A blind gym goer has revealed a story of an awkward encounter when a woman accused him of staring at her. Identified to be Toby Addison, the 21-year-old began losing his vision when he was merely 11. Having gradually lost 80% of his eyesight during his early teens, Toby now retains a mere 4% of his visual capabilities. During a candid conversation on the Happy Hours Podcast, the young man bravely opened up about the uncomfortable incident he faced.
During his latest appearance on the Happy Hours Podcast, the youngster opened up about the uncomfortable story that he faced at a new gym.
Toby explained that he cannot estimate where he is looking unless someone is having a conversation with him. “Obviously, I don’t really know where I’m looking a lot of the time unless I’m talking to someone. If I’m talking to you I’m trying to look in your direction. I was in the gym. I was doing my exercises like a good gym lad. When I’m concentrating, my eyes especially, they’ll just fall wherever they want to," he said.
The blind man was staring ahead minding his own business when a woman approached him. Initially, Toby didn’t even realise the woman was talking to him. “I was just staring straight ahead and unfortunately, there was a woman doing some exercises, don’t know what she was doing, but it seemed she was doing squats or whatever, where you might be in a more vulnerable position and don’t want to be stared at. She came over to me and I didn’t know she was talking to me at first because I’m not doing anything wrong," he continued.
The woman began the confrontation, somewhere along the lines of, “Why did you keep staring at me, stop, don’t be so creepy." When Toby realised he was misunderstood he responded, “I’m sorry, I’m blind." Even after realising the man was blind the woman decided against believing him. “I had my cane with me, it was folded up on my lap but she wasn’t having any of it. There’s a culture around catching out gym creeps, we don’t want any creepy behaviour anywhere. I think maybe she just didn’t clock it or she was just angry or uncomfortable at the time. Didn’t believe me," he recalled.
Things escalated quickly and Toby was unfortunately asked to leave the gym premises. The man tried to explain, “I’m literally blind" but nothing worked in his favour. “They got me out of there. This young gym worker just said sorry can you leave we can’t have other people being uncomfortable," he said while concluding the story.
YouTube users were left appalled after learning the blind man’s story. A user said, “Absolutely mental they still asked him to leave after explaining he was blind. Some people man." Another added, “We live in a world where we should all be inclusive, yet a blind man who clearly is trying to prove he’s visually impaired still gets accused of being a gym creep." One more added, “Not a fan of suing people but this lad definitely should sue them for this."
Toby Addison is quite popular on social media, where he chronicles his daily life as a visually impaired man. With an Instagram following of 46.2 thousand users, he claims to be a Disability Advocate in the bio of his profile. The story of the awkward encounter was initially shared on his TikTok account.
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