Have you ever played games like Dumb Charades or Blind Fold as a child? Increasingly fun games, aren’t they? But have you ever wondered how world might seem to a physically or mentally impaired person? Even closing our eyes for a short while and trying to find way inside our home becomes a tough job, punctuated with countless stumbles. This may turn some sympathetic towards all the disabled people out there. However, all might not be this bad for the disabled people. Normal people’s bodies are used to having all 5 sensory organs working perfectly. In the disabled, lack of even one sensory organs leaves the others with elevated efficiency.
There are countless cases of disabled showing extraordinary talents. Don’t believe it? Look into the backgrounds of Stephen Hawking, Tom Cruise or Walt Disney. This people showcased severe disabilities, however this didn’t stop them from setting their mark on global history. While nobody thinks much about it, learning about the disabled might be an interesting and beneficial-for-all topic to study. Knowing how the world seems to a disable might help us understand them more better. Who knows what extraordinary talent a disable might be possessing? By trying to understand things by stepping into their shoes, we can help them to find their true calling. This is what Northeastern University’s assistant professor of English, Sari Altschuler, is trying to do. Prof. Altschuler has been recently awarded Wellesley Fellowship and she is taking a year off to understand the experience of disabilities amongst the early Americans. Her source of information will be literature, poetry, writings and plays. Prof. Altschuler has taken some impeccable experiences by setting up 3D reading experiments for disabled through touch, vision and hearing. She will be penning down her findings in a book- Able: Disability and the Cultures of Citizenship in the Early United States.
So next time if you see someone with a disability don’t go showing sympathies, show some compassion for that person might have capacities beyond our wildest imaginations!
Shraddha Patil