A man has revealed he was accused of staring at a woman who was working out at the gym, and despite explaining he is blind, was asked to leave by gym staff.
Footballer and content creator Toby Addison, who uses his social media account @blindtobes to educate and shed light on his life as a blind man, was born visually impaired, but due to a genetic condition he fully went blind at the age of 16.
Toby, who also studies psychology and counselling, has admitted that he "doesn't look stereotypically blind," which has led to him being in some difficult situations.
In one particularly awkward situation a few years ago, the 21-year-old explained he was at the gym "minding his own business" and could hear a woman saying: "Oh, do you like the view?"
At this point, Toby was wondering "what idiot is looking at this poor woman, making her feel uncomfortable" but he soon realised she was in fact speaking to him.
Recently there has been a trend on social media in which women film and shame men who stare or stalk them at the gym, in a bid to show how uncomfortable this makes them feel.
However, it turned out Toby, who has a tendency to "stare into the distance" when he is focusing, was unfortunately starting straight at the woman.
Speaking on the Happy Hour Podcast, the content creator from Chichester said: "I don't really know where I am looking a lot of the time unless I am talking to someone like I know that I’m talking to you so I am trying to look in your direction.
"So I was just staring straight ahead and unfortunately there was a woman doing some exercises. I don't know what she was doing, whether it was some squats or whatever, where you may be in a more vulnerable position maybe and don't want to be stared at.
"She came over to me, and I didn't know she was talking to me at first because I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just doing my thing.
"She said something along the lines of 'Why do you keep staring at me? Stop. Don't be so creepy'.
"I was like 'Oh no sorry, I'm blind'. I had my cane with me, it was folded up in my lap but she wasn't having any of it".
In a separate TikTok video about the incident, Toby explained that the woman told her to "shut up" and stormed off to get a gym worker, who asked him to leave.
Toby, who is aware of the culture of trying to catch out gym creeps in the act, suspects that the woman thought his cane was a prop as a disguise.
In his TikTok video, Toby added: "The gym should be a safe space where everyone feels comfortable, but I promise you, not every guy in the gym is a creep."
People pointed out that the woman was justified in approaching him if he was staring, but Toby added that while he agreed, she should have accepted his reasoning and apology.
He added: "It's so sad that some women feel uncomfortable or anxious when in the gym because of a small percentage of people who have acted inappropriately. It's also really sad that awareness around disabilities just isn't good enough at the minute, and when you mix the two together you make situations like I described way more likely to occur."
At the time Toby, who hadn't been to the gym in question before, wasn't confident in speaking up for himself, so he went and never came back.
Speaking on the podcast, he added: "It was rough, it knocked my confidence a lot and made me feel like being blind is a problem, that it causes problems."
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