by Christopher Sanchez
Daily Lobo
Mimi Swanson was apprehensive about losing her vision for 45 minutes.
"To live a disability is to understand a disability and all of the barriers," she said, while strapping on her blindfold.
Swanson, an employee at UNM Human Resources, helped organize Adopt a Disability Day, which took place Thursday in the SUB. The event is part of National Disability Month.
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She spent 45 minutes as a blind person and 45 minutes as a wheelchair user.
"I was scared," Swanson said. "I had a false impression of what it meant, but I learned differently. I'd do it again."
About 15 people participated in the event, and two of them were UNM students. The event was organized to create awareness at the University about what everyday life is like for a person with a disability.
There were three 45-minute sessions that allowed participants to experience blindness, deafness, cognitive disorders or the use of a wheelchair.
Those who participated had to leave and re-enter the SUB, take a drink from water fountains, get something to eat, use a telephone, use the bathroom and ask someone for directions to the Student Activities Office. The participants went in groups with each having a guide.
UNM student Amie Ortiz said it was difficult maneuvering around the SUB in a wheelchair and couldn't imagine having to use one all the time.
She said the hardest tasks were getting in and out of the SUB and using the restroom. A lot of people in the food court were not too nice, she said.
"Some of the people who were just out eating in the food court and studying seemed really uncomfortable," said Ortiz, sitting in her wheelchair. "There was a lot of giggling and nervous looks."
She said she learned to appreciate those who are disabled.
"I think a lot of people who don't have disabilities think that they're aware and think they're being considerate when really they're not," Ortiz said.
She said it was hard to manually move her wheelchair up steep ramps.
"You don't think about the fact that if you stop for a minute, you have to brace yourself or you'll roll backward," Ortiz said.
Swanson said people looked down on her when she was in a wheelchair and blindfolded.
"Some people actually screwed with my cane," she said. "They twisted it around. They knocked me around, and I was appalled.
"When I was in a wheelchair they wouldn't move for me," she said. "I was looking up; they were looking down."
Joan Green, director of Accessibility Services at UNM, said it was the first time the University organized this event. She was the guide for cognitive disorders. She passed out papers with a paragraph with scrambled letters on it. She said it showed how people with dyslexia read.
She said the event went well, considering it was the first time.
"I think they have a lot of good activities planned," Green said. "I think it's a good start. Everybody would like to have more people, but that will come over time."
Swanson said there wasn't enough money to do much advertising, and that was a factor in the poor turnout.
Human Resources and Student Affairs organized the event.
