How to Tell a Driver You are Blind, received 2025 09 14

[Colin Howard]

by Austin Seraphin

Greetings,

Yes, but not only drivers, loads of times we have much the same problem with
shop assistants for one group and probably many others too.

Maybe you could add to this table, it's certainly not complete!

Ridesharing companies like Lyft and Uber have a problem. Many times, a blind
passenger needs to tell their driver that they cannot see, but the driver
does not understand due to the language barrier. At best it will work out.
At worst it can present a physical safety issue. The blind have no other way
to communicate.

Recently, I had an idea. I asked ChatGPT 4:

I am blind. Often when I get a Lyft I get an immigrant who cannot speak
English well, and does not understand the situation. I would like you to
make a table of how to say "I am blind." in all of the languages commonly
used by drivers from other countries. The table should include the language,
the text, and an approximate pronunciation for American English speakers.

In less than a minute it had produced the following table. In another
fifteen seconds it rendered it into Markdown for my blog. Welcome to 2023

Language Translation Pronunciation
Spanish Soy ciego. Soy cee-ay-go
Mandarin Chinese ????? (Wo shě máng rén.) Wo shi mang ren
Hindi ??? ???? ???? (Main andha hoon.) Main and-ha hoon
Arabic ??? ????. (Ana a'ma.) Ana a'ma
French Je suis aveugle. Je swi aveugle
Russian ? ??????. (Ya slepoy.) Ya slep-oy
Portuguese Eu sou cego. Eh-o soo se-go
Bengali ??? ???? (Ami ondho) Ami on-dho
Punjabi ??? ???? ???? (Main andha haan.) Main and-ha haan
Japanese ??????? (Watashi wa momoku desu.) Wa-ta-shi wa mo-mo-ku des
German Ich bin blind. Ich bin blind
Vietnamese Tôi mů. Toy moo
Turkish Ben körüm. Ben kor-um
Polish Jestem niewidomy. Yes-tem niewi-domy
Dutch Ik ben blind. Ik ben blind
Greek ????? ??????. (Eimai tyflos.) Ee-mai ti-flos

I would like to see ridesharing companies do more to train their drivers to
better accommodate people with disabilities. Until then, I hope this table
will help. I just hope it doesn't end up like Monty Python's Dirty Hungarian
Phrasebook sketch!

http://localhost:4000/2023/06/16/how-to-tell-a-driver-you-are-blind/

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

If you need help using your assistive technology learn about my training
services by visiting

http://WWW.ScreenReaderTraining.com

JAWS Certified, 2022

NVDA Certified Expert

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http://www.DavidGoldfield.com

Colin Howard, Southern England.