Since the latest "accessibility" update to the Reddit app, the amount and magnitude of new accessibility related bugs has made it virtually impossible for blind mods to operate on mobile.

We have done absolutely everything we could to work with Reddit and have given them every opportunity. When they offered to host a demo of the update, we understood how little they understand about accessibility: they did not respond to a request to use the app with screen curtain on. The only fair conclusion is that they cannot use it without sight, but expect us to.

The update introduced various regressions and new bugs. This is entirely within the expectations of the mod team, given how rushed it was and how Reddit continues to demonstrate how underprepared they are to deal with accessibility.

But what about the "accessibility apps?"

They may not work. At this time, it is impossible to log into RedReader.

They shouldn't have to work. Reddit made a business decision to effectively remove users' access to third-party apps and must assure that access by its own means.

What now for r/Blind?

The subreddit will continue operating under the care and stewardship of its visually impaired and sighted moderators.

Let us be clear: r/Blind cannot be moderated by blind people.

Reddit has a single path forward

As u/rumster, founder of r/Blind and a CPWA Certified Professional of Web Accessibility, told Reddit admins in our first meeting, Reddit needs to hire a CPWA. It has been patently obvious that the company does not have the know-how to address these accessibility issues, as we explained on the update on the second meeting.

To build the required internal structure and processes, and create an accessible platform, they must:

• Create and fill the position of "Chief Accessibility Officer." This role must have oversight over development as well as the ability to set internal and public Reddit policy. This person should have the ability to halt any corporate strategy or initiative within Reddit as a company and/or any feature, update, etc. to the Reddit website and/or apps until they believe the impact on accessibility for disabled redditors by said strategy, initiative, feature, update, etc. has been fully addressed, implemented, ensured, and/or mitigated. The person filling this role should have both development and managerial experience and hold at least the Certified Professional of Web Accessibility (CPWA) certification as issued by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). This person should also be disabled and an active Redditor and must coordinate communication with disabled users and their communities.

• Reddit must commit to ensuring training and certification of all developers responsible for accessible and inclusive design. Lead developers must be trained and certified at least to the level of Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) as issued by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP), but ideally should hold the "Certified Professional of Web Accessibility (CPWA)."

• Fully implement an alternative text (alt text) function for photos and videos in which posters can compose descriptions for blind and visually impaired users.

• Implement a closed-captioning system for videos, thus allowing deaf and deafblind Redditors full access to the audio content of videos.

• Implement a single dedicated point of contact for accessibility and disability issues in the form of an email address: [email protected].

• Ultimately and crucially, commit to comply with the WCAG at level AA and ATAG standards.

Disability is a social issue and software must be tested

As u/MostlyBlindGamer explained to Reddit admins in modmail, "disability" is an interaction between a person's physical or mental characteristics and society's barriers. Your website's barriers. You are making people disabled by breaking your website and apps. Your organization's unwillingness and/or inability to hire actual experts is what's making people disabled. We're not disabled, because we can't see like you can: we're disabled, because crunching developers, who don't have the necessary training and experience, for a week, predictably, caused regressions. If I don't test my code, people die. When you don't test your code, because you don't know how to, you make people disabled.

If Reddit Inc wants to deny service to disabled people, they must make that statement

As u/DHamlinMusic said, this update made no functional changes beyond the add/remove favorites button in the community's list being labeled and changing state properly, yet it added dozens of new issues, made moderating significantly harder and should never have been released to start. If Reddit's intention is to just not have disabled users on reddit come out and say it instead of pulling this landlord trying to empty a rent controlled building bullshit.

Disabled redditors will not accept being quietly whisked away, nor will the broader Reddit community. People make Reddit and people can break Reddit.

Introduction

It's possible that those of you who are active on other subreddits may have read about the changes in pricing that Reddit has recently released for its API - the system apps use to get and send data from and to Reddit.  But for those of you who haven't, here's a summary.  On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo, to Dystopia, to Reddit for Blind, to Luna for Reddit, to BaconReader,. Even if you don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as the use of the old.reddit.com desktop interface.  This doesn't only impact your ability to access Reddit in a fluid, customizable, and efficient way; many of us on the mod team are also blind, and we depend on those third party apps to make sure that this community remains a safe, fun, and productive place.  Unfortunately, new Reddit, and the official Reddit apps, just don't provide us with the levels of accessibility we need in order to continue effectively running this community. As well, the Transcribers of Reddit, the many dedicated folks who volunteer to transcribe and describe thousands and thousands of images on Reddit, may also be unable to operate.  

