It was a crisp October evening on the University of Texas at Austin campus. We were in an elegant ballroom waiting for things to get started. The guests, mostly college students sitting at round tables, were whispering to each other and poking at their dinner. Us panelists were at a table in the front awkwardly poking at our own food before a crowd while we prepared to address our very own captive audience. This might sound like just another student driven activity on the vibrant 40 acres, where a diverse range of such activities are encouraged and supported. Of course, this event was all that and much more.
At a first glance, you couldn’t really tell anything about what went on in the event because the entire ballroom was pitch black for most of the time. This may have bothered the audience, but it was an experience they were willing and eager to sign up for. Their idea was to understand and experience the life of a visually impaired individual. Helping them along were a panel of 5 UT students with varying degrees of visual impairment.
The event, Dinner in the Dark, is organized by the Disability Advocacy Student Coalition or DASC at UT Austin every semester. Their fall 2017 edition was their largest to date with significant interest on their Facebook event page and a ballroom full of guests eager to experience a slice of life in the dark. Before we get into the spirited conversations we had that night, there is one point that needs to be made. What those guests experienced for 90 minutes in the dark is at best a flimsy representation of what a visually impaired person experiences on a daily basis. As a completely blind friend put it, the dimension of light and dark just does not exist. Being partially sighted myself, I can tell you that what we experience every day is normal to us and that it is an environment we have adapted to live in. It is not very often that people feel comfortable asking questions about one’s disabilities. In my view, the main objective of such events is to do just that and provide a platform to bust myths and create awareness along the way.
When the lights turned off and the guests settled down with their pasta and breadsticks, we kicked things off with a round of introductions. We then seamlessly transitioned into questions, first from the moderator and then the audience. I was not quite sure what the audience had in store. We were told to expect questions from the hilarious to the borderline insensitive. Most questions though, were meaningful and made us discuss issues that were as important to us as they were to those we interact with everyday.
The first set of questions focused on mobility and education. The answers to these questions were pretty standard across the panel and involved computers, mobile devices, long canes and a furry little friend. We discussed how screen readers, magnifiers and other accommodations help us keep up and surpass our peers.
The more interesting questions that followed revolved around interacting with a visually impaired individual. These are questions I do get asked regularly after moments of awkward hesitation from the person asking. Our audience though, did not seam to hesitate with their questions. Although we were comfortable talking about our disability since we obviously were on a panel to do exactly that, some of us stated that not everyone would be as comfortable as we were. Also, we agreed that while some of us appreciate offers of help, others would ask if they needed it. Our conclusion was just to be mindful and sensitive. While I say sensitive, there is no need to assume that we are fragile in any way. I do appreciate concerns about my safety but I believe such decisions should be left to me, like with anyone else.
After that conversation, we moved on to more traditional topics like our career paths and goals. The panelists represented majors in business, gender studies and acting. We narrated our experiences with our chosen fields and I expressed my undying love for physics and why I didn’t pursue it. Click here for that story. One of our panelists spoke about his goal to establish a transport company exclusively for folks who couldn’t drive themselves while another spoke about having to memorize entire sets of dialogues since she couldn’t just refer to them mid scene like others could. One particularly interesting question we got was about interpreting non-verbal signals. This skill is very important especially for someone looking at a corporate career like myself. I narrated incidents during group meetings where I find it difficult to understand whether a teammate is done speaking or just paused to think. This results in me inadvertently interrupting people and annoying the group. I also spoke about how being more mindful and letting the team know in advance is helping me deal with such issues.
The conversations after that were on a range of topics from our suggestions for a more accessible UT to our interest in traveling and exploring new environments. Soon enough, the moderator announced that we were running out of time and the lights were switched back on. I believe I heard some gasps in the audience when they realized that they were back in familiar territory.
As most guests started filing out after a polite round of applause, some came up to our table, introduced themselves and struck up conversations with us. Surprisingly to me, most of our conversations including one with a reporter revolved around their visual perceptions of the world rather than ours. One woman commented that she could not imagine not being able to see her family. It seemed like the emotion of love for her was strongly tied to the visual elements of her family. Of course I have visually impaired friends in committed relationships but this conversation reinforces the notion that most of us live in a visual world. I will publish some posts about how cutting edge technology is trying to bridge this gap for the visually impaired but for now, an extra set of human eyes are the best help.
As I stood out on East 21st waiting for my Uber, thinking about the event and all of our conversations made it pretty obvious to me that we were able to positively impact the thoughts and minds of a small chunk of the UT community. We are now a little closer to my dream of a truly inclusive society in every sense of the word. Of course, we’ve got a long way to go. “You have a great time,” my Uber driver said as I got out on West 6th, holstered my cane and grabbed a friend’s arm. I’ll have a great time indeed, I thought to myself, as we disappeared into a world that is always seeing and wanting to be seen.
