other shoes write up

Josh Wampler, Neal Buck, and Matt Randall
As a group we decided that we would like to experience what it is like to be perceived as a blind person. Our plan for “being” a blind person is to wear dark sunglasses and to be lead places (if possible we will use a cane). We thought that we would receive reactions such as staring, whispering, and people avoiding us. With Neal being the blind person, Josh, Neal, and some other friends went to play mini golf. When we arrived at the golf place, the lady behind the counter looked at Neal with disbelief. We could tell that this had not happened before. As we continued to play, a kid at the nearby batting cages stared at Neal as he attempted to play. We could tell that people were whispering and ignored them and played on as if nothing were happening. Josh and Neal then went to Culver’s where Josh portrayed the blind man. As Neal led Josh to a table in the restaurant people moved out of the way and stared at Josh as they passed. When they sat to eat their ice cream, other people could not help but to sit and stare as the two conversed and ate. For the second part of our project we decided to visit Wal-Mart. At Wal-Mart Matt would be portraying the blind person. Neal and Josh took turns leading Matt around the store. Matt had made a previous purchase that needed to be returned. We took this as an opportunity to see what kind of tools customer service has to aid people that are blind. As it turns out there was not much. The employees however, were very courteous and polite. They helped us make the exchange even though Neal had to sign for it because Matt could not. As we walked around the store people stared at Matt with surprised expressions on their faces. Other customers avoided eye contact with Neal and Josh. Just to see what would happen, Josh pushed a cart in front of Matt while an employee was standing nearby. The employee saw what happened and much to our amazement turned and walked away. After we got some items that we needed we went to make our purchases. Then, while standing in the checkout line, a woman gave us money. It was only $1.40 but none of us knew how to react.
ANALYSIS
We now know that it is very difficult to be blind in our society, even though we were only blind for a little bit. We felt very singled out by everybody staring at us and avoiding us. In our experiment, we discovered that businesses are not well suited for blind customers, and the employees were not used to seeing blind people. We now see that we should not single out people who are different because we have experienced what it is like to be in other shoes.

other shoes

Neal Buck and Matt Randall are in my group. we plan on going putt putting and going to walmart wearing very dark sunglasses so we appear to be blind. then we will see what kind of reactions we get. i predict we will get stared at alot and people will try to get out of our way.