2023-10-03 16:00:00
Yvonne Burkhardt is blind. While walking through Memmingen, she explains what color smells like toast to her and why she sometimes wears glasses.
Yvonne Burkhardt had never seen Memmingen before she moved here. “I actually didn’t know Memmingen at all. Only from the radio because there’s always a traffic jam here,” she says. She has now lived here for almost 23 years, but still hasn’t seen the city. Because Yvonne Burkhardt is blind. From birth. In fact, she can see shapes that are right in front of her face. But that’s not enough to be able to read normal text or drive a car. At a City walk she tells us how she perceives Memmingen.
Better market than supermarket
It starts at the market square. “I like shopping at the market,” says Yvonne Burkhardt, “because the sellers ask you what you want.” In the supermarket, on the other hand, she always has to ask someone to help her.
From the market square we head towards the pedestrian zone. “This line announces the guide strip,” explains Yvonne Burkhardt, pointing to a row of gray, grooved paving stones with her cane. We follow the guide strip in the middle of the pedestrian zone.
Yvonne Burkhardt swings her stick from left to right across the strip. “So I know there’s nothing in my path to trip over,” she explains. Sometimes it happens that people leave suitcases or strollers on the strip. Every now and then people get in their own way. “That’s not meant in a bad way, but those who can see often don’t look,” says Yvonne Burkhardt.
Technology makes life easier
With the help of this special device, Yvonne Burkhardt can read texts on the computer screen in Braille.
Image: Judith Schneider
At the age of 25, the Lower Franconian moved to the Allgäu, “for the job,” as she says. She works at the city administration in the telephone exchange. “A blind person had the job before me,” she says, “that’s why he was Workplace adapted for blind people.” For example, there is an additional device on the keyboard that displays text in Braille. Small pens move up and down and form the dot patterns of Braille, which Burkhardt can then feel.
“Technology makes life a lot easier for blind people,” she says. Her technical aids include glasses with a mini camera and a small speaker. She can read door signs and menus. “This makes me much more independent, because otherwise I would have to talk to someone and ask them,” explains Burkhardt. However, there is one disadvantage: “The glasses only recognize print.”
Her smartphone is also a big help, says the 47-year-old. “It’s a completely normal cell phone,” she explains, “but the screen is always black.” Voice input and special apps help blind people in everyday life. There are subtitles for listening to movies and apps that recognize colors.
When colors become smells
Speaking of colors, how can blind people actually perceive them? “I associate colors with smells,” says Yvonne Burkhardt. “To me, golden brown smells like fresh toast and ocher smells like wall paint.”
We reach the wine market. There Yvonne Burkhardt points to a push button at the bus stop. “At first I didn’t dare press it because I thought it might be an emergency call button,” she says. But then she found the word “Info” in Braille. When you press, what is on the scoreboard is read out.
When we arrive at Schrannenplatz, Yvonne Burkhardt says: “I have a hard time here.” The cars there drive slowly, but only stop when pedestrians who want to cross the street make eye contact. “I sometimes wait here forever,” says Yvonne Burkhardt. All in all, she gets along quite well in Memmingen. “At first it was difficult to get used to it. But my parents were often there and helped me a lot and I have one Mobility training made where someone showed me all the routes, bus stations and shopping opportunities.”
We come back to the market square. What do you say to a blind person as a farewell? Like “goodbye”? “Of course,” says Yvonne Burkhardt, “we blind people among us also say ‘we see each other’ and not ‘we smell each other’.”
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