Written by Guest Contributor Preetham Sunkavalli
This post will also appear as a guest post on the DASC blog. The opinions expressed in this post are purely mine and they do not reflect the opinions of the other panelists or DASC in any way.
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| DASC members and the student panel after the fall 2017 Dinner in the Dark. |
At a first glance, you couldn’t really tell anything about what went on in the event because the entire ballroom was pitch black for most of the time. This may have bothered the audience, but it was an experience they were willing and eager to sign up for. Their idea was to understand and experience the life of a visually impaired individual. Helping them along were a panel of 5 UT students with varying degrees of visual impairment.
The event, Dinner in the Dark, is organized by the Disability Advocacy Student Coalition or DASC at UT Austin every semester. Their fall 2017 edition was their largest to date with significant interest on their Facebook event page and a ballroom full of guests eager to experience a slice of life in the dark. Before we get into the spirited conversations we had that night, there is one point that needs to be made. What those guests experienced for 90 minutes in the dark is at best a flimsy representation of what a visually impaired person experiences on a daily basis. As a completely blind friend put it, the dimension of light and dark just does not exist. Being partially sighted myself, I can tell you that what we experience every day is normal to us and that it is an environment we have adapted to live in. It is not very often that people feel comfortable asking questions about one’s disabilities. In my view, the main objective of such events is to do just that and provide a platform to bust myths and create awareness along the way.
When the lights turned off and the guests settled down with their pasta and breadsticks, we kicked things off with a round of introductions. We then seamlessly transitioned into questions, first from the moderator and then the audience. I was not quite sure what the audience had in store. We were told to expect questions from the hilarious to the borderline insensitive. Most questions though, were meaningful and made us discuss issues that were as important to us as they were to those we interact with everyday.
The first set of questions focused on mobility and education. The answers to these questions were pretty standard across the panel and involved computers, mobile devices, long canes and a furry little friend. We discussed how screen readers, magnifiers and other accommodations help us keep up and surpass our peers.
The more interesting questions that followed revolved around interacting with a visually impaired individual. These are questions I do get asked regularly after moments of awkward hesitation from the person asking. Our audience though, did not seam to hesitate with their questions. Although we were comfortable talking about our disability since we obviously were on a panel to do exactly that, some of us stated that not everyone would be as comfortable as we were. Also, we agreed that while some of us appreciate offers of help, others would ask if they needed it. Our conclusion was just to be mindful and sensitive. While I say sensitive, there is no need to assume that we are fragile in any way. I do appreciate concerns about my safety but I believe such decisions should be left to me, like with anyone else.
After that conversation, we moved on to more traditional topics like our career paths and goals. The panelists represented majors in business, gender studies and acting. We narrated our experiences with our chosen fields and I expressed my undying love for physics and why I didn’t pursue it. Click here for that story. One of our panelists spoke about his goal to establish a transport company exclusively for folks who couldn’t drive themselves while another spoke about having to memorize entire sets of dialogues since she couldn’t just refer to them mid scene like others could. One particularly interesting question we got was about interpreting non-verbal signals. This skill is very important especially for someone looking at a corporate career like myself. I narrated incidents during group meetings where I find it difficult to understand whether a teammate is done speaking or just paused to think. This results in me inadvertently interrupting people and annoying the group. I also spoke about how being more mindful and letting the team know in advance is helping me deal with such issues.
The conversations after that were on a range of topics from our suggestions for a more accessible UT to our interest in traveling and exploring new environments. Soon enough, the moderator announced that we were running out of time and the lights were switched back on. I believe I heard some gasps in the audience when they realized that they were back in familiar territory.
As most guests started filing out after a polite round of applause, some came up to our table, introduced themselves and struck up conversations with us. Surprisingly to me, most of our conversations including one with a reporter revolved around their visual perceptions of the world rather than ours. One woman commented that she could not imagine not being able to see her family. It seemed like the emotion of love for her was strongly tied to the visual elements of her family. Of course I have visually impaired friends in committed relationships but this conversation reinforces the notion that most of us live in a visual world. I will publish some posts about how cutting edge technology is trying to bridge this gap for the visually impaired but for now, an extra set of human eyes are the best help.
As I stood out on East 21st waiting for my Uber, thinking about the event and all of our conversations made it pretty obvious to me that we were able to positively impact the thoughts and minds of a small chunk of the UT community. We are now a little closer to my dream of a truly inclusive society in every sense of the word. Of course, we’ve got a long way to go. “You have a great time,” my Uber driver said as I got out on West 6th, holstered my cane and grabbed a friend’s arm. I’ll have a great time indeed, I thought to myself, as we disappeared into a world that is always seeing and wanting to be seen.
Written by Guest Contributor Preetham Sunkavalli
This post will also appear as a guest post on the DASC blog. The opinions expressed in this post are purely mine and they do not reflect the opinions of the other panelists or DASC in any way.
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