquarters.) They let him off to relieve himself only after I had to repeatedly ask.
On our trip back from California, we were put in the “handicapped” car, and practically forgotten. When meals were being served, the intercom system in our car didn’t work, and no one came down to ask if anyone wanted anything. When I complained about this to someone who answered Amtrak’s toll-free number, I was told that I should have done some checking on my own. How do you do that when they don’t respond if you push the button to call a car attendant, and no one shows up for any other reason? If we’d known what to do and when to do it, we wouldn’t have tried to depend on them in the first place.
Our train coming into Los Angeles was late, and we had to catch a bus from there to Bakersfield. People on that bus had to be in Bakersfield at a certain time to catch another train, so we could not wait for our luggage to be taken off the train. A staff member told us that our luggage could be retrieved from the train and shipped on the next bus to Bakersfield, but he needed our baggage claim tickets. When we went to pick up our luggage the next morning, we were informed that my boyfriend’s luggage had been stolen in Los Angeles, so we were given a claim form to fill out and return. This we did, but we only received the check to replace his luggage (lost in March) a few weeks ago.
We filled out this first claim paper in Bakersfield, and we were given a copy. We waited, and when nothing happened, we called. Neither Amtrak headquarters nor the Bakersfield Station had our claim paper on file, so we sent them our copy, after making another copy for our records. Again we waited, and nothing happened. The manager of our apartment complex graciously allowed us to use his fax machine to send another copy, because again they said they didn’t have it on record. We were given the name of Sarah Ulis at the Amtrak main office, and she informed us that we needed our baggage claim tickets and our ticket stubs. I explained that our baggage claim tickets had been taken away from us by a staff member at the Los Angeles station (whose name we were never given) and that I didn’t have the ticket stubs. Fortunately, because my father had purchased the tickets on his credit card, we could get Amtrak a copy of that statement, if requested. Ms. Ulis pointedly told us that they made an exception for us by sending us the amount that we had estimated for the worth of my boyfriend’s luggage, even though we didn’t have the required papers.
Regarding the treatment of my dog, I mentioned this to Ms. Ulis, and we were informed that this complaint was being reviewed, but unless I can find a way to find out, I may never know if it had any effect.
Coming home, we went from Bakersfield to San Bernardino by motor coach. When my boyfriend’s parents put us on the bus, his father asked the driver if he could help us retrieve our luggage from under the bus and help us get to where we needed to go inside the station once we got there. His exact reply was, “This is not Greyhound. If they’re blind and need help traveling, they should not be traveling alone.”
Fortunately my boyfriend’s father was able to get people on the bus who were also getting on our train to help us. I was shocked. To think that Amtrak passengers had to help us when the employees were the ones getting paid to do that! When I complained about such poor service, I was told that the motor coach was handled by a contracted company — not through Amtrak itself — but that my complaint would be noted and reported to the proper company. Afterward, we heard that every person on that bus made a complaint about the way that driver treated us, and that he eventually got fired, but I’ll probably never know the accuracy of this report.
I had had nothing but good experiences with Amtrak before this trip, but I’d never traveled such a great distance with them prior to March. I was very disappointed, and I am discouraged to think that, as someone without a credit card and without the means to fly where I need to go, I have no choice but to resort to dealing with this kind of poor service and unresponsive treatment. I just wish I could get some closure as to what really happened with my complaints, and whether it did any good to go to the effort to complain. The money for the lost luggage really isn’t the issue any longer; I just don’t want another disabled person with a service animal (or even without one) to have to go through what we did, just because they don’t have the money to pay for a full-service sleeper car, or to fly there and have it all over in five or six hours.
Thank you for a very wonderfully written “President’s Message” and thank you for the inspiration and insurance that there is someone out there I can talk to. I’d be more than willing to listen to someone’s suggestions, if anyone has any ... Thank you for your time and effort, and I always look forward to all of the interesting, informative and inspiring news that I know I will always find in the pages of “The Braille Forum.”
— Julie Roberts, Woodstock, Va.
