Strange Observations

I am always amazed at the reactions I get when I tell people that I am legally blind. To the naked eye I appear as anyone else so it's not easy to tell this about me.

Reaction 1. The person is cool about it and doesn't treat me any different. This is my favorite reaction.

Reaction 2. The person starts to speak louder as if I have suddenly lost my hearing as well.

Reaction 3. The person starts to talk extremely slowly as if I have suddenly lost all of my brains and am now retarded. This reaction buggs me the most. I am an intelligent person and I expect to be treated as such.

Reaction 4. The person starts to baby me. This one also buggs me alot. I am an independant person and I don't like it when people feel the need to treat me as if I am an infant.

Reaction 5. The person doesn't believe me. I have only experienced this one once but it is the most comical of all the reactions. I actually had to have this guy confirm it with my mother.

I may be "disabled" but I am a human being and I expect to be treated no different than anyone else. Unfortunately there is still so much prejudice in this world that it verry rarely occures after I come out with my "secret."

I used to hide the fact that I didn't see that well. It always bothered me because I knew people would treat me differently and I was a very shy person growing up. Well one day I woke up and decided that I needed to just come out with it and deal with whatever reaction I got. Usually this results in me being a smart ass. Like when someone starts to talk louder I must assume they can't hear me and so I talk louder. This tends to piss people off and I get labeled a bitch.

If being labeled a bitch because I expect people to treat me like any other person then I guess I am a bitch.