Woman who is blind in the Quiet Coach - was I unreasonable? [Title edited by MN at request of OP]

[TheOpaqueAndJelliedTruth]

I was going to post this on the thread about small, unreasonable irritations, but I don't actually know if I was being unreasonable. I was in the quiet coach on a long-distance train, trying to sleep. They'd just done the 'and coach B is the quiet coach, please do not use mobile phones etc.' bit. I know sometimes they book you into a quiet coach automatically, but I'm pretty certain they don't on this train. FWIW.

A woman was using a phone that played messages to her, quite loudly. After a few minutes when it was clear she wasn't planning to stop anytime soon, I got up and said excuse me, this is the quiet coach, would you mind not using your phone? She totally ignored me, so I repeated myself, and I realized at this point that she was blind (hence, obviously, needing her phone to play her messages, which I hadn't cottoned on to).

The bloke sitting next to me said, as I sat down, that she was probably using her phone because she was blind - I got the impression he meant I'd been unfair to ask her to stop.

What do you reckon? On the one hand, obviously she has a disability. On the other hand, it's still rude to be disturbing a whole coach of people, many of whom were clearly trying to sleep. And I've no clue why she completely ignored me, as obviously she could hear.

Yabu.

You wouldn't understand my db's messages scrambled. The speech is set so fast, similar to fast reading speed I guess, that its just a jumble of words. It is rare that I can pick out a single word of it. Its like a recording really speeded up until its unrecognizable to the untrained ear.

No of course you weren't being unreasonable. The DDA requires that "reasonable accommodation" is made for varying abilities. But using a loud noisy phone in the Quiet Coach is not a necessary let alone reasonable accommodation. Using a phone or any audio speakery type thing without headphones is not something that is necessary for a person with visual impairment to use to be able to travel on a train.

But I wonder how long we'll have these havens of peace on long distance trains. The thieving robber barons of a train co., CrossCountry, have got rid of their Quiet Coaches, because, they say, people weren't observing the Quiet, and they were getting too many difficulties & arguments. Instead, they're asking everyone to be considerate.

Yes, that'll work, because they've been so considerate already

So they've let the yobs win.

But you were clearly not unreasonable. I can't believe the woman kept on with such a annoying thing. Blind or not, she was unreasonable & inconsiderate.