Travel Opportunities for All
In reference to the article in the July 2000 “Braille Forum” by Jo Taliaferro entitled “The Experience of a Lifetime:” I want to share how this story has made me think about so many blind folks who are trying to get around in this world. I’ve always been able to quickly learn my environment. I have good hearing in both ears. I am not a potential victim of rape. I live in a very pedestrian-friendly community. I live in a community with excellent public transportation and a very generous specialized transportation service for people with disabilities. Getting around is relatively stress-free for me.
Ms. Taliaferro is presenting the plight of many, many folks for whom leaving their homes is a nightmare. Her story should make us mindful that, in spite of how hard we word to make the environment more usable for those of us who move about it with frequency, we need to think of ways to help those blind folks and other “true” shut-ins to experience the life that many of us enjoy and take for granted. Let’s face it. Some folks will never have the skills or confidence to travel entirely independently. Nonetheless, they deserve to have their needs met to the same degree as the rest of us.
— Raymond “Bud” Keith, Arlington, Va.
Random comments on “The Braille Forum”
A couple of items in the Forum two months ago stirred my old Royal manual typewriter into writing mode. How should we react when employees on airlines or buses, or at hotels, don’t meet our special needs in a courteous, appropriate way? I recall once I gave a stewardess a bad time over possession of my cane, but it embarrassed my wife and I probably would not do it the same way again because the problem is more complex than the individual who happens to irritate us.
Even if ALL public employees are put through a training program to meet the needs of the blind, deaf, paralyzed, aged, and illiterate, some will get it and some will not, and all of them will forget some of what they have learned. I shudder to think how much I’ve forgotten about CPR since I had that crash course. (Fortunately they are changing those procedures so now I can shrug and let people die because I’m not up to speed on current techniques.)
On another topic, job turnover is another fact that plagues employers. By the time they have gotten everybody trained, 10 to 30 percent will move on to higher-paying jobs, hoping to catch up with the wealthy computer whiz kids, so now there is more training to be done.
And there is the matter of costs, which most of us don’t have to think about. If an employee spends 15 minutes with me, that represents money, and we assume the company will pass this along in higher fares or rates for everybody else. An alternate solution would be for them to send the bill to the federal government, but I doubt that either Bush or Gore would approve.
If all this sounds as though I have taken three notes out of George W’s notebook and gone bonkers on compassion, I might point out that Ken Jernigan, a year before he died, made a speech in which he urged the blind to be courteous and kind to the sighted. That does not mean we should never protest or complain, but let’s direct our complaints to the appropriate source.
Instead of scolding bus drivers for not calling stops, I hope we can soon get automated calling systems, though it will require a sizable investment at first. Also, if global positioning satellites could be gotten down to pocket size that would help me, and could have helped Jo Taliaferro in her miserable adventure in the snow.
I was going to complain about the need for some kind of tactile warning on ramps for wheelchairs to keep us from wandering out into the middle of the street, but I understand that Charlie Crawford and others are already at work on this.
Finally, how many folks read the Forum in braille? Is there a better name for it? And why don’t you run a column for other stupid or provocative questions like that? Years ago, “American” magazine had a column called “Why Don’t They …” So, already, enough.
— Walt Stromer, Mount Vernon, Iowa
Bill Lewis responds
In reply to the August 2000 “Braille Forum” letters column, I thank Lucia Marett from New York, N.Y. for her natural skepticism about my August 1999 article, “Professions and Vocations Held or Studied by Blind People in Kansas and across America.”
As I read the long list of 167 jobs in vocations and professions, performed by real, live, warm-blooded human beings, listed in the Careers and Technology Information Bank of AFB, I, too, wondered, “How do they do that?”
As I studied the material carefully, I reasoned that the jobs, vocations, and professions listed are being performed by blind individuals, plus those legally blind persons who can still read print and recognize people and landmarks at a distance. For example, there is a legally blind clinical psychiatrist here in Wichita. On the other hand, in that list there were many who are totally blind. Take the oceanographer, for example. He is totally blind and a nationally recognized expert on shellfish. I saw a PBS TV special a couple of years ago about him. It was impressive.
