Legally blind!

[EricKei]

FL: Some people just want to watch the workers burn

[Food Lady]

She reamed you out for not helping and yet that's exactly what you were doing. I really really hate that.

[dalesys]

I take my glasses off and do the Garfield:

Feet?

I have feet?

Where?

[Cia]

I can't see clearly farther than 6 inches from my face.

My hubby was driving one day and I took my glasses off to rub my eyes, he asked me if I could see the car in the other lane, I looked and said "What car?"

[EricKei]

I would try to politely explain that she wasn't my only customer, but she just insisted I help her and only her.

I am fairly certain that, even if she had perfect vision, she would demand that same exclusive treatment.

re: Legal Blindness -- The standard appears to be 20/200. not 20/400. ^_^ 20/400 is "full" blindness. Note that these numbers are "with the 'best available' corrective lenses in place".

I dug this up:

The American Optometric Association states that a person with 20/20 vision can clearly identify a row of 9mm letters from 20 feet. A legally blind person with vision of 20/200 has to be as close as 20 feet to identify objects that people with normal vision can spot from 200 feet. So a legally blind person needs a distance of two feet to spot the letters on a standard eye chart that is 20 feet away.

And some stuff here as well

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Old lady could have just paid cash, and avoided the whole problem if she were really "legally blind."

Then she would've been whining about feeling unsafe due to having cash on her person and that somebody could rob her b/c she's "legally blind."

She reminds me of a woman my mom took care of some years ago . . . it was a blessing in disguise when the family decided she needed to be put somewhere.

[Sapphire Silk]

Old lady could have just paid cash, and avoided the whole problem if she were really "legally blind."

[Pixilated]

That was a 'can't win' situation. Had you stayed by the register to see the screen and thus not put the bags in the carts, there would have been an almighty blow-up about that.
*snip*

Exactly. You did nothing wrong.

*snip*
or
"Why aren't you by her side reading off the screen if you know she's legally blind??"

Good question! You're standing right there, you old b*tch, read the screen for her!!

To be honest, when somebody goes on and on and ON like that, I start to be very skeptical that there's actually a problem at all. They sound far too much like an EW who's just decided they've got a foolproof excuse to be really rude with everybody they come in contact with.

Tough as it was, you were right not to try to defend yourself. That would've just prolonged the contact and the main thing at that point was to get the precious pair OUT of your lineup and out of the store.

[b2addm]

Is it wrong to want to punch an old lady in the balls?

I don't think it is. If it is, I'm wrong several times a week.

She just wanted to bitch about not being helped because they don't understand technology. So they either have to LEARN how to use it, look stupid because they can't use it, or put the blame for their inability to use it onto someone else. (in this case, you.)
She should have been the one helping her but since she's unable to do anything except be old and useless she projects that responsibility onto you in an effort to make herself look less stupid.

[NotAlBundy]

This thread reminded me of a customer I had at the shoe store 15ish years ago, when I first started working there. She had some form of albinism, and every time she came in the store she would loudly proclaim that she needed assistance because she had a vision impairment.

I understood that she had a vision impairment.

I didn't mind helping her.

But I work in a mostly self-service shoe store. She usually came in when I was the only one working, so I had to ring up other customers, as well as help anyone that needed help.

Just the way she would holler at me, "I have a vision impairment! I need assistance!" .... it took everything in me not to yell back, "That much is obvious because you tell me this every time you come in, yet you don't recognize me!"

I would try to politely explain that she wasn't my only customer, but she just insisted I help her and only her.

[TattooedMommie]

I'm really thinking the Aunty is the care-taker of the "Legally-Blind" niece, and it's a new arrangement...therefore every person they encounter in public must bend over backwards to assist...the Old Lady Neice was the typical pleasant elderly customer, it was her "handler" who freaked on me. But I cant think of any other reason she woulda been so adamant about "LEGALLY BLIND! (!eleventy!) label...I completed this transaction with my usual "ftw"smile and courtesy so ingrained into my IGA store. As much as it bugged me out all day, she didnt complain, so I guess I win...ergh...

[Willis]

People around here always try to make someone feel guilty about things you couldn't have possibly known.

[ComputerNecromancer]

Once when my husband had his glasses off I stood in front of him about 3 feet away and said, "What can you tell about me?"

He replied, "Uh, you're a person..."

Yeah, that lady was just a bitch. I wonder if the 'legally blind' woman was completely embarrassed by her behavior?

Probably. My blind friend has had to yell at her mom a time or two for going too far to "help".

With me, if I get carried away I'm liable to get cracked across the shins with her cane. Ouch.

[ComputerNecromancer]

And how in the name of Zues am I supposed to know she was LEGALLY FREAKIN BLIND, when she looked me right in the eye at the beginnning of the transaction and had no problem pulling her card out of her wallet? And perhaps another form of tender would be more appropriate for it's ease of use for the visually impaired? Or, oh I dont know, maybe the Aunty who is doing nothing but standing directly next to said Blind person, could assist?

The Aunty is way out of line. On the other hand, "legally blind" is a lot different than most folks realize.

Essentially, it means that their vision can't be corrected up to 20/400 (if I'm recalling correctly). So what they see at 20 feet is worse than what you see at 400 feet.

Or in this case, what they see at 6 inches is what you'd see at 200 feet. So they can see you, and even look at you, but reading that screen or the like is out of the question.

I've got a legally blind friend. She can (on a *really* good day puzzle out those screens by getting her eyes within an inch or so. Most days she can't.

But she won't go on like that lady did. She only goes over the "legally blind" bit when folks are being *stupid*.

Classic example I witnessed: she walked over to a couple of clerks in a department store and asked "where are the bathrooms". Clerk points and says "over there". My friend repeats "Where are the bathrooms? I'm *blind* and I can't see where you are pointing. (waving her white cane at them.

She went thru the "where is it?" with them going "over there" *six times* before one of them finally *listened* and *told* her how to get there. This with her emphasizing "*tell* me where the are" from the second go round.

So you weren't being unreasonable. The Aunty was.

Though I have to note that *because* of things like blind customers, the terminals *really* need to have a display the cashier can see.

[Bardmaiden]

The fiance is almost legally blind, he is extremely longsighted. A lens fell out of one of his glasses and he didn't have his spare pair with him (they were in his locker at work for just such an occasion at work) so I had to guide him to the local opticians so they could sort it out because he literally could not see his way there.
When he was working his glasses broke and he wasn't near the depot he works from (and didn't have a pair on him *thwaps*) so they had to send someone out to take over the train he was working on at the time.