My New Friend:

I met a blind man at Hyannisport. He wore dark glasses and had a white cane. He caught my attention because he kept walking into the fence surrounding the boardwalk area and bouncing off. Plus the cane was pretty cool. I called out in chat "you look like you're blind."

He paused his bumping against the fence and typed "that's because I am." He had an old style AO that didn't override the default typing animation so he looked like he was really typing.

"If you're blind, how can you see what I've typed?"

"I have a special viewer that converts text to speech, so I can hear you."

Ashamed at my insensitivity, I tried to be helpful. "If you walk along the fence to your left, you'll come to an entrance way." 

"There's a fence? My viewer isn't detecting it. Must be a bug. Could you lead me to the entrance?"

I jumped over the fence and stood by him. "Okay follow me." I headed for the entrance and he followed close behind. When we were on the boardwalk, I typed "If you can't see, how can you follow me?"

"My viewer has a follow function so that I can follow an avatar. Sometimes it freaks people out."

"I like your cane. It would be great for a Halloween costume, for someone who isn't blind."

"Would you like one?"

"Yes, that would be great."

"Here you go." 

"Thanks. Why do you come here?"

"I get lonely. Sometimes I just want to chat with someone."

"Me too."