One of our moderators, u/itsthejoker, has had multiple hour-long calls with various Reddit employees.  However, as of the current time, our concerns have gone unheard, and Reddit remains firm. That's why the moderation team of r/blind now feels that we have no choice but to take further action.  

The Subreddit Blackout

Those of us who are blind are no strangers to the need for collective action.  From the protests that resulted in the ADA passing in the United States, to world-wide protests driving forward accessibility of some of the Internet's largest websites, collective action is a step our community has taken in the past, often with some success.  It is with a heavy heart that we come to you now, and say that it's time to bring this tool out of the toolbox once more.  

In solidarity with thousands of other subreddits who are impacted by this change, we will be shutting down the /r/blind subreddit for 48 hours from June 12th to June 14th.  You will not be able to read or make posts during that time.  Our Discord server will remain open, and we invite anyone who would like to interact with the /r/blind community to join us there.  If you’re not part of the /r/blind Discord server yet, you can join via the following link: https://discord.com/invite/5kMEv7Sq9y

How you can help

While this issue has a profound impact on those of us who are blind and visually impaired, as with so many issues of accessibility and inclusivity, it impacts far more than just us.  If you'd like to get involved, you can find out what you can do to help at r/Save3rdPartyApps- or, if you moderate a subreddit, its sister sub r/ModCoord.  You can also join the Reddit-Blackout channel in the /r/blind Discord, where we will have resources you can use to contact media and other organizations, and keep everyone up to date with our on-going efforts in this matter.  

What comes next?

If this change to the Reddit API is not reversed, we are not convinced that we will be able to continue running the r/blind subreddit.  However, that doesn't mean the end of this wonderful, passionate, curious, helpful, and amazing community of folks.  We are continuing to explore our options, and create back-up plans.  We all want to remain on Reddit. Let's do what we can to make that a reality!  But if it turns out we can't, we want to reassure you that this isn't the end of our community.  So let’s focus on doing everything we can to make those possible back-up plans unnecessary.  

The r/blind mod team

Moderators of r/blind—along with moderators in other communities who use assistive technologies and Reddit users with accessibility expertise—had a Zoom meeting with representatives at Reddit on Friday, June 16, 2023. While the call was promising in that Reddit invited us to be part of continuing dialog and demonstrated some well-conceived accessible designs for Reddit users, we came away with serious concerns which Reddit was either unable or unwilling to address during the meeting.

• Reddit is currently prioritizing accessibility for users rather than for moderators, and representatives were unwilling to provide timelines by when Reddit’s moderation tools would be accessible for screen reader users. Further, Reddit representatives seemed unaware that blind moderators rely on third-party applications because Reddit’s moderation tools present significant accessibility challenges. They also seemed unaware that the apps which have so far received exemptions from API pricing do not have sufficient moderation functions. u/NTCarver0 explained that blind moderators will be unable to ensure safety for our communities—as well as for Reddit in general—without accessible moderation systems, and asked Reddit representatives how blind moderators were supposed to effectively moderate our communities without them. Reddit representatives deferred the question, stating they would have to take notes and get back with us. A fellow moderator, u/MostlyBlindGamer, also pointed out that blind moderators who are unable to effectively moderate the subreddit and thus will become inactive may be removed at Reddit’s discretion per policy, and that such removal would leave r/Blind with no blind moderators. Reddit representatives also deferred comment on this issue.

• Reddit representatives refused to answer questions concerning the formal certifications, accreditations or qualifications of employees tasked with ensuring universal accessibility. These certifications demonstrate that a professional has the knowledge necessary to create universally-accessible software and/or documents. Because Reddit cannot confirm that employees tasked with universal accessibility hold appropriate certifications or that the company will provide for such training and certification, we have concerns that employees do not have the appropriate knowledge to effectively ensure access for all assistive technology users both at present and in the future. Reddit has also indicated there are not currently any employees who work full-time on accessibility. This is a necessity for any organization as large and influential as Reddit.

