Category: Let's talk
For the past week or so I have been trying in my own way to understand wehoat is like to rely on a set of wheels to get around, this all came about as the result of a dare from a friend, he should have known better, smile..I have been confined to a lightwieght chair during the hours of daylight and thar includes all trips outside, my legs are strapped up from the ankles to the thighs, and I'm only allowed a break when asleep and /or when the circulation is going.Would anyone here be brave enough to enter this world. Incidently my friend is trying to understand my world by wearing a blindfold for several hours which leaves him in total darkness, in the interests of him not experiencing blindness for real, he is allowed to remove the blindfold for 2-3 hours to minimise eye strain.
I wouldn't mind entering Harry Potter's world myself lol, but I suppose I'd like to put myself in the shoes of a person in a wheelchair. I was in one for a while when I had an operation on my hip when I was nine, but other than that, I'm just totally blind and rely on a white cane to get around at the moment.
Hmmm, i hate having to deal with the loss of the sight i have after surgery, i really don't think i could handle being confined like that, but good luck to you Alex, you're doing a cool thing.
Cheers both, I wouldn't mind charging around as a Nazgul in persuit of Aragorn, but we wont go there.
Hmm Galileo I understand what you mean but confined is really a misnomer as many people spend time out of the chair, getting in and out is much more of a problem and very tiring.
I once tried to find out what it was like being a deaf/blind person. I'm blind, so no problem there, but I wore a set of ear plugs that cut out all but the loudest noises. Well, to make a short story long, I almost got run over by a train. Thanks to an alert mobility instructor, I'm not flat today.
Aw'w'w my gawd! Don't fancy being deaf as well as blind, thanks all the same.
Feck! fair play to you Blbooby for trying..
I've thought of waring headphones to kind of see what it would be like to be deaf-blind, and have sat in my brother's wheelchair when he used to use one. For the wheelchair though, I didn't pretend I had a disability that required it, but it was interesting pushing myself around the house in it and being pushed. I'm not sure how I would deal with it if I had to use one most of the time, and I'm not saying that to say that a person in a wheelchair is extraordinary, that is honestly how I would feel about myself. Another thing I've tried is not talking when a friend of my parents dared my mom and I to do that, to see how long we could do that. That one was pretty hard because at that time, we were only able to communicate with gestures and sometimes objects, because that was all we could think of to use. . I couldn't understand the majority of my mom's gestures and that was disappointing for both of us. So mom broke the dare after a few days.
We could've lerned sign language for the mute thing, but I've tried learning it and don't pick up on it fast at all. Also, another thing that would be interesting is to know what it would be like to have autism. I always wonder what it must be like for people with that. To me, I would think the hardest thing would be getting parents and teachers to understand what the person is trying to communicate which I think the so-called behavior problems come from.
It is incredibly tiring and hard on the hands, apparently it can take 2-3 months to build up sufficient upper body strength, required to get around adequately, so you need to be fit.And your hands blister very quickly.Hmm I think Autism would be highly frustrating, and very frightening, you could well be right about the reasons for the extreme behaviour.
there is a man in the US who runs a program that basically turns the parents into children with learning difficulties. it's one of those reverse psychology things...like, they will learn if you shout loud enough...it's lots of fun and very good to watch. don't remember his name, but the video is called Fat City.
That's interesting. So it's like putting the parents in their children's shoes in a way? I think that's good that there's something like that, even though it wouldn't be realistic as the people in those simulation things know the experience is only temperary, but it still gives them a taste of what people with certain disabilities go thru in some points. My mom and one of my brothers has walked around with their eyes closed and in the dark so they could get some idea of what not seeing (or not seeing well) is like. My brother even walked around some with his eyes closed and using my cane at our school. Once was in the hall at high school, and the other time was outside and on our way to the car at college. It was pretty cool because our cousin was with us and kept trying to convince him to open his eyes, but he didn't want to so didn't do it. I think she feels like she would be scared of being blind. But I thought what my brother chose to do was really cool, even if it was only for several minutes because I don't hear of many people who would have decided on their own to do something like that. *smiles*