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The Big Experiment
Written by Sean on Monday, September 12, 2005
Last night on TV, they showed a programme called “The Big Experiment”. The concept is interesting, take people and get them to experience a completely different “reality”. The first show was playing on the gender bender concept, where a man received training/makeup/effects and after a couple weeks had to spend an entire day as a woman, and a woman did the same, but as a man. The week after that was touching on ethnicity. Last night’s topic was “Disability”.
The participants, a man and a woman would have to spend a day “in the shoes of a person with a disability”. The man was to “be” a paraplegic, the woman, was to be “blind”. This show could have been a real disaster, but it was actually really well done. They had a paraplegic who does a lot of peer counselling with newly injured people as a consultant for the guy, and a woman who does mobility training for folks with vision disabilities worked with the woman. They had them meet with medical professionals to give them an understanding of some aspects. They met with groups of para guys and blind women, respectively.
The show’s crew got some opaque contact lenses for the woman. She had to orient herself and walk around for a bit. She nearly freaked out but got a good handle on herself and carried on. They got a wheelchair (nice advertising for Ti Sports) for the guy, and had him drive with hand controls for a while.
The culmination was that each participant had to spend a “day” as a para or being blind, and they were given some tasks to do. The woman had to go to a shopping centre and purchase some clothes. The guy had to go do a grocery shop and go to the bank. You can well imagine the adventures they had. Display tables where they never used to be, signs protruding in the footpath, no kerb cuts, steps, you name it, they “enjoyed” it.
Normally, I’d say that this kind of disability awareness isn’t working. Sit someone in a chair for 15 minutes or a couple hours even, they don’t get a real feel for what it’s like, they only see the negative. This show gave the participants the opportunity to really learn and get a good feel, not just about the physical logistics, but the emotional experiences.
It was really cool :)
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