• Reddit representatives had previously disclosed to r/Blind moderators that an accessibility audit had been performed by a third-party company, however they refused to answer questions as to what company performed the audit or how the audit was conducted. Answers to these questions would have allowed us to determine whether the audit was performed by an accredited organization known for credible and thorough work. Reddit also could not answer questions as to what assistive technologies, such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, dictation softwares, etc., were used during the audit. Bluntly, we cannot know the thoroughness or scope of the audit—and therefore the extent to which Reddit is aware of the accessibility barriers present in their website and apps—without this information.

• During the previous meeting, Reddit representatives raised a question regarding perceived disparities between the accessibility of the iOS and Android apps, suggesting the audit did not confirm that the accessibility failings in the iOS app are much more severe than those present in the Android app. During the latest meeting, u/MostlyBlindGamer explained that the iOS app has no labels for the ubiquitous and essential upvote and downvote buttons while the Android app does. This question raises the concern that Reddit representatives may not have a full and actionable understanding of the issues at stake or, in fact, the exact accessibility failings in their apps.

• Reddit representatives narrowly defined the scope of the latest meeting less than an hour ahead of it, explicitly excluding third-party apps and API pricing from the conversation. They did acknowledge that this made it difficult to adequately prepare for the meeting.

• Reddit refused to define the term “accessibility-focused app,” alleging that this was outside  the scope of the meeting. This term is not industry-standard and was instead created when Reddit carved out an exemption in their upcoming API policies for third-party apps used by blind people to access the platform. Without this definition, we are unable to ascertain whether apps that have not been approved but are nevertheless relied upon by community members qualify for an exemption.

• Reddit gave no firm commitments as to when accessibility improvements would be rolled out to the website or apps. However, it is obvious that the Reddit website and apps will not be ready for disabled users—and especially moderators—by July 1.

In general, moderators of r/Blind who attended the call came away with mixed impressions. Reddit seems to be somewhat aware of the myriad accessibility barriers present in their applications and website, and the company appears to be laying the groundwork to fix issues which they are aware of. This is excellent news. However, we also feel that Reddit does not know what it does not know, and this lack of knowledge is exasperating, disheartening, and exhausting. We also came away frustrated that Reddit representatives were either unwilling or unable to answer prudent and pertinent questions which would allow us to determine not only how we can best keep our community safe and healthy, but also whether Reddit is truly prepared to commit to ensuring accessibility for all disabled  users both now and in the future. Finally, we hope that our concerns—especially those pertaining to moderation—will be addressed expeditiously and satisfactorily, thus assuring that r/Blind can operate effectively well into the future. Despite our concerns, we remain open to continued dialog with Reddit in the hope that it will foster a more accessible platform.

My oldest daughter is applying to college and in talking to her dad and me about her essay she said “I’m glad I gave them really had any adversity in my life, so what should I write about?

I went blind starting 9 years ago, and it has been a rough transition formy family, especially her, I thought. I’ve been a stay at home mom so was in charge of all Mom’s Taxi runs, that stopped in 2014. The meds they tried made me sleep 14 hours a day. I stopped being a useful parent to her and her siblings for months before stopping the meds. I’ve been away from home fir O&M and guide dog school for a total of a month. I had to get her Lyft rides to practice if my husband was on a business trip. So many more things you guys will know about.

When I says about the essay “well, I went blind and that’s been hard” she said “oh, I forgot! But, no, that’s not hard on me, I’m going to write about leadership from marching band.”

This amazing kid didn’t even think of thát as adversity. I mean, yeah, c9mpared to really hard stuff like poverty or abuse or neglect, she’s right, but I’ve been worried she might have felt somehow burdened by my blindness. She gets embarrassed when I cry, so I waited to post this until she went to get some groceries.

Latterly I've noticed my vision is on the fritz and getting worse. I have Ushers so a loss of both sight and hearing.

I just became a mom to a absolutely beautiful girl and i want to visually watch her grow. My vision is like a overlay of flickering noise from tv that also blurs shone details.

