I get that at the liquor store too, doesn't help that I look much younger than I am. Always get really concerned looks from people. Sometimes if they ask anything I'll say "it's not for me" just to put their minds at ease.

I don't get people like that at all. As I've said to my husband, "shit, if anyone wants to fight me, they're gonna lose either way. Either they beat up a blind lady or they got their ass kicked by one."

Topically, my oldest son, back in April when I started going blind, got angry because I unplugged his computer for going 4 days without doing his chores. He's 16 and hormonal and he actually laid hands on me, but he made the mistake of taking me to he floor. I wrestled for 4 years in HS and had 1 year of ring training. Instinct and muscle memory kicked in and I had him flat on his back in a hold, tagged his ribs when he hit me, effectively knocking the wind out of him. His cousin and youngest brother witnessed the whole thing and started beating the shit out of him when I rolled out and away, and I had to call them off because "hey, HEY! THE FIGHT IS OVER! CUT IT OUT! HE'S DOWN!" He apologized for weeks after that, and his brothers and his cousins won't let him live down the fact that he got his ass kicked by a blind woman.

And before anyone asks, yes, we had a talk about his anger and I got him in to talk to a therapist, since that anger stems from the grief of burying 13 people in 6 months, including his Papa (my father). He was very close to his Papa, and we'd only just buried his 6 year old cousin 2 weeks before my daddy passed.

He's doing a lot better now and he's getting better at just talking to me if he's going through something.

I waited 7 years between my first and second dogs but eventually I wanted another one. I always warn people who want them that if they don’t like strangers, don’t get a dog. I caved and got a “don’t pet the dog” sign and it has helped (I think it says: Guide dog. Please don’t pet, make eye contact, talk to” or something like that). People still pet her while reading the sign but they’ve at least stopped doing it while we were walking.

Tbf both my voc rehab and the guide dog place I was looking into have point blank said guide dogs can be petted in public by strangers with permission from the owner and it not undo the training. Abet places like a busy crosswalk is not exactly the place or time for it.

I tend to teach people this, as the quickest way to tell a trained guide dog from a fake is if they get distracted easily when they are being pet, or if they appear aggressive/scared/reactive by another person petting them. While some service dogs can be distracted by being pet, most handlers in a proper situation (again, not busy crosswalk) will be able to redirect the guide dog to put focus back onto them.

It's kinda like how you can tell if a guide dog is real or not by the location they sit when getting in a taxi/uber. Guide dogs are taught to sit on the floor and never the seat of the car.

Edit: I don't tell them the quickest way to determine a real from a fake is how it reacts when being pet. To me that's insider knowledge. I just tell them that they can ask for permission to pet a guide dog, it won't undo the guide dogs training. And the reason I don't tell them this insider knowledge is because we don't need able bodied untrained individuals determining what level is too distracted for a guide dog.

I mean, to be fair before I went blind it never even crossed my mind about how people with visual impairments could even use technology. So it’s probably just something people don’t think about rather than being stupid. I agree though it is the 21st century so there is definitely going to be ways that we can use technology lol

Yeah it is. The cast members are usually great but the guests are something else.

I've only ever been to Disney World and didnt find people to be too rude or anything. Does Disney Land have a different kind of crowd?