Enter at Your Own Risk

This article by Monty Anderson appears in the Fall - Winter 2003 issue of the Student Slate, a newsletter produced and distributed by blind students through the National Association of Blind Students:

"How ya doing bud?" he asked as he walked by, patting me on the arm. From the deep resonance of his voice, he appeared to be a big guy.


"All right," I replied and waited for his instructions.


I was sitting in a group of seven people waiting to enter the haunted house at the Waikiki Shell. My friend Tasha and I had been talking about it for days. We hadn't been to a haunted house since we were kids, and on the drive over, we were laughing and shivering like high school kids.


The man started telling the group what to expect. There would be a lot of large stairs and a lot of low places where we would have to duck. He pointed the flashlight at me, the light bouncing off my cane, and said, "Especially you." I smiled and nodded. For one thing, I'm six foot eight, so I'm used to ducking through doorways and dodging ceiling fans. For another, I'm blind. I still have some sight at the periphery of my vision, but I carry a cane and borrow an occasional shoulder when walking through unfamiliar territory...