The only way i can read these days is white on black and who knows how long that will last... I miss reading regular print.

I've been thinking, what's one thing i want to see before many vision goes to shit... I want to see the Grand Canyon.

I've seen many wonderful sights growing up but not that one. Many regent is not seeing the Milky Way when i starved a lot as a kid as i was never told you could faintly see the galaxy. but i might hacer a skit as seeing Saturn or Jupiter. Oh and northern lights, i want to see that on a cloudless night.

I did get to watch ISS going across the dusk sky. That was cool.

That's all i wanted to say off my chest. Thanks for reading

As you may have read in our announcement that we are joining the protest, Reddit has announced that they will exempt "accessibility focused apps" from the API changes. For more information about this, see the top comment on that post.

In order to provide Reddit with as much information as we can, it would be extremely helpful if all of you who are using third party apps to access Reddit would post what app you're using in the comments. We'll edit this into a list, both as a resource for Reddit, and for our community!

Thanks for your time and support thus far, everyone!

The list so far:

• Windows

  • Reddit for Blind: intended for screen reader users

  • Luna for Reddit: intended for screen reader users

• IOS

  • Dystopia: intended for screen reader users

  • BaconReader: intended for everyone, with improved support for screen magnification, changing text size, colour contrast changes, and screen readers

  • Apollo: intended for everyone, but implements the majority of the IOS accessibility API's, and works with most IOS accessibility technology, unlike the official app

  • Narwhal: used by some folks with cognitive differences

• Android

  • RedReader: intended for everyone, but with accessibility features to adjust text size, contrast, etc. The latest alpha also includes TalkBack actions support for screen reader users

  • Sync Pro: intended for everyone, but has better (though not perfect) screen reader support than the official android app

  • Boost: intended for everyone, but allows users great customization in size and color, which is vital for those of us with low vision

  • Slide: intended for everyone, but Its lead developer was immediately open to addressing accessibility concerns, during the beta process, and u/MostlyBlindGamer was able to contribute several fixes for the TalkBack screen reader.

  • Infinity For Reddit

  • BaconReader: intended for everyone, with improved support for screen magnification, changing text size, colour contrast changes, and screen readers

  • Reddit Is Fun: Offers a simple and easy to read interface, especially appreciated by those with low vision or cognitive challenges.

I'm creating this sticky post because we've gotten this question many times in the past few days, meaning people are obviously missing our FAQ that answers this question:

Some blind people are not totally without sight, and can read print just fine, if it's enlarged. Depending on how much vision they have, they may choose to use software like ZoomText on Windows, or the magnification software built-in to OS X and Linux, to help them magnify the screen. They may also enable whatever high-contrast settings the OS they're using provides.

People who are completely without vision, however, use screen-reading software. Many people with some vision also choose to use screen-readers instead of magnification as well, in order to prevent eye strain, to work faster, or for many other reasons. This software reads out the contents of the screen using synthetic speech. On Windows, this software may be NVDA, a free and open-source screen-reader for the Windows platform. On mac, a screen reader is built-in to every OS X computer, all the user needs to do is press command f5 to turn it on. Screen-readers like Orca are available on Linux, as well.

A short demonstration of a blind person on Reddit is available on youtube.

If you want more details, please feel free to post a comment! If you have other questions, please feel free to continue to post them! However, we're going to begin removing any post that asks the questions "How do blind people use Reddit?" or "How do blind people use computers?" to prevent duplication, and make life easier for our regular users. If you posted this question and it was removed, thanks so much for being understanding! You're still welcome here, and we hope you'll still feel free to post other questions. We're not trying to exclude anyone. We'd just like to make this the official "how do blind people use computers?" megathread. That way any extra details our users provide you will all be in one place, and we won't have multiple threads asking the same thing on our front page.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to /r/blind!

I’m sorry if this is the wrong place to post, but I just went through something really harrowing and I don’t know where else to put it. I need advice, or at least to talk it through with people who might understand.

This is about the Be My Eyes app.

I’ve been a volunteer on the app for well over a year, but today was the first time I ever received a call. I was honestly excited to finally help someone.

