Blind man says he was kicked out of gym for 'staring' at woman

WASHINGTON (TND) — A man who is blind said he was kicked out of a gym for "staring" at a woman while she was working out.

Toby Addison, who is 21 years old and lives in the United Kingdom, told the "Happy Hour Podcast" it all went down when he was 17.

"I was like, 'Oh, no sorry. I'm blind,'" he said during an interview. "I had my cane with me. It was folded up in my lap but she wasn't having any of it."

Addison also shared information about the ordeal on his TikTok account, "@blindtobes."

I was removed from the gym for staring at a woman while she did her exercises," he says in a video post. "I was making her uncomfortable. Both her and the gym workers saw my cane, but, again, I was removed."

In the video, he lists multiple other incidents in which he was discriminated against for being blind and what he described as "poor staff training."

Addison said he was told to leave a pub for "looking too drunk" after he tripped on the stairs. He said he had one drink and tripped because "I couldn't see it."

He added that he was nearly denied entry to another bar because he was holding on to his friend's arm and employees "presumed he was too intoxicated when actually, they were just guiding me. These guys did eventually realize I was actually blind and were pretty embarrassed."

Addison also said a substitute teacher once kicked him out of class because he asked if his work could be put on his laptop, rather than on a piece of paper. He said the teacher thought he was making fun of people who have disabilities.

"I think it did land him in a bit of hot water," Addison says in the video.

He said he was "forcefully grabbed" in a coffee shop by his T-shirt and dragged to a table because someone didn't know how to guide blind people. He said the experience severely embarrassed him.

Unfortunately as a blind person these things can happen quite often," he says in the footage.

Addison later shared a follow-up video, listing examples in which "people went above and beyond" to help him. He said a hotel manager visited his room and walked him to a cafe for breakfast. He also said a nurse walked him to a busy area in rush-hour traffic after working a 10-hour shift, as well as a museum tour guide, who took him on a personal tour and let him touch various artifacts and described everything "in amazing detail."

Last, but not least, he thanked waitstaff at restaurants for cutting up his food, as well as employees at his current gym for making his life easier.

"Most people in this world have amazing hearts," he says.