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“important today”
How the influencer Mr. BlindLife lives life to the full with two percent vision
“I see a maximum of two percent and that’s only in the left eye. The right eye is no longer measurable,” says Erdin Ciplak, alias Mr. BlindLife
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“Don’t always see our impairment” – that is the appeal of Mr. BlindLife, probably the best-known blind influencer in Germany. On the international day of people with disabilities, he talks about his work, too much willingness to help and why German cities are far from being barrier-free.
Mr. Blind Life is called Erdin Ciplak in real life and, with 600,000 followers on TikTok and YouTube, is a small star in the community of blind and visually impaired people. He doesn’t take himself and his limitations too seriously and also makes humorous videos. What sounds so fun, but requires a lot of work. Because Erdin shoots and cuts all his videos himself. He has tricks and tricks that help him get through life. But what particularly annoys him and can also become dangerous is when people park something on the “guidance strip” or block it. This guiding stripe is the corrugated white area at intersections, in the subway or underpasses, which Erdin can feel particularly well with the white cane. In about 20 percent of the cases he is dependent on help from other people and he has a tip that he would like to give to all sighted people in the 417th episode of the podcast “Today important”: “In principle, I always have my three golden rules: Observe, talk to, don’t touch. You can briefly see how this blind or poorly sighted person moves, because normally we have learned our way from A to B. But as an example: rail replacement services would also totally confuse me. And in such situations it’s easy approach: “Hey, do you need support? Can I help you? And then the person says yes or no. And it’s always important not to touch it, because it’s often like this, for example when I’m looking for a subway door, A person touches me without being asked, takes me and packs it in. I think to myself: ok, it would have been nicer to ask.”
Mister Blind Life fights for more equal opportunities
In an interview with “Today Important” editor Dimitri Blinski, Erdin Ciplak says: “I want to contribute to the issue of accessibility, I want to motivate people who are blind or have poor vision to believe in themselves, I want to change the job market, that there are more opportunities is that blind and visually impaired people have more chances to find work in the primary labor market. I just want to draw attention to problems.”
© TVNOW / Andreas Friese
Podcast “important today”
Sure, opinionated, on the 12: “today important” is not just a news podcast. We set topics and initiate debates – with attitude and sometimes uncomfortable. Host Michel Abdollahi and his team speak out for this star– and RTL reporters with the most exciting people from politics, society and entertainment. They let all voices have their say, both the quiet and the loud. Anyone who hears “important today” starts the day well informed and can have a well-founded say.
How barrier-free is Germany?
In new buildings in particular, greater attention is now being paid to the fact that guidance systems for the blind are installed. So there is z. B. on modern railings on the Berlin U-Bahn on the underside Braille – but there is a lack of uniformity, criticizes Erdin Ciplak in “Today important: “What I find cool in Berlin, for example, is that it is always said: Train direction so and so, get on, stay behind, that is, you know in which direction the train is going. In Hamburg you don’t necessarily have it with the underground, in Cologne or Nuremberg it’s different, that means it’s not uniform. What is more or less uniform are the guide strips or guide systems for the blind, but they are not available everywhere. Or the acoustic traffic lights, at some intersections it beeps when green, at some only the button below vibrates.”
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