The call started out very simple. The caller had an item in front of them and needed help identifying it. I described what I could see and guided them through a few options. Everything seemed normal at first.

Then I noticed their hands were shaking more and more. The camera movement became erratic. Their voice started to weaken. They apologized and said they had a medical condition. I reassured them that it was okay and that we could take our time.

Then they asked if I could help them find their medication.

At this point the shaking was getting worse. They were struggling to move the camera at all. Their voice became quieter, thinner. I kept calmly talking, trying to help them locate the medication visually, but it was getting harder and harder to understand them.

I finally saw the medication, but by then, the phone started slipping from their hands.

And then I heard them say, very faintly:

“I get seizures. I think I’m having a seizure.”

I cannot fully describe the fear that hit me in that moment.

I kept asking if they were okay. I asked if they wanted me to call for help. I asked if anyone else was with them. All I could make out was a weak “no…” between broken words.

I was frantically checking the screen and the app, terrified of hanging up by accident, desperately looking for some kind of emergency button or alert feature. I couldn’t find anything. No way to call for help.

All I could do was stay on the call.

I watched the phone fall to the ground. I watched them shaking violently. I didn’t know where they were. I didn’t know who they were. I didn’t know if I was witnessing someone die.

I have never felt so helpless in my life.

After a few minutes, the caller finally came to. They were disoriented but conscious. They kept apologizing. They managed to take their medication. They said they were okay.

They asked me to stay on the call a little longer. They asked how long the seizure lasted. We talked quietly for a bit until they seemed stable again. Eventually, we ended the call.

Needless to say, this was a terrifying first experience.

I know that many visually impaired users may be elderly, and may have other medical conditions. That reality hit me very hard today. I can’t stop wondering what I should have done if things had gone worse.

Is there any kind of emergency protocol or alert feature on Be My Eyes that I don’t know about?

Has anyone else experienced something like this as a volunteer?

What would you have done in that situation?

I’m still shaken, and I just needed to ask.

Y’all… I still can’t believe I’m typing this.

I just won my first Grammy.

It was for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for Super Mario Praise Break, arranged by Bryan Carter, Charlie Rosen, and me with The 8-Bit Big Band.

I’m incredibly grateful, humbled, and honestly still processing it. Thank you to those who support!

[shaking a magic 8-ball]

me: will my vision ever get better?

coconut:

Thank you for your support. Thank you to the r/Blind community and to all of the Redditors who joined us during this protest and made your voices heard.

r/Blind remains committed to guaranteeing equal access on Reddit. At the same time, we remain committed to supporting the community on the platform.

The moderation team will continue its efforts to accomplish these goals, via public and private communication with Reddit and its admins. We expect the issues we have raised to be addressed and our questions answered.

To that end, the subreddit will be able to remain active in its current form. Until then, there will be a sticky comment on each post reminding Reddit of our concerns.

r/Blind is its people. r/Blind is here for its people.

reddit is killing 3rd-party Apps and API Access

What that means for you:

• Apollo

• Boost

• Reddit is Fun

• Sync

• Relay

• Infinity Reader

• Narwhal for Reddit

Do you recognize a logo here?

That app is about to be shut down.

Do you or a fellow redditor have vision problems?

The official app doesn't focus on accessibility

Visually impaired users depend on 3rd-party apps & captioners to use Reddit, at all.

HOPE YOU LIKE SPAM!

Because you're gonna see a lot more of it

The mods on your favorite sub use bots to fight spam, caption images, and run their community. Despite promises, the current plan looks to kill many bots, especially those that are used the most!

Did you know?

Moderating a typical sub takes hours of volunteer work a day even using 3rd-party bots; Without them, it will be impossible.

And if you don't like spam, don't worry loads of porn-bots, scammers & creeps LOVE IT!

If mods can't detect mature content in 3rd-party apps & tools, it'll be easier than ever for them to sneak into your favorite community.

Reddit's walled-garden approach means bad actors can hide any content they want from mods, simply by posting it in a mature space.

Let's not mince words: this will make it easier for scammers & child sexual abuse rings to hide their activity on Reddit.

TL;DR: What's actually changing?

Reddit is changing the terms of their API, which lets apps and bots read and interact with reddit.

