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From: 34AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET (Bill Gorman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Don't listen behind you...
Message-ID: <16249@handicap.news>
Date: 19 Jun 91 18:49:15 GMT
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Reply-To: 34AEJ7D@CMUVM.BITNET (Bill Gorman)
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Fidonet: Silent Talk Conference

Index Number: 16249

Let me relate a little story from the dim, dark, dead and distant past.

I used to work in a retail establishment years ago. Frequently we would
be approached by someone claiming to be "deaf/mute" - that was the term they
used. They would hand us a little printed card or a book of matches with
that information and a pitch for money. We usually gave them money. However,
there was always a suspicion that we were being taken.

I came up with a way by which we caused several of these guys to
give themselves away as frauds. To understand how and why this worked,
you need to understand that, due to the nature of the business we all
dressed more or less in "costume" that made us look rather like the last
of the Clanton Gang, or maybe Hell's Angels.

We simply waited until one of these guys (seemed to be only males doing this)
came in, made his pitch, got his money and was on his way out.
At that point, I turned my back to the departing "deaf/mute" and addresses
my colleagues something like this:

"Jeez! Did you see the wad of bills that guy is carrying? Let's follow
him around the corner and roll him. We can sneak up on him easy. He's deaf,
so he'll never hear us coming."

Whereupon my partners in put-on would respond with something like:

"Yeah!"
"Right!"
"Man, we can drink for a week on the money he's carrying!"

OK, so far, so good. At this point the panhandlers who were either truly
hearing/speech impaired (or VERY good actors) would keep right on going
without so much as a twitch or hesitation. Just to make things more believable
we always started to stroll toward the exit with greatly exaggerated casual-
ness at this point.

The FAKES, however, would react quite differently. Usually they would
whirl around before I finished speaking, a look of guilty terror on their
face. At that point they realized they had given the game away and usually
departed not only our store but the town as well. One guy managed to keep
it together until he was out the door, then bolted and ran.

I do not think we even frightened a truly disABLED person. We merely
uncovered a summertime scam that some wandering con artists were
trying to put over on the "townies".

So what is my point?

Consider the impression that these fakes might leave behind
in the minds of people who very seldom encountered a hearing/speech impaired
individual. Does that justify the abuse handed out to HI persons by
some clods? NO! Absolutely not. But it may help us to understand it,
if we care to.

Sez me,

W. K. (Bill) Gorman

Fair Warning:  flame in private, roast in public.