It sounds like a tricky situation, and I'm afraid I can't give a great answer, since I was not there. You and the bank telor saw the person in question, I did not. Reading between the lines of your question, it sounds like this blind person may have also been elderly, or had other things he was dealing with, which further complicates things. I will do my best to sum up what I think may have been done poorly, by multiple people; please remember I do not have a lot of info here, and this is just my opinion.

First of all, I find the customer service assistant's behavior confusing on several points. I'm not quite sure why they thought the blind person needed a chair if he was just trying to line up with everyone else; I'm constantly reminding sighted people that being blind does not effect your legs, we can stand in lines, on subways, etc. just like everyone else. Of course, perhaps there is something I am missing, such as the blind person being elderly etc.

Secondly, why did the customer service assistant have the blind man cut in line, which is my understanding of what happened. This seems especially odd after directing the man to sit down. I don't understand why the customer service assistant would think the blind man would need to sit down at all if he was going to have him jump to the front of the line; from the info I have, it sounds like the customer service assistant changed his mind after first thinking the blind man should sit while waiting for his turn. Again I'll point out that blind people should wait in line just like everyone else.

Finally, if the customer service assistant was making such a big deal about "helping" the blind person, I agree with you that they could have done a better job with directing the blind person to the front of the line. I think it is fine, and often preferable, to not swoop in on a blind person and assume they need lots of help. However, if your going to do that, as the customer service assistant did, it seems like your giving yourself the responsibility to aid the blind person in question and you should probably carry that job through, unless the blind person says otherwise. The blind man in question may have assumed that the customer service assistant was going to do this. He may have also been confused, due to the odd behavior of the customer service assistant.

Now it's time to go through what I think the blind person did wrong. I feel as though the blind person may have helped setup the entire confusing situation that you described; of course, I don't know what was going through his mind, or what he may have been saying or trying to due, and I'm not about to say that my way of doing things is the perfect correct method. If I walked into a bank I would assume that there would likely be a line I needed to find, in order to be served. I would walk towards any sounds that seemed like they could be employees serving customers and ask the first person I came to if there was a line for the window. I'm thinking this would have been about the point where the customer service assistant would have offered me a chair. I would have explained that I was just looking for the back of the line and that I did not need to sit down; it's impossible to say what would have followed at this point, perhaps the customer service assistant would have listened to me and showed me where the back of the line was, perhaps they would have wanted me to cut to the front of the line etc. The point is, I would have made it very clear what I needed, \(finding the back of the line\) so that the customer service assistant had no reason or excuse for being confused about how to help me. You did not mention if the blind person said anything during this entire situation, so I will just have to assume that they did not. If the blind person did not explain what they needed to the customer service assistant it's pretty understandable that they would be confused about how to help them. If they were confused it makes since that they might change their mind, chair vs. cut in line, and that they would think they were done helping when, in fact, the blind person still needed to find the front of the line. It may not have had an effect on what the customer service assistant did, but I think the blind person bares a big part of the blame for the whole situation; saying something like, "can you show me where the back of the line is please?" could have really clear things up.

Once the blind person has not explained what they need, and the customer service assistant has started doing a poor job of swooping in to the rescue, it made the entire thing a guessing game for everyone involved, including you. I do not think what you did was obviously wrong, in fact, it was probably appropriate for the situation. If the blind person was looking for the front of the line, I think the best thing you could have done was say something so he could hear what he was looking for. If audio clues/aid was not helping him find the front of the line, perhaps, even touching him was ok; maybe he had hearing issues. Of course, if the blind man in question said anything about what he needed/wanted then that would dictate what was appropriate. Once again, if he did not say anything he was leaving it up to others to make guesses and I don't think he could blame people if they guessed wrong.

One thing I will say about the blind man walking towards the piller. It is possible that he may have hit it, he does not sound like the most capable blind person. However, sighted people do often mistakenly believe that we are going to run into things because of the way long white canes work. If the man in question was using his cane correctly, it should have hit the pillar before him, there by informing him of its presence. In other words, the man may have been in no real danger of hitting anything, but it looked like he was. if he was a capable blind person, using his cane correctly, with nothing else going on with him, I think you should not have touched him to help with the pillar. Of course, this once again goes back to us having to guessed; ideally, I would say use words, not touching, to help the man, but I understand that it may have looked like he was about to hurt himself and that touching him would be the quickest way to help.

No two situations are exactly the same. Both blind and sighted people have to make assumptions some of the time. I am always trying to determine if a sighted person will be able/willing to offer me helpful and appropriate aid. I often am very selective about who I ask for help, and what kind of help I ask for. I understand that sighted people are also trying to make sumptions. I believe it is my job to be clear about what help I want, and to try and seem capable and independent so sighted people understand how to treat me. I believe it is sighted people's job to treat blind people with respect, and to ask instead of assuming, when possible.

I'm reluctant to grab the poles for a few reasons. Mostly hygiene and avoiding getting rusty nails or splinters in places where they shouldn't be. Most of the bus stops where I live are made on wooden posts and hydro poles.