Has anyone ever had to do a disabilities project for a class? You know, spend an x amount of time being disabled and then writing your experiences on it? If so, share how your experiences went.

I get to practice being hearing impaired for a disabilities project I have to work on and write a reaction paper due next week! It's for my Cultural Studies class, and we have to spend two hours with a disability out in public. We got to choose among various choices, and I chose to be hearing impaired. So, I am going to put on some earplugs and go to a mall and walk around and mingle around pretending I am hearing impaired. So, I will get to see firsthand on the challenges of being hearing impaired. I can do fingerspelling, for the most part. That will help, but it will only help with people who can read/sign using fingerspelling. I am not saying this will be easy if I can fingerspell, but I get to live for two hours as a hearing impaired individual. Let's see how people will treat me. I'll have to report back here on how it goes.

Well in the 6th grade we had to with 2 partners spend time with a person with disabilities. It was fun. I thought it was going to be kind of boring to be honest. We actually had a lot in common. We talked about sports, tv, and just life he was really cool. We even played dodge ball even though he was in a wheel chair. Plus he let us race other people in wheel chairs on the track. He was a lot of fun. The time spent with him was really worth it!

Nope. But I actually have a disability albeit in a very mild form.

Interesting vision projects you did, Jenny. I have a question for you - can you see the monitor fine without being too upclose? Or, do you use any kind of visual alteration or increase the font size to read text off your monitor such as ZoomText?

Your project sounds interesting Mona. Keep us updated. Jenny, I'm happy for you that ZoomText exists. :)

When I was in 8th grade, I helped a teacher make assignments for a student who had impaired vision. I made numbers (I remember doing a lot of math sheets) big and bolded them with a Sharpie. That was all part of a business and careers class.

Now I work with kids with mental disabilities. We have a couple autistic kids and I often wonder what they are thinking, but unfortunately they have no vocal skills.

I know it's not a disability (or is it?)....but a few years back, a beautiful woman padded herself up to make herself look morbidly obese. She went out into the world with a hidden camera, and most people treated her like crap. It may have been on Oprah....maybe someone here remembers it better than I do. It was a very sad commentary on our society.

I know it's not a disability (or is it?)....but a few years back, a beautiful woman padded herself up to make herself look morbidly obese. She went out into the world with a hidden camera, and most people treated her like crap. It may have been on Oprah....maybe someone here remembers it better than I do. It was a very sad commentary on our society.
We had a local news anchor do that years ago. Pretty much the same result.

Jenny, I am confused. I came here to reply to your post about ZoomText that I received in my email notifications, but you deleted it? It's gone now... :confused: Well, I will still reply to it anyway. Yes, I am familiar with the program because we have installed it for vision impaired students through our Special Services department in certain computer labs. So, I am familiar with the installation. It's pretty useful.

I have to write in marker to see what I'm writing. Also if someone writes to me or writes something down that they want me to see they have to write with a dark pen or marker. If they write in pencil it's too light for me to see. I don't like how Sharpies smell. I only use Sharpies if that's the only dark marker available.
Can you use a roller ball pen? It does write darker, and it doesn't have the strong smell like a Sharpie.

Your project sounds interesting Mona.
Oh, yeah!! I most definitely will. :D I have actually already typed up my four-page reaction paper and turned it in earlier today during class. It was due today, but I might even just start a new thread talking about the challenges and reactions of different types of disabilities. Everyone in the class discussed their own personal experiences we discovered while doing our projects. They were all quite interesting.

Here's a picture of the kind of Flair pen I use. The Expresso pens I have used are no longer manufactured which is a real shame. I was going to post a picture of that pen also, but I can't find a picture of it online. The Expresso pens are still around, but not the one I used for years. I wish I still had some of the specific Expresso pens, but I used them.
Oh, yeah, the point on that pen seems pretty thin enough, but I might imagine writes pretty dark if you like using it. That's good.