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Hello everyone,
Here’s another post, I hope you enjoy!
Last week was Halloween, and in the UK it is really huge. The city centre was packed with people.
On Thursday, 30th of October, I ended up going to two events. The first was a singles Halloween gathering hosted by Thursday. Yes, it was hosted by Thursday, on Thursday. 😊
It was at Piano Works in Covent Garden. I took bus 172 from New Cross Gate to Aldwych Drury, and asked someone who got out at the same stop if they could help me find the location; it was only a 7-minute walk from the bus stop.
When I arrived, I went to the back of the line to enter and waited. Someone working there came up to me and asked if I was alone or with someone. After I told them I was alone, they told me to go on but be careful of the stairs.
After I scanned my ticket and tried to go in, the security started lightly panicking. My plan was just to ask the person behind me in the line to help me to the venue, but they didn’t agree with that plan. “There are stairs,” they told me in a very grave tone. They called their manager and asked me to wait for her so she could help me up the steps. I felt it was a bit much, but also didn’t feel like arguing, to be honest.
When she came down, she helped me get to the exact room where the event was taking place. On my way there I was told I had to be careful because there were stairs.
And when we got to the location and I was standing in front of the bar, I was told to be careful while walking around again. You can probably guess why: there were stairs.
I was told at least four times that there were stairs, as if I didn’t hear it the first time. And to hear them talk about it, you wouldn’t even need any other Halloween props — stairs are more than scary enough on their own.
Honestly, they were making a big fuss out of nothing. That’s what the cane is for; I would have encountered them naturally and easily while just walking. Do they think I go tumbling down any set of stairs if I am walking around on my own?
Also, if you realise stairs are a problem in terms of accessibility, why don’t you have an elevator?
Thankfully, after the initial start, things were fine. The nice thing about getting in with the manager is that I could leave my jacket at their office. That way it was much easier to find again later. They were also really nice, just a bit jumpy the first time.
And they also weren’t panicking aside from that first time. I’ve been to places in the Netherlands where they would fly into a panic anytime I tried going down stairs in their venue — mind you, multiple times in the same evening.
I get that their heart is in the right place. But it’s exhausting, really.
They had live music, which was really nice; the volume was just a bit too loud. Even with earphones in I could barely hear myself think, let alone listen to others speaking.
I didn’t have a costume for Halloween; I just went in regular clothes.
The first reason is that my room is quite small; I don’t have a lot of space to store extra things I buy. The second reason is that I would need to have a wing person who helps me pick something that would suit me.
But the things I just mentioned are mainly my own excuses. The main reason is that I am just too lazy to dress up. I am the kind of person that just grabs the first clothes I can find and puts that on. I have my clothes sorted in different piles — clothes for indoors, for outside, for exercise, etc. — and all my outdoor clothes are such that any combination would fit with each other. That way, I don’t have to care and can just wear the first thing that comes to hand.
And that’s not just because of my lack of sight either; it’s just my personality. A lot of people who are partially sighted or blind do care and enjoy dressing up. I only care to the extent that I know looks and first impressions matter to others and thus affect the way people view and react to me, so I make a minimum effort.
There were two people who actually thought I dressed up as a blind person, so I didn’t even need a costume, lol. I honestly wasn’t sure if I should find it funny or be offended.
I settled on finding it funny for one person and being offended with the second.
For the first person, it’s because she at least told me about it later in conversation, after at least having exchanged a few words. She mentioned that she thought it was my costume at first until we started talking. She was honest and aware enough to at least not blurt out the first thought that came to mind.
With the second person it was a lot less deep. I was just walking through the room when I heard: “Wow, is that guy really blind???!!!” It’s quite impressive that he managed to be so loud I could hear him over the music — apparently he was just that shocked to see a real-life blind person at a party.
It’s like he saw a Pokémon in real life or something — probably a Pokémon on the rarity level of an Articuno?
To just comment on this shortly: you can have a weird thought or assumption sometimes. It happens to all of us; it’s human nature. It’s also very hard, if not impossible, to control the thoughts that come into your head.
But the place where you do have control is what you decide to let leave your mouth. Please, just think before you speak. Is this something that you want to be said? If so, why yes or no? If you can answer that question, it’s fine.
Also, keep in mind that what you should or shouldn’t say depends on the person you have in front of you. Something can be funny if it is from a friend who knows you — because you know their personality and what they mean by it — but not so much from a random stranger.
I know alcohol plays a huge factor in this. But if you’re just going to become a huge pain to your surroundings when you drink, don’t drink. Or at least learn some control.
Back to the event — overall it was fun. The people were nice, the live music was also quite good. But to be honest, it got a lot more fun for me when I found the outside area, because it made it a lot easier to talk to people. Also, I could take some much-needed breaks in between the music to de-stress a bit.
I stayed there until about 11, and then decided to get a pizza nearby.
I walked with someone I met at the event to the location; it was about a 5-minute walk. We encountered another group that also left the event and decided to sit with them. The person who helped me get to the pizza place decided to go back as she still had her stuff there, and I enjoyed my pizza and some fun conversation with the group there.
