Where Do I Sign?

I am standing at the cash register with my 'white' cane in my hand and it is time for me to use my credit card. I swipe it through in every direction possible till the lady behind the counter says cash or credit? When she hands me the receipt to sign for my credit card I ask her, 'where do I sign, I am visually impaired?' I say this while I hold up my 'white cane'. The cashier points at the bottom of the paper and says 'where it says sign.'

Well, if you were standing in my shoes with a 'white' cane, what do you think I should say. Maybe she did not notice my cane? Maybe she did not hear me say I am visually impaired? Maybe she is thinking of what she is making for dinner and she is on auto pilot?

Well, I feel I can take two different approaches. I can ignore the 'ignorance' or I can educate. Do they not realize a person using a cane and asking where to sign cannot see the lightly printed five point font word 'signature'?

Well, from my experience, the passive approach is not good action. Therefore, I need to approach this situation without being defensive but informative of my situation. After all, I go to the same stores and will run into this each time.
So I ask, 'do you know what visually impaired means' in a very confident but compassionate voice. That always gets their attention.

I have noticed, some people are just not comfortable around 'disabled' people. Like saying the words 'see' or 'read' is taboo or offensive. Or better yet, they don't look at you or turn their back on you when in a group conversation. Hmmm...not sure what to say about that.

On the other hand, some people are champions! They are so helpful it feels like they want to walk for you, almost carry you. In these cases, I just educate them with what I am capable of seeing and let them know how much I appreciate their help and consciousness of me.

Finally, there are the people that are just compassionate and clearly comfortable in my situation. They ask what I need . They assist me with love and not feeling sorry for me. They feel honored to help me. Nothing worse than feeling like you are annoying someone cause you cannot see what color or how much a product costs.

So as you can imagine, all sorts of emotions can arise from these daily encounters. After a while, you just get comfortable addressing these situations and sometimes find them quite humorous. Sometimes, it hits you harder and you handle them with as much integrity as you can. But, my favorite part of my disability is that I get to interact with all sorts of people. People that a sighted person may not normally get to opportunity to interact with.

Jodi Jainchill PT, CMFT