[. the good and the bad .]

today i had my Disability & Society class
for 2 hours and a bit, the class was separated into 3 groups attending 3 simulations in a rotation format
it was rrreeeaaalllyyy fun and educational!

- the first simulation
was to experience how it was like to have a hearing problem
we plugged our ears w/earplugs and had a spelling and sentences test
even though i was not entirely deaf... i had a lot of problem listening to the speaker and failed the test lol
did you know that hearing aids do not necessarily help a person clarify what they hear?
it only amplifies what they hear initially... so if they heard a broken sentence... it's the same thing... only louder...
also, a hearing aid cannot separate fore & background noises as our ears does
this worries me... with so many people using cellphones and blasting music into their ears... a lot of us are going to have hearing problems in the future................... nottttt gooooooddddd

- the second simulation
was to experience physical disability
we were assigned certain tasks on a wheelchair
i had to go to the library and use a computer which is in a lab especially for people with a disability
holy crap! i had my arm exercise for the day! my biceps n triceps were burning as i made my way to the library. and turning takes a while to get use to! it got worse when i wheeled myself on the carpet... carpet are so unfriendly to wheels...
but what ticked me off was that fact that the computer lab was like at the end of the room, and you need to ask someone to get the key to open it for you
it's like... HELLO!!??!! there are OTHER computers in the library which are WAY CLOSER to the entrance and was at a PERFECT HEIGHT for me or anyone in a wheelchair... why the heck do people using a wheelchair need to go through all that trouble???
it gets worst outdoors on the slopy pavements and on rainy days
and access to buildings are plain terrible! "go to the north side entrance", doorways are narrow, some places/certain rooms are unable to have a wheelchair pass through, defective open-door-buttons and searching for the elevator and getting around a new place is time consuming w/all the errors you make

- the third simulation
was to experience vision loss
you can probably guess that we were blind-folded and had a few workstations to go to
sorting coins based on their value
signing your signature on a piece of paper
identifying objects in a bag
making a phone call
writing on the whiteboard
cutting shapes with a pair of scissors

so it was a good class. this is a course i'm loving =)
makes you think about things that you usually won't think about

did you know that there are only 2 theatres out there somewhere that are friendly to people who have hearing problems?

----------------------------------------

on a not-so-bright-note
York might be having a strike BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
last time they had one was 4-5 years ago
and it lasted for months and months...........................

i really don't want a strike
it'll be a waste of money and a yr of uni =(
n i paid a bit of my tuition this year and i'm enjoying my courses!!!~

`bLeh`