After a woman accused a guy of gazing at her while she was working out, gym employees asked him to leave the premises.
However, it turns out the man in question was blind, and now he’s opened up about the whole ordeal.
Toby Addison, a football player, was born being able to see. However, starting at age 11, he began to noticeably lose his vision. By the time he was in his early teens, he had lost 80%, making everyday activities extremely difficult.
The 21-year-old is currently only left with around 4% of his vision, which has put him in some unpleasant circumstances.
When Toby was 17 years old, he went to a gym for the first time. However, mid way through his session, an enraged woman approached him and said that he was gazing at her.
Toby tried to explain that he was blind, but she labelled him a creep and revealed she didn’t believe him, after this she ordered the staff to remove him from the premises.
Speaking to the Happy Hour Podcast, the Addison explained: “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”.
Toby continued by saying that it has become popular to try to catch gym snoops in the process of observing and filming other gymgoers while they work out.
So, he speculates that the woman may have believed the cane was a prop used as part of his ploy approach women.
Toby left the site at the time because he didn’t feel comfortable sticking up for himself, and he never returned.
He concluded: “It was rough, it knocked my confidence a lot and made me feel like being blind is a problem, that it causes problems”.
Dozens of people were clearly shocked by Addison’s story, with many taking to the comment section of the video to share their thoughts.
One wrote: “We live in a world where we should all be inclusive, yet a blind man who clearly is trying to prove he’s visually impaired still gets accused of being a gym creep. Don’t blame him for not going back.”
While another said: “This is disgusting.. it would make me double down and not stand for clear discrimination.”
Since then, Toby has gained notoriety on TikTok and frequently updates his 255,000 followers on his life as a blind person.
