A day as a disabled person

The following post is a reflection on spending the day as a disabled person. As a personal growth exercise, we as OT 3rd years were each given a disability to act as closely as possible. We were then required to spend the day at Pavilion Shopping Centre and carry out a list of activities as a person with a disability, to experience the difficulties and stigma people with disabilities experience daily.

The wonderful sound of laughter, the comforting tone of a friend, the warning sound of danger, and the beautiful sound of music; these are just a few things missing in the life of a deaf person. Above all else, communication is a daily struggle! If they are not fortunate enough to be educated in sign language, communication is limited to a few basic gestures, or writing to express one’s needs. In the day I spent trying to understand the struggles of a deaf person, one thing was overwhelmingly clear: life for the deaf is lonely!

My day started off fairly well. It was fairly easy to get around The Pavilion shopping centre as I could easily find my way around and access all the necessary areas. Trying on clothes, going to the toilet etc were fairly easy to accomplish. The real problems began when I needed to communicate. I had to use my fingers to point and gesture what I wanted to order at the restaurant. I also had to write down the enquiries I had at Standard bank and the Information counter, and had to watch carefully to be able to lip read their answers. Although I was able to accomplish what I had to, it became a fairly embarrassing task. People either looked at me with complete confusion, pity, or thought I was mocking or just trying to be funny. It was such that at times I preferred to just not ask, so as to avoid the looks and confusion.

 

My experience was made easier by the fact that I was with people who helped me and the fact that I was not really deaf. However, it taught me that it would take a lot of courage for a real deaf person, to go about alone and accomplish certain tasks while facing stigma from the people around you.  This could lead to them withdrawing from others and avoiding going out in public.

 

Apart from the stigma I experienced from others, I found it really frustrating being with my friends and not being able to easily communicate with them. Although they were very accommodating to my condition, it was really difficult to keep up with the conversation, and I ended up simply following them but not really part of them. It was not easy to keep communicating in gestures, or asking them to keep repeating slowly so I could lip read, and it was not feasible to keep stopping to write something down. This difficulty promoted anti-social behaviour which leads to my earlier deduction: life for the deaf is lonely! You cannot feel totally part of the group if you don’t know what they are saying. Other people in public also tended to look at me funny when I was wildly gesturing to my friends. Some even thought we were mocking and were angry with us. And let’s admit it; in our societies anything other than socially appropriate behaviour is frowned upon. No one takes the time out to think why someone is acting in a particular way. This is something we desperately need to change! Don’t judge others without knowing their circumstances.

 

One of the incidences that really stuck out was the simple task of not being able to answer my phone. I had to pass it to someone else to speak. However, this made me realize the importance of text messages and instant messages for deaf people. They can still communicate just as effectively using these wonderful inventions. A good experience for me was meeting the kind staff of Standard Bank. They were so willing to help all of us in whichever way they could, and meeting them gave me hope for the future of disabled people. This is mainly because after my eye-opening day, I have realized that all you want is a kind person that will help you without patronizing you or looking at you with pity. It is amazing how different people will treat you. They are either too nice or unpleasant and dismissive; either way you are treated far from ‘normal’.

 

For the last two hours of our trip I wanted to experience life as an amputee on crutches, and I am really glad I did. Although I did not do all the required tasks as an amputee, I certainly learnt many of their difficulties!

 

The first thing was the slow pace that I had to move at. It also took awhile to get used to the crutches, and when I tried to move faster with it, I felt like I was slipping more easily. Using the crutches also takes up a lot more energy. I had to keep stopping to rest and catch my breath. Unfortunately we could not use adult crutches so I had crutches that were too short for me. This made me realize the importance of the correct size assistive devices. The short crutches made it more difficult to control, and caused swellings on my forearms. I also had pain on my palms on the areas where I was holding the handles and applying pressure. All in all, it was a tiring and slightly painful experience which left me really appreciating the simple act of being able to walk. There were funny moments when my friend in crutches nearly fell badly, which made us all laugh hysterically, but made us realize that had it been a real disabled person, it would have not been funny at all! It was easier for us to laugh off our mistakes, but this made me recognize that such mistakes for disabled people would be highly awkward and embarrassing. Such incidences can make them afraid of ever going out in public again!

 

As opposed to a deaf person, being on crutches is a very visible disability, which attracted much more curious glances. Again people treated you very differently. They were either over helpful, or dismissive or, tried to act like they weren’t looking. Either way I felt very awkward and was glad that I was doing this in the company of friends. The staff at Sportsman’s Warehouse were also quite helpful to us. Although they didn’t have any equipment for disabled people on display, they informed us that we could order whatever we wanted from them, and could view their selection on their website. I also enjoyed playing on the dance machine just using my crutches. However, had I really been disabled, I don’t think I would have been that brave to do something like that so openly.

 

Although it was definitely a very enlightening and insightful experience, we could never truly know what life is like for a disabled person. Even though we pretended to have the disability, we knew that at any time we could walk normally if we grew tired, or we could speak properly if needed. I can only imagine the frustrations of a person who no matter how hard they tried, they could never walk normally or talk normally. It is something I pray I never have to experience, and I truly have the utmost respect for those disabled people that brave the cruel world to try and live a relatively normal life.