I also had a ticket for another event after this. As it was night by then, I decided to take an Uber from the pizza place to the next location.
I know, it sounds like a lot — and it was. I thought I could manage. I have a tendency to overestimate myself and plan way too much.
I got there around 00:30. The music was nice enough, but my energy was just gone. I managed to stick it out another 90 minutes and then took an Uber home.
I also had class the next morning, at 9 a.m. I am really lucky I don’t drink…
The course I had on Friday was Ethnographic Film. It is one of the most fun courses I am following, while at the same time being one of the least accessible ones.
The teacher is really good at his job and also gives me live audio description during the film, which helps a lot. Well, after the first class anyway — that one didn’t go so great.
But all films I have watched so far were interesting. They were mostly about historical/social events and changes.
The fact that the movies are actually nice and informative makes it even more problematic that I have to get live audio description — think about it.
Since I am getting it described live to me, it means none of the films have audio description natively added. This also means that if you don’t have someone to describe it live to you, you’re basically f*cked.
What makes it even more sad to me is that most of the movies we watch are made by left-wing people who should simply know better than this. Equitable access should be something that is thought about as a matter of course if you really care about equity and accessibility, and all left-wing movements at least say they care, in theory.
It’s also simply part of making a good movie. Setting disability aside for a moment, everyone processes information differently when experiencing a movie. Some people process information in a visual way, while others prefer to use audio. It’s a huge spectrum, and most people fall somewhere in it. Your sense of touch and other senses are also really important, but they aren’t engaged so much — at least not with traditional movies watched from home on a screen. It can be different in some cinemas or live theatre plays though; it is nice to see people think and experiment.
Anyways, getting back on track. The best movies are those that you can follow with audio or visuals alone but are even better when consumed together. The audio and visuals are both main characters, sharing the stage together and building and improving on each other.
Unfortunately, most movies aren’t anywhere near that level. Most filmmakers are so visually focused that they treat sound as a side character at best, if you’re lucky. If it’s really bad, sound isn’t even a side character, but more like Random Character A that is just briefly used to showcase the greatness of the main character — the visuals.
That’s also why you need audio description so much in a lot of movies, and why I love anime so much. Anime is a lot better at keeping harmony between sound and visuals.
As for Ethnographic Film, let me explain the first class I had. This was about a month ago.
After the teacher explained some theory and a bit of history covered in that week’s readings, we watched a video essay.
The video had no sound at all. It lasted about 3 to 5 minutes, after which the teacher didn’t explain what it was but just encouraged people to share their thoughts. Apparently it was a collage of fragments from two different anthropologists — one observing from the outside and studying a culture, while the other was actually part of the culture and documenting it as they experienced it. People started talking about how nice it was, how you could see the difference, and how much better the second one was. I totally agree — you can never really document something properly from an outsider’s perspective. If a culture isn’t part of your lived experience, you tend to totally misrepresent it.
I could follow the discussion just fine, but on a theoretical level. I didn’t experience the essay at all. I raised my hand and told them as much. It sounds really nice, but to me it was mostly a quiet meditation session — just some me time, me, myself and I.
While that’s also nice to do sometimes, it wasn’t really the point of that essay.
Anyways, after that essay and some more theory, we got to watching the main movie of that class.
We watched The Night Watchmen / El Velador, directed by Natalia Almada.
The teacher had never had a student with a visual disability in Ethnographic Film before; this was the first time for him. So for that first film I had no audio description at all.
I can say from experience, this movie was one of those that treated sound like a side character — one of the less important ones, too.
And the little conversation there was was also in Spanish, so I couldn’t follow any of it. Well, there was very little conversation at all — mostly short radio or TV fragments.
The sound effects and music also didn’t really tell a story of their own either; they were just used to add to the visuals a bit.
After the movie, we watched a short interview with the person who made the movie. She basically talked about the greatness of visuals. She mentioned how words and conversations can be up to interpretation, and it can be difficult to get your meaning across, while visuals are just there. You see what you see, and that’s something everyone can agree on.
There are many assumptions there, and you can see those being reflected in the execution of the film as well.
First of all, this just assumes that everyone can see what’s going on. A lack of sight apparently doesn’t exist at all.
Second, sight is also very much up to interpretation and miscommunication — maybe a bit less than words, but visuals are very much not a given. What you see and what someone else sees can be different in significant ways; you don’t all register the same things. You simply also don’t all see the same things.
But the most important part to me here is that she just assumes everyone can see — and she isn’t alone in that. So many people assume everyone can either see or hear; it doesn’t even cross their mind that this might not always be the case.
There is just so little effort and so few considerations made for accessibility because of this lack of understanding.
And them being small films with no budget to hire a professional voice actor to do audio descriptions is not an argument either. Just record it yourself then, even with your phone. Really, anything is better than nothing. Be creative with it; people will really appreciate it. Access doesn’t have to be professional and perfect to start.
