On February 24th at the CUB, me and a partner were given the opportunity to try a few different ways of getting a sense of how the visually impaired live their lives every day. First we were able to see what it’s like to have 20/60 vision. While trying to read a newspaper all I could see was the big font and the pictures were a bit blurry. To me I thought it was crazy that they allow someone to still legally drive with that vision. Next we were able to see what a legally blind person would see from day to day. Which everything was fuzzy, but you could make out shapes and color.
Next my partner and I were given a pair of sunglasses in which the inside of them was smeared with petroleum jelly. We were given a set of directions and commands to do throughout walking through the CUB. We were both taken to an elevator and we could make out where the up and down buttons were only due to the fact that obviously the top button meant up and the bottom button meant down. Inside the elevation we couldn’t read the numbers at all but we knew what was the main floor because we could kind of make out the star next to 1. The first ATM that we went to was easy to find cause it was lit up and the card swipe was easy because that was lit up as well but the buttons were a bit more difficult to make out. The second ATM we encountered was easier because it was all lit up and there was actually a visual hearing aid where you could plug in headphones.
The last part of our journey was to walk up and down two different sets of stairs. The first set of stairs was at the Holland-Terrell Library, which my partner participated in with the glasses. She said that it wasn’t too bad due to the fact that there was hand rails and the stair treds were black and the stairs were crème so there was a lot of contrast. The second set of stairs, I walked up, were by the resource desk up toward the ballroom. These set of stairs were a lot harder due to the fact that they were a dark green and the stair treds were black so there wasn’t much contrast. And there was dark green on the ground floor that gave it the illusion there was still another step so it was very awkward.
After experiencing this is such a short time and such a small place with so many complications already, I defiantly think that the built environment should be accessible to everyone no matter the cost.
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