While many of us know someone who has a disability, few of us actually have a disability ourselves. This can make it challenging to actually know what it feels like when someone with a disability to comes into our church for the first time.
This past week, I was able to participate in an event at a local elementary school called Experience the Awareness. Basically every child within that school had the opportunity to spend 5 minutes experiencing what it would be like to live with ten various disabilities. It was amazing. The children were blown away at the difficulty behind some of the stations.
I'm writing all of this on this blog to give you examples of just how easy it would be to set something up similar to this event in your own area. It just takes a little time to get things organized, a good trip to your local re-sale shop, and some imagination. Here are some suggested stations:
1. Muscular Dystrophy (MD): Muscular Dystrophy is a hereditary muscular disease that weakens the muscles that enable the body to move. To experience this disease you can put arm, waist, and ankle weights on a person and ask them to walk through a simple obstacle course. Talk with them about how much effort it takes to simply move through the obstacles and how tired they might be after completing that one task.
2. Injured Limb: While most children think it is fun to be on crutches, it can actually be quite frustrating to complete simple tasks. To fully experience this you can have them move through an crowded area using crutches. In order to give them a better understanding, you could even ask them to carry a backpack or a few sheets of paper with them while maneuvering through the obstacles. Talk with them about how clumsy they felt or how tiring it was to try to hang onto a few sheets of papers while clutching their crutches.
3. Autism: Autism is a disorder of neural development which appears differently in most people. Heightened senses can be one very common thread in children with autism. To relay this message, you need to have several things going on at one time while asking the children to focus on specific directions given. Put headphones on their ears with static (simulating the background noise children with autism constantly hear at a heightened volume) and place scratchy Velcro around their neck (simulating the irritation a tag from a t-shirt can feel to a child with autism). You could even have some flashing lights around to simulate the irritating flashes of fluorescent lights that children with autism experience magnified. While they are experiencing this, read them a short paragraph and ask them to questions relating to it. You'll find that they are unable to focus on the words of the paragraph because of all the distractions around them.
4. Cerebral Palsy (CP): Cerebral palsy is a term referring to a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disabilities mainly associated with the various areas of movement. To experience this disorder, have children attempt to assemble a wooden puzzle while wearing a LARGE set of rubber gloves. Their brain will see what needs to be done but they will have trouble making their hands do the activity because of the large gloves their hands are in. Their fine motor skills will be gone and they'll become clumsy with the gloves. They'll experience what it feels like to be completely aware of what needs to happen but unable to make it happen.
5. Dyslexia: Dyslexia is a learning disability that impairs a person's ability to read or write fluidly. To experience the difficulty reading, have a child attempt to read a set of directions that are all written backwards (reading from right to left). To experience the difficulty writing, show a child another set of words written backwards (spelled backwards with the letters backwards) and have them write those words correctly on the paper. These exercises will show them the difficulty someone might have reading simple words or writing simple words because of the way their brain transforms the words they see on paper.
6. Speech: While many children have altered speech, many children don't know what it is like to tell someone something simple and not be understood. To show this, have the children place a large marshmallow in their mouth (or 2 for older children and adults). With the marshmallow in their mouth, ask them to tell you their phone number and street address. Attempt to write down the information you hear. When you can't understand them, ask them to repeat until you get it correct. They'll find it incredibly frustrating to try to have you understand what they're saying but not able to speak clearly enough.
7. Vision Impairment: Since the levels of vision impairment vary, you can adjust the glasses to represent a variety of different impairments. Some might have Vaseline smeared over them to give distortion while others might be completely taped over with black tape to indicate total loss of vision. For the first exercise, ask them to walk through short obstacle course. For the second part, have a friend escort them through the obstacle course. While walking alone they'll feel what it's like to have things going on around them without being able to see obstacles. When they're being led, they'll experience the dependence they must have on others to help them make it through the obstacles.
8. Deafness: While it is difficult to allow someone to experience total deafness, you can allow them to experience as close to this as possible. Place large headphones (the kind you find at the hardware store but tape more cotton filler on the inside to make the noise even more muted) on their ears. Stand directly in front of them and give them a list of things you need them to get at the grocery store. While talking, hold your hand in front of your mouth so they cannot see your mouth move. Ask them to write down the list as you say it. They'll get frustrated because they cannot make out the exact words you're saying. You could try it again allowing them to read your lips if they want to try their lip reading skills.
9. Wheelchair: Similar to the crutches, many people think being in a wheelchair would be easy and fun. In order to experience what someone confined to a wheelchair experiences, have them roll their way through some obstacles....collecting something held just at their fingertip reach and collecting something placed on the floor....without allowing their bottom to come off the seat. They'll find that the wheelchair can be clumsy and can prevent them from getting things they might want to get.
10. Missing Limb: To experience what is would be like to have only one arm, have the children attempt to tie a shoe with only one hand. You can use this example with a variety of tasks depending on the time allowed (feeding oneself, putting on a t-shirt, etc.).
So think about how much experiencing these various disabilities could impact the amount of compassion your volunteers have for those we serve or just for those we meet in the community. In the past I have done disability awarness events as a part of our volunteer trainings. I've had my volunteers take on a specific disability for the entire training (including lunch which really drives the point home). In the end, you can really emphasize that while we were all able to get through the day with our assigned disability, those we serve are not able to simply "be done" with theirs. Most of them will have it for life and it becomes their new normal. How much greater does our compassion become for them! Amazing.
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