If you want to be even lazier about it, you can just write a script and have TTS read it. Or you can use AI to generate descriptions and just edit them to fit — there are tools for that.
I would even much rather have someone who made their art inaccessible on purpose, saying something like, “My art is only made to be visual, and if someone has a disability and they can’t enjoy it, that’s their problem,”
because at least the thought has crossed their mind — they are aware you might exist and have put some thought into it.
Oh, it isn’t the answer I want someone to come to, and I will most certainly judge, think that they are selfish and an asshole.
I would not even be interested in their art from that point onwards, and probably also actively encourage others not to either.
But at least they thought about it and are honest with their thoughts and intentions. At least you know where they stand.
Just put in at least a minimum amount of critical thinking — why is that so hard to ask? Just give me an answer, any answer. Show that you’ve thought about it in any way.
Unfortunately, the running theme in all movies we have watched so far is that filmmakers did not put in this minimum amount of effort and self-reflection.
That evening I also went out. It was the 31st of October, so Halloween night. The city was a lot busier than the previous evening.
I first went to Boxpark in Shoreditch.
It’s located right next to the Shoreditch High Street station, so that was really easy to get to.
It is basically a food hall, and they made it into a party venue. It’s a very cool concept — not only good food but also good music.
I found it to be very chill, as you could dance and enjoy the music but also just as easily sit down and chat with people. And there were many food options. 😊
After that I had tickets for another event in the city centre, near Tottenham Court Road. Someone helped me to the Shoreditch High Street station, from which I took public transport to Tottenham Court Road. From there it was about 11 minutes’ walking to get to my destination.
After I got to Tottenham Court Road, I first went to grab a coffee at the Sainsbury’s close to the station; I needed the energy.
After that, I tried to find someone who could help me find the Zoo Bar, the location I had tickets for.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t very easy this time. I tried asking people, but they just kept walking past me without even answering. A few people stopped but couldn’t help. I always start by asking, “Sorry, can I ask you something?” There was even this one guy who simply answered “no” and kept walking, lol.
Anyway, after standing there in the rain for about 5 to 10 minutes, I finally found someone who wasn’t in a hurry. They were on a company trip with a small group and walked me to my destination.
When I got there and got in the back of the line, I asked the person in front of me if they could let me know when it was my turn. They were part of a pub crawl group, and I joined them for a little bit while they stayed in this venue. After they left, I stayed about an hour more on my own, and then decided to call it quits. I found someone who could help me to the nearest station, which was Leicester Square.
And as if to compensate for the difficulties in getting there, I found people in the Underground who were also living in and heading to Loring Hall, the same student accommodation as me, so I could just walk with them basically until my room.
On Saturday I took it a bit easy. I did nothing during the day, just relaxed and recharged a bit. In the evening I did go out for a bit, but my social battery was running on empty, so I ended up just sitting for a while. I found it really hard to approach anyone as I was just tired, so I just talked with people who came to sit at the same table as me or were standing close by. I did approach a group at least once, simply as training for the future. I don’t want it to become a pattern and more difficult in my head than it needs to be.
From Sunday to Tuesday nothing much happened. I took Sunday to just relax. I only went to grab coffee with a friend at Wakey Wakey in New Cross and walked around a bit, but that’s it. On Monday I tried to start my day right, but it didn’t go so well. I went swimming and reserved a Too Good To Go at the Premier Inn nearby. The swimming went alright, but the Too Good To Go not so much.
It was about an 11-minute walk from the swimming pool, so I decided to just go walking.
The food was actually good; that’s not the problem. But they only had really bad paper containers that basically became wet and soggy even on the outside. There wasn’t even anything special in it — just eggs, beans, and such. Not only that, but they also didn’t close properly, so you had to be really careful. They also didn’t have any bags, so I had to just carry the containers as is. When I asked them if I could just bring my own containers next time, as this wouldn’t work for me, they told me that wasn’t allowed. At least they taped the box closed.
Thankfully, the lady who helped me to get to the Premier Inn could put them in her bag for a bit, and we went looking for a supermarket to get a bag. After that I took the bus home.
By that point though, I was just really tired — not only physically but also mentally — so I just took the rest of the day off for myself.
On Tuesday my eyes decided it was time to go on strike. I woke up and they were just painful and dry.
This happens to me sometimes, for no clear reason. I just have to use eye drops until it eventually goes away. I did go to uni, but concentrating through the feelings in my eyes was a bit hard. Other than some studying, I didn’t really do anything else.
On Wednesday my eyes were still painful, but I signed up to try out blind tennis for the first time and I didn’t want to skip it, so I decided to just go.
You basically have a tennis ball that makes sound and a racket. Also, the tennis courts are a lot smaller than in regular tennis.
It was actually really fun, but also really hard. I didn’t find tracking the sound to be that hard, but hitting the ball was the problem. I kept being a few cm off, until I improved my grip and posture a bit. I also had to learn some patience, haha.
I did really enjoy it and it would be nice to see if I can continue with it.
And that was week 7 — I hope you enjoyed the read!
Yours,
Ihab
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