Reddit is enforcing limits on how often apps can talk to reddit. They are charging a predatory amount for apps that go over the limit.

Rough math puts them at 10-20x the cost of similar services (eg. Imgur). Developers only have 30 days to pay up or shut down.

They are also removing NSFW content from the API. That seems nice, but it makes it much easier for scammers and creeps to hide their activities from SW community mods.

In protest, a collective of subreddits are staging a shutdown starting June 12 and continuing until more reasonable terms are offered.

How can I help?

Contact the admins. Stop browsing.

Don't download the "official" app.

Get on Twitter. Get on r/Save3rdPartyApps/.

Be loud. Reach out to the press. Make noise.

Seems like so many posts on here are people trying to get advice for ill conceived college projects or more useless products we don't need. They don't ever seem to come to us with our needs actually in mind, just wanting an easy a on their engineering project. We don't need a coffee mug thats easier to pick up. We don't need another vibrating sonar gismo thats gonna cost 500 dollars and work for 2 weeks and never get replaced when the company goes under. We don't need another shitty mobility aid called the bat or the dolphin' or any of that. We all know those animals use sonar and we don't care. If the only thing you know about blind people is that you saw the Ray Charles movie when you were a kid and you feel vaguely inspired or whatever, maybe you should either do a bit more research or leave us alone. I know this is just one guy's opinion, so, thoughts? How do the rest of you guys feel about this?

My mom is convinced that my vision will come back and it’s pissing me off. It’s been weeks since the last surgery and I still can’t see shit. It’s 2:30am and I’m wide fucking awake again, I feel like I haven’t slept for a year. My mom won’t tell me what the surgeon says, she just says I have to have fucking faith. I don’t know how to use the fucking cane. I smashed into a pole, yelled, immediately screamed sorry, and then just stood there like a dumbass. There was a big fucking chunk of something on my sprite and I quickly spit it out and screamed for my sister. She said it was a bee. I hate fucking JAWS. I hate fucking doorknobs. I hate the fucking door foot hook things at the clinic to open the door. I was stuck in the bathroom for I don’t even know how long because I couldn’t find the fucking handle. Apparently there’s only a hook for your foot. I don’t think my vision is coming back. This is all bullshit.

I don't know if this is a rant or a vent or a scream for acknowledgement in a cold Universe, but here it goes.

I mowed the lawn this morning. I probably missed a lot of spots I just couldn't see. The shady areas under the trees were too dark for me to see what I was doing.

The part of Texas where I live is in a drought so I haven't had to mow much this year. I haven't mowed the lawn in about a month until today. It's astonishing how much vision I've lost in a month.

There are places I only go once a year or so, and I could tell they were darker than the last time I visited, but it took a whole year to notice. I didn't notice day to day changes so everything was okay.

Then I started noticing the places I visit every month were darker, too. But I still didn't notice day to day changes so it's still all good.

Then the grocery store I shop at every weekend got a little darker each time I visited. That was troubling but I still didn't notice day to day changes so nothing felt too urgent.

Finally my eyesight got to the point that the kitchen and bedroom look darker every day than the day before. The loss of my eyesight is accelerating, and the rate of acceleration seems to be increasing. But I've still got a good life so I told myself everything's okay.

But trying to find the patches of grass I'd missed with the lawn mower today kind of broke something inside of me. How the hell did I lose so much eyesight in 30 days? Even though I notice it getting worse every single day now, how could just 30 days of gradual loss make a hole that freakin' deep?

I usually don't like mowing the grass much. It's sweaty and humid outside and we've got way more yard than we need. But I enjoyed mowing it today. I realized it's the end of summer and probably won't need it again until next spring, and by next spring I won't be doing it anymore. It kind of felt like the last day at a job, or maybe the last day of school, with nostalgia and wistfulness and a sense of pride for a job well done. I can't even remember the last time I drove a car because I had no idea it would be the last time I'd be able to drive a car. I wish I could have felt the same sense of nostalgia and wistfulness and pride for driving, but that ship has sailed. It feels like an opportunity lost.

