Any situation can become a teaching opportunity. For the most part, putting folks under sleep shades only reinforces their fear of blindness. But how you handle the situation can turn it into a positive outcome.
Each year Port Townsend puts on a Disability Awareness Day. City and county officials, as well as influential community leaders are put under sleep shades or in wheel chairs.
They are escorted by actual disabled people, touring the town's streets, parking lots, public buildings and retail businesses. The goal is to demonstrate the architectural barriers that prevent disabled citizens and visitors access to the town.
If we merely took these folks out and then let it go at that, they would be either frightened out of their wits or very frustrated.
The actual "learning" takes place in the meeting at the end of the demonstration. We stress that we are not attempting to demonstrate how frightening blindness is, nor how frustrating living in a wheel chair can be. The goal is to demonstrate first hand how difficult our town has made it for some disabled people to availed themselves of services that most of us take for granted. For the most part they get the message. We've had some positive outcomes as a result. Curbs have now been painted yellow to assist low vision folks to find them. Sidewalks are being built along roads formerly too dangerous to walk beside. Stores are clearing out aisles and putting in wheel chair ramps. It's not a perfect town, yet, but it's well on its way.
Has it changed anyone's beliefs about blindness? Of course not. But it makes them more sensitive to the fact that our town is not serving all of its citizens.
Curious Carl
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