in this video.
I have the privilege of, , talking with Amanda Jean and she is a author.
She's a blogger and she travels with challenges.
So we're going to talk about those things coming up right after this.
So Amanda, it's so nice of you to be willing to join us, , for our
conversation today .So you want to tell us a little bit about your background
and some of the challenges you face.
And as I mentioned, you're an author.
Publishing date's getting pretty close, I think.
And you also do blogs and you've written for newspapers.
So let's talk a little bit about your background.
Sure.
Thanks for having me on, , my name's Amanda Gene and I am visually impaired
from a, , eye condition called nystagmus.
It means that my eyes constantly moved back and forth.
There is no cure.
And, , and in addition to that, I also have, , mild cerebral palsy and dyslexia.
And I also have some mental health challenges as far as anxiety
and a little bit depression.
even though I have those challenges, I don't let it stop me.
I blog regularly.
And I have a YouTube channel and as Ken said, I had a book coming out very,
very soon all about the nystagmus.
And I took 10 questions.
I get from parents across the nystagmus network.
, I hear parents ask me all the time, 10 basic questions.
I said, you know what?
Instead of me.
Answering it over and over.
Let's write a book, put it all together and give it to these parents.
So that way they can help raise their kids to be amazingly strong
despite their visual impairments.
Well, that is some nice, you know, and that's one of the things that you
and I have in common is we both are very interested in it in terms of.
No, my channel's all about helping people see that there's amazing places to go.
You know, you're trying to help parents that have children with specific
issue and that answering a question is so important because again, you
said the 10 basic questions now.
Uh, those kinds of things.
So.
And around traveling or when you're, um, you know, even locally, I
would imagine that, that you, that your condition causes some impact.
So let's talk about that for just a minute.
If you don't mind.
Sure.
, because of my visual impairment, I can't drive, , I'll never be able
to drive, but that doesn't mean that, , I can't live a full life.
, I recently got married in October to the love of my life, Matthew,
and he is also visually impaired, but we don't let that stop us.
We have friends and family that can come and pick us up to take us
to the store or just to an outing.
And then, also we have other public transportation.
Specifically for our disability to help us get around.
There is a bus service that will come and the pick us up right outside our
door, which I also had that in Pensacola.
And, , there's taxis, there's Uber.
So there's, we have many, many options.
, I can certainly tell you.
Back when I was in Pensacola, one of our drawbacks was it wasn't very reliable.
It was late.
Sometimes they would forget to come pick me up.
So I always had a backup plan of either being able to call a cab or call a friend
or a family member to come pick me up.
luckily here in Maryland the services a lot better.
, certainly it depends on area to area.
So if you're visually impaired or struggling, to get around, because
be sure to check out your local resources, talk to other patrons
and see what they have to offer and always have a backup plan.
Yeah, we, , it's interesting because we dealt with some of those issues because my
mom had dementia and had mobility channel.
And, , before her dementia got so bad, she couldn't travel
by, , move around town by herself.
, she had to have somebody come and pick her up and take care of her.
And we found a local, public transport that would do that, , which through
the senior center and that they would pick them up, you know, and take
them wherever they needed to go.
So there are a lot of resources in the community.
So now.
You moved.
I'm not really sure why he moved from Pensacola to Maryland.
Cause I've been to both places.
And if I had to pick a Pensacola, it would be my choice.
But, , I, I was stationed for awhile, uh, for the audience and
for you, I was stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi, and right after Camille
that you couldn't go in the water around Biloxi, but, , you were safe
to go in and you'd go over to, to.
Pensacola.
And so we'd go over there and, , on the weekend and camp out, , that was
back before the last hurricane tore up the island, but you could get out
to Fort Pickens and I had a bunch of concrete revetments, and you could
find a nice, cool place to camp.
And so we had a good time there as a geo, , back to my ADHD
kicks in every once in a while.
, so you said you had some interesting experiences.
, traveling for your wedding.
So you want to share the challenges you faced?
Oh yeah.
, as I said, I got married October and.
Two weeks before my wedding to get settled and things.
And I of course, had to fly.
And the first flight, it was delayed because the pilots had to go and sleep
for a certain number of hours for safety.
And so that was delayed by an hour.
And then getting from my first flight to my connecting flight.
I almost missed it because the first plane.
, departed and I'm standing there waiting to get through this crowd
of people and they're just standing there, , I've got nowhere to go.
I'm not worried about it.
And I'm going, excuse me, I need to get through politely.
Of course.
And I got help.
I got help through the disability services, pushing me in a wheelchair
because I'm visually impaired.
And I got on that plane just in time.
I literally almost missed that plane by the time.
Of my blonde hair and the woman that was pushing me, she actually
had dropped her cell phone.
She was on the phone as she was pushing me through.
And she's , ma'am, I'm doing the best I can.
I'm like, can you please get me to my flight?
I can not miss this.
I'm getting married.
And she's like, I'm doing the best I can.
And she's hustling me running.
From one airport, one part of the airport to the other, she drops her
phone, has to run back, gets it and has to push me all the way through.
So luckily I got on there just in time, but the turbulence
for my second flight was awful.
I mean, it was bumpy.
Relaxed and calm because last March, I flew up here to see my husband.
Well, this was before we got married and, uh, that flight was wonderful
and everybody, it just was smooth from the time I checked in to the
time I got off, till the time Matt picked me up, it was just wonderful.
And also.
Not only did I almost miss my connecting flight, my flight decided to park early.
