Blind Nebraska Woman Denied Postal Delivery

by Kevin Burton

   Dialogue magazine for the blind used to have a column called Abapita. Abapita is an acronym standing for “ain’t blindness a pain in the anatomy.”

   Sadly that magazine stopped publishing in 2019.  Also sadly, for the blind, the pain in the anatomy continues.

   I get all manner of news accounts about blind people through Google alerts. Not everything that is a news account is actual news, as sighted reporters and editors sometimes think things blind people do are remarkable, when they are not.

   Often the blind are portrayed as either superheroes or as “poor, poor, pitiful me,” neither of which is helpful to a proper understanding of what blind people face in their everyday lives.

   To paraphrase Dialogue, “ain’t uninformed portrayals of/reactions to the blind a pain in the anatomy?”

   With all that as preamble, I found a story this week on WOWT-TV, Omaha, that is problematic on more than one level. The story  comes from Yutan, a town of 1,300 residents  26 miles west of Omaha. The reporter is Mike McKnight:

   “In small-town Nebraska, a trip to the post office is almost a daily routine, and it’s a chance to meet others in the community. But one senior citizen in Yutan says it’s literally a pain.”

   “There’s no curbside home delivery on her side of town, so Verna Swanson says she has to walk more than six blocks a couple of times per week to drop off and pick up her mail at the Yutan Post Office.”

   “I wouldn’t do it either if it was 6-and-a-half blocks,” said fellow Yutan resident Jack Pawley. “I’d be fighting to get it delivered to the house, too.”

  Swanson claims her request to the postal service for driveway delivery has been denied.

   “I don’t know how blind I have to get or how crippled I have to be to qualify,” Swanson said.

   After one of several breaks, Swanson continues on a 13-block roundtrip walk to and from the post office. “I sold my car because I had a scare,” she said.

   “Two doctors have written letters to the area postmaster confirming Verna is visually impaired and that she had surgery on both knees. So, the physicians request that she has her mail delivered to her home.”

   Neighbor Lynne Hapke can drive Verna to and from the post office.

   “I love to help my neighbors, but I’m just not available all the time,” Hapke said. “I go out of town.”

   It is at this point in the story that we see Swanson walking, without a cane, in the street, sometimes in the middle of the street, on her trip to the post office.

   “Swanson believes the street is less hazardous for the walk after being diagnosed with legal blindness.”

  “You just never know where there’s going to be a crack in the sidewalk,” Swanson said. “I can hear if something is coming.”

   Then McKnight reports that “The widow living on her own carries the pride of independence to and from the post office, while being careful along the way.”

   It’s hard to know where to start in peeling this one apart.

   First, a cane is a navigational tool that helps blind people detect obstacles such as cracks in the sidewalk. It is also a clue to the sighted world that the person doesn’t see well. A blind person needs a cane for travel.

   Also, no you can not always hear a car coming. There can be multiple sounds at the same time, you can be distracted, and most importantly, electric cars which make so sound or next to no sound, are common.

   Drivers have to watch for many things. It’s not fair for them to have pedestrians walking in the middle of the street.

   A pedestrian mishap with a cracked sidewalk can be quite painful. A mishap with a motor vehicle can be fatal.

   Maybe worst of all is the television station calling this unsafe travel “the pride of independence,” with no qualifiers.

   “Next to her driveway, outside the back door is already a mailbox where Swanson hopes one day she’ll find a postal service waiver delivered, along with all her daily mail,” McKnight reports.

   “A spokesman for the postal service sent an email to 6 News saying Yutan has a non-city delivery post office, meaning rural delivery serves the community. However, Swanson’s address isn’t along a rural carrier route, so she doesn’t quality for a hardship delivery.”

   I fully expect the local post office to make an exception and deliver to Swanson. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens before I can get this story on the blog site. It’s the kind of thing that happens when television gets involved. I will be easier to added her to the route than to keep answering a bunch of questions.

   In the meantime, let’s get the word out that there are safe and unsafe ways to travel if you are blind or partially sighted, and that there are tools and resources to help.