To my little black Murray lawnmower with the Briggs and Stratton engine, thank you. Thanks for starting on the first pull today. Thanks for getting through the entire front lawn on one tank of gas. Thanks for years of service. Thanks for the exercise you gave me. Thanks for keeping the HOA Karens out of my life. Sorry I ran you into the pole.

Most of all, thanks for keeping me company today. This is goodbye, buddy. You've been a good little mower. We did good together. We made a good team.

So I was standing in line at a sandwich shop with a friend and my dog started sniffing the person in front of us. I apologize and correct my dog. The person goes “why was she doing that…?” I’m like, “the sniffing? She uh, she’s a dog. Dogs like to sniff.” The girl acted like I had said a divine truth and went, “so you’re blind blind?” And I’m like “pretty much.” The girl acted is now doubly shocked and says “woah… how did it happen?” Now, I’m confused why this girl is acting this way and says “oh well it’s nothing interesting, just genetic.” She’s like “woah, that’s crazy. Can I get it?” And I’m like “not unless you’re born with it. It’s like a one in a million chance.” And she’s like “oh my god, so YOURE one in a million, blind person!” I’m now so confused and mouth a “what the hell?” To my friend who squeezes my arm and it hits me. This girl is high off her ass. My friend told me later that I should’ve told the girl that my dog actually detects drugs and that she can tell the girl smoked weed. Would’ve been hilarious. Anyways I don’t usually entertain questions but I was too tired to care. It brings back memories of how drunk and high people treat me and they’re so hilarious. Had a very obviously drunk guy try to help me across the street and I was like “uh no I’m fine, do YOU need help?” And he’s like “yeah man I’m totally f*cked. I’m like legit like you right now. This is so humbling.” And I’m like “well fellow blind person, grab my arm.” I lead him across the street and he’s like “THIS IS SO WILD. I HAVE LIKE, MAD RESPECT FOR YOU AND YOUR PUPPY.” So I help him back to his dorm since I was going past it and go on my way. I sometimes wonder how my dog reacts visually to this. I hope she’s giving me a “what are these people doing?” Face.

Anywho, thought I’d share. Any fun interactions from you guys haha? I try to have fun with it usually because that’s just the type of person I am. But I get how it could be distressing to others. I’ve always been able to turn them into amusing interactions.

I wanted to share this because I do not get very many wins anymore and this is very exciting for me. I graduated college yesterday!! I was the very first one to cross the stage, both me and my guy Dog, in the entire auditorium went crazy for me. This is an amazing achievement for me because I went blind when I was 15 and by the time I was 16 they told me I would never graduate high school. When I was 18 I was advised that I shouldn't look for colleges because it would be better off if I went to a rehabilitation center instead. I went to college, and throwout my entire time there my Rehab counselor and the Accessibility office were telling me to drop out for one reason or another, basically anytime anything got difficult. Despite all this, I graduated at the top of my class with 3 degrees and I did what even my family has told me on multiple occasions I would never be able to do. I am very proud of myself, and I am also very proud of my guide Dog who did fantastic on the stage yesterday. He was the showstopper for sure

Hey this is a bit of a rant but I figured I’d post it in case anyone has had a similar experience

I’ve been dating a blind girl for 4 months at this point and I’m sick of how people talk about her. Whenever I would talk about her for the first time to my friends they find her really cool and awesome until her blindness comes up, and they always say a variation of the same response.

It’s always some bullshit like “really went for the low hanging fruit” or some other comment diminishing her and making it sound like the only reason I’m with her is that she’s supposedly an “easy girl to get”. It’s like the second they know she’s blind she becomes worthless.

She’s so perfect and cool and I love her so much and it’s just never mattered to our relationship that she can’t see me and I hate people diminishing her because of a fucking injury like wtf. Who thinks that’s okay to say to someone? I’ve gotten this response from some people that I really respected and looked up to and it just hurts having those people tell me my girlfriend isn’t “worth” as much as someone who was able bodied. She’s so much more than her blindness, she’s such a cool person who does so much cool stuff and is so nice and loving but all people see is her cane. I just want people to see all of her, not just her disability.

I can’t even begin to imagine her day to day having to deal with the same kind of people. I just feel betrayed by everyone that reacted to her like that.