It got done.
Before the scheduled time.
So I call my friend, Matt and his buddy, Ken, who shout out to him.
He's the best chauffer on this side of Maryland.
And I'm like, Hey, , I'm here early.
, I don't see you guys as car and they're like, oh my gosh, just
stay there and we'll come get you.
So I'm sitting there waiting for them to pick me up.
I'm like, I'm excited.
I'm about raising my fiance.
Not that, not them, not them.
And when I saw him, I dropped my bags and I ran, I gave him
the biggest hug in the world.
Well, you know, and I'm glad everything worked out, you know, that you
made it to your wedding on time.
We can tell, we can swap interesting wedding stories cause I have one, but
it doesn't fit in our discussion today.
So you would said that there's a difference in, in the support that was
available in Pensacola and in, because you're right outside of Baltimore, right?
Yep.
Right outside of Baltimore.
, as far as I know the difference in Pensacola, they only had two services.
They had the regular, , community.
Called ECAT and then they also had the disability mobility
service and that service.
I love my people in Pensacola, but to be honest, that service was not good.
, there was one time I was late for work for by three and a half hours.
That doesn't look good when you're an employee and.
You know, that was really rough.
There was times when I was left.
, but here in Maryland, there's the regular bus.
I see.
There's call a ride service, which is part of mobility, but you can call
them and they're supposed to be here to pick you up within 40 minutes.
And as long as you are in a certain radius, they, you get 40 up to $40
for fair, to be covered for $3, which is nice to a voucher program.
And then of course, they also have the mobility bus service.
And, , Matt's been telling me about that and they generally.
On time, which is great.
There's only been a few times when, they've been late, Matt has said, so I'm
excited to eventually get signed up and to start using the service and to get to
go out in the community a little bit more.
Okay.
, other than the services that they provide, how, how would you rate
the area around Baltimore as far as accessibility for things to do?
Are there things there that you guys have been able to go and do.
Worked pretty well for people with vision impairment.
Oh yeah.
There's like a movie theater close by there's gross backs, witches,
grocery, um, you know, Walmart.
So there's things to do.
It's just about learning how to plan.
Okay.
Yeah, because I didn't know if you'd been into Baltimore until they like any
museums or any of those kinds of things.
I don't want to use the term sightseeing, but that.
Yeah, but, you know, I didn't know.
Cause, uh, it looks like from the research I've done that
Baltimore is fairly friendly.
You're not very far from DC.
There's a, you know, again in DC, he's got pretty good mobility access
from all the research I've done.
yeah.
My father-in-law said that once he gets better, he plans to take
me on a little tour of Baltimore.
So I'm excited for.
Yeah.
Um, I imagine.
All right, well, Amanda, thank you so much for coming on
today and sharing your story.
And, the one thing, let me go back to the airport for just a second.
, did you prearrange for, for, , help at the airport?
I did.
I, , when I bought my ticket, they asked if I needed accessibility
services or disability services.
And I said, yes.
And then a week before, or sorry, three days before my flight, I called and I
double-checked that they would be there.
To support me.
And then once I got to the airport, I just said, Hey, I signed up
for accessibility services.
Can you help me out?
So that was nice.
Okay.
So they, they did a pretty good job.
What airport did you fly through?
, I used the airport or the airline airport.
Okay.
I used, um, Pensacola international and then I used BWI here and I flew
through Delta and they were there.
Very good.
Okay.
Where did you change planes, Atlanta, Georgia.
, yeah, I was just, I was just curious to get, depending on the airline,
, Atlanta is one of those places that you can be a long ways between gates
and having somebody there, especially if you have some challenges and
that's one of the things I'd encourage everybody in the audience to think.
Is contact your airline, make sure that's in , your, , what's called a PNR, your
passenger name record at your reservation.
You want to make sure that they have a note in there that you need assistance.
, the other thing, and I don't know if you're aware of this, but there's
a program through the TSA as well.
That's called TSA cares and they'll help individuals get through
screening and through, , usually they'll take you to the gate.
They did my wife.
Anyway, again.
So both of those are things that you want to take advantage of.
If you travel with a challenge, you want to take advantages of the
programs you're paying for it in your taxes, you might as well take
advantage , of those opportunities.
, I I'll share one quick experience.
, that happened to us on our last, , flight we got back into during the quarter.
I guess it was, we were coming back from Miami into, uh, coming back into Raleigh
and we got into Raleigh and , the, we had asked for assistance pushing the wheel.
My wife travels with her own chair, but it still needs somebody to push it.
And I've got to typically have a backpack and an a I'm dragging a briefcase.
That's got up my phone or my laptop case.
And the person from the airport came down.
She had a wheelchair.
She saw my wife had a wheelchair.
She turned around and.
And I'm like, , the only thing that made that even salvageable
was the ramp wasn't too steep.
And I have a, a bar that fits between the handlebar.
So I can push her one hand in when I need to, just because some things
don't always work like they're supposed to, but, in general, those you get
pretty good at support with the using.
I don't know what the technical term for them is, but the airlines
call for them and they show up to help, uh, with mobility.
But again, all of those things depend on you starting, if you're working with a
travel agent, you start by making sure the travel agents aware you want to make sure
that the, , that the gate agents are aware and then hopefully everything works well.
Okay, well, again, thank you so much for being with me tonight and Amanda Jane,
and, , we'll say goodbye to the audience.
We'll see everybody next time.