Personal Narrative: My Experience With Being Blind, Deaf

For a person that has never lived with a physical challenge such as being blind, deaf, or wheelchair bound it is very eye opening experience to the struggles that many have to deal with on a daily basis. I chose to try and function without sight for four hours to see if I could manage. I have worked in the past with those that have been blind for many years and I must say they were very self sufficient with one gentleman even walking several blocks to work each day unassisted. What I found when doing this experiment was that everything really slowed down for me. I had to really think about what I was doing, where I was in the house, and what I might run into as I moved around trying to function on a somewhat normal level.
The second issue I realized right away was that my family would also need to make adjustments if we found ourselves truly living in the situation I was pretending to be in. Something as random as one of them sitting a glass somewhere where I could knock it over could be a problem. Bigger problems could be the house we live in since it has stairs and getting up and down the narrow stairs in an older house can sometimes …show more content…
Those that have been truly sightless for many years have to rely on a different kind of memory in order to get around and function on a day to day basis. I believe that being organized is a key function of living a life without sight. Things would need to be in the same place at all times it would be very frustrating to have to try and find things that were not where they should be if you were unable to see. Just moving an item a few feet from where it normally is could be maddening for someone that could not see