... Not Stupid

[BookBint]

Uber Boss just got back from the supermarket (making sandwiches is beneath Uber Boss, Uber Boss likes machines to make his sandwiches). Apparently he saw this exchange in the tea and coffee aisle between a partially sighted man and the supermarket manager. To be clear, the man had a seeing eye dog, but must have had some sight because he was peering at the items on the shelves from about an inch away.

BM (Blind man (partially sighted, whatever))
SM (Stupid manager)

SM: Sir? Are you ok?
BM: What? Yes, thankyou.
SM: much louder, as if he was talking to a mentally challenged child Sir? Do. You. Need. Assistance???
BM: confused No, I'm fine. Thank you.
SM: voice dripping with pity Well, if you need anything let me know. Are you sure you're ok? Is someone with you?
BM: I'm blind. Not stupid.

Manager apparently went red and walked off. Uber Boss laughed out loud and the blind guy joined in. He said it happens all the time.

There's helpful and then there's assuming all disabled people are mentally deficient.

[HawaiianShirts]

BM: I'm blind. Not stupid.

Yeah, it sounds (reads?) like he's had to say that line several times before. I had to use a very similar phrase when I was training a co-worker who had come over from Mongolia. He spoke English reasonably well, but he had a hard time understanding the fast-talkers. He had to ask them to slow down; they'd get louder instead. At least every other day, I found myself saying, "He's foreign. Not deaf."

[MaggieTheCat]

Ugh, people like that manager make me so angry! I was in an ASL interpreting program for a year and met a lot of deaf people during my studies, and they all had similar stories that just make you want to slap someone.

[TelephoneAngel]

I will always remember when I worked in a furniture store, talking to an elderly couple, the man was in a wheelchair and could not talk (I later found out he had had his voicebox removed) but he could understand and I included him in the conversation. His wife started crying and said it was very unusual for him to be included in a conversation while they were shopping.

[Mytical]

People like SM irk me. They seem to believe that hearing, seeing, or etc problems somehow make a person stupid. I'd bet a dollar to a donut that the person he was treating as an idiot was a lot smarter then himself..but I doubt anybody would take that suckers bet.

[ArcticChicken]

His wife started crying and said it was very unusual for him to be included in a conversation while they were shopping.

I can see myself being one of the people who ignores him. Not on purpose, mind you, but unless he was using sign language, it just wouldn't occur to me that he's not talking because he can't talk, not because he chooses not to.

[AccountingDrone]

I will always remember when I worked in a furniture store, talking to an elderly couple, the man was in a wheelchair and could not talk (I later found out he had had his voicebox removed) but he could understand and I included him in the conversation. His wife started crying and said it was very unusual for him to be included in a conversation while they were shopping.

i get treated like an idiot in my chair or using crutches ...

[Magpie]

i get treated like an idiot in my chair or using crutches ...

Well when I was on crutches they would have had an excuse... (stupidest way to break a bone ever, I tripped over the carpet).

[Soulstealer]

Well when I was on crutches they would have had an excuse... (stupidest way to break a bone ever, I tripped over the carpet).

I've tripped over my shoe laces once and had to go to the ER. Thankfully no broken bones that time. I've also dislocated my pinky by playing with a ball during recess and I was the only one in a field trip during grade nine not to see the pot hole and tore a ligament in my leg.

Breaking a bone by tripping the carpet sounds right up my alley.

[AccountingDrone]

Well when I was on crutches they would have had an excuse... (stupidest way to break a bone ever, I tripped over the carpet).

I use canadian crutches instead of the usual axillary crutches, you know, the funny looking ones that you associate with that crippled kid in special ed classes that also wears a helmet in case they fall over so they dont do any more brain damage... so they probably assume that im some sort of special ed type or some such nonsense. Or just the typical foggy thinking of idiots who just don't stop to think it through, there really is sort of an historical bias against visible impairments in people, the whole looks evil, is evil, looks gimp must be defective.

[Pagan]

There's helpful and then there's assuming all disabled people are mentally deficient.

Oh, I think we see where the mental deficiency is!

[Becks]

I can see myself being one of the people who ignores him. Not on purpose, mind you, but unless he was using sign language, it just wouldn't occur to me that he's not talking because he can't talk, not because he chooses not to.

Same with me.

[Sleepwalker]

I hate when someone comes in with a caretaker, because there's no way of telling whether it's a mental deficiency or not, and they usually act like I should just know.

[MoonCat]

Funny story I read somewhere: A woman with a broken foot was using a wheelchair at work. A friend would sometimes help her get to the cafeteria. They got tired of people speaking right past the woman in the chair, as if needing a wheelchair meant she was unable to communicate (her foot was bandaged and in plain sight, pretty obvious). Finally one day when someone asked the friend, "poor thing, what happened to her?" the friend snapped, "she had brain surgery!"

[tropicsgoddess]

Pretty shitty and patronizing of the manager to do that to the customer. I guess he doesn't know that assume = ass u me.