I have to guess, though, that the astronomer is legally blind, as would likely be for people in some of the other unusual classifications, such as owner of women’s clothing store. However, you just can’t tell nowadays.
In any case, I am amazed at human ingenuity, when people can perform in such richly varied areas where visually impaired people would not ordinarily be expected to perform. That is why I added the little bit at the end of the article about the little engine who said, “Yes, I can; yes, I can.” “How do they do that?” That’s what is amazing about people with disabilities; you just can’t predict what they will do next.
I have to make an assumption here, though, that you will find very few of those CTIB people who are not upbeat, bright, energetic, congenial, and able to adapt by figuring out ways of doing things, despite visual limitations and unexpected prejudice. I realize that many others have not been so fortunate. Also, bad luck can hit us and end a long-time career. I had to change job settings six times and job descriptions 14 times in my long career.
As Lucia observed, prejudice exists regardless of one’s life circumstances. With my white cane in hand, I can walk out of my bank, where I carry a healthy line of credit, and walk across the street to a restaurant, and have the waitress ask my companion what I want to order. Yep, life is full of opportunities to educate people about blindness, whether we like it or not.
As Lucia Marett pointed out, workshop employment is not a career. She’s right. It is a job, not what most people would consider a career. If Lucia thinks the article was a bit long, I agree, but it took a lot of space to cover 167 different job classifications, totaling over 2,000 people.
If anyone wants more information about those real people categorized in that article and wishes to contact any of them directly, CTIB searches are happily conducted free of charge for blind and visually impaired job seekers and rehabilitation professionals assisting clients. Job-seekers, researchers and others interested in using the CTIB database may contact the AFB National Technology Center at (212) 502-7642, fax: (212) 502- 7773, e-mail: techctr@afb.org.
— Bill Lewis, Wichita, Kan.
Responding to Bud Keith’s September 2000 Letter to the Editor:
(This letter, which was posted to the ACB List, was received via e-mail. To e-mail letters to the editor of “The Braille Forum,” address your mail to preeder@acb.org.)
I read with interest the letter to the editor sent by Bud Keith to “The Braille Forum.” I agree with some of his remarks and have questions about others.
I, too, get a little annoyed when I see umpteen million messages [in my in-box] from the same person and especially on the same topic. But that’s what the delete key is for, and I use it liberally. I appreciate the officers and board members who do subscribe to the ACB list, but like Mr. Keith, I wonder why others aren’t, unless they simply don’t have a computer. I subscribed to this list because I am a board member at the state level. Maybe [my position] doesn’t carry with it the prestige which [accompanies positions] at the national level, but I always like to be well-informed about blindness and ACB issues. There may not be every national officer and board member here, but let’s not forget the importance of the membership at large and those who serve on the state or chapter levels [who do actively participate on the list].
The part [of Mr. Keith's letter] which talks about national officers’ and board members’ behavior and appearance is very confusing to me. If Mr. Keith sees this as a problem, shouldn’t he quietly try to rectify the situation rather than writing about this in the Forum? I don’t know very much about the appearance of our leaders, and I certainly haven’t observed anything in the way of behavior which is repulsive or inappropriate. But if there is a problem like this, does it really do a lot of good to write about it in the Forum? It certainly has me confused.
I don’t want to offer a cop-out for unkempt appearances at conventions, but I’ve heard that our leaders are up early and late trying to prepare for the next part of the convention. Could [these late nights] contribute to an unkempt appearance? Also, like all of us, these folks are human! We make the mistake of putting blind leaders on a pedestal sometimes. From what I’ve seen of NFB, many leaders’ flaws are overlooked, and I’d hate to see us go in that direction. However, if Mr. Keith is concerned about our leaders’ appearance and behavior, wouldn’t it be more productive for him to bring it to their attention quietly? Are they going to know whom or what he’s talking about by these vague references in a very public letter? Just some points to ponder.
— Rebecca Kragnes, Minneapolis, Minn.