Video Included:
In preparation for the arrival of VISIONS 2012 attendees, we did what we usually do the day prior – provided hotel staff, everyone from housekeepers to food servers to managers, with blind-sensitivity training.

One of the sessions ended with a Hyatt Regency Minneapolis employee acknowledging, after she’d taken off a mask simulating visual impairment, that she’d indeed gotten a taste of being blind. But only a taste – because she knew, after five to 10 minutes, she’d be able to take the mask off.

One of FFB’s many specialties is educating those with little to no exposure to retinal diseases about their effects. Hence the hotel staffer’s reaction, which followed on the heels of a 20-minute exercise in which pairs of employees – one with a mask, one without – played the roles of an affected person and a guide.

What follows are photos and videos of the pairs navigating hallways, stairs, ramps, elevators, escalators and lobbies. Several also role-played through a typical dining scenario, enabling hotel staff to shake off those hesitant initial moves and, thus, feel more comfortable and confident.

Colleagues of mine did a great job of running the training sessions, and the Hyatt staff asked intelligent questions, showing a genuine concern for getting things right.

They now know, for example, that you don’t need to provide detailed instructions to everyone with a visual impairment. Ask, first, what they need; then go from there. And, if someone has a guide dog, no matter how cute, no petting; that dog is working.

- Rich Shea