Blinded for a better perspective
Students greeted with blindfolds and given numbers were commanded to be silent and put themselves in order, and the David Garcia Project began.
The David Garcia Project, held Tuesday in the Bovee UC Lakeshore Room, simulates what it may be like to live with a learning, visual, auditory, or physical impairment. The program is sponsored by the Volunteer Center.
Hartland junior Jessica Armstrong has been a facilitator for the past year and a half and works to make sure that students leave with not only an understanding of disability, but also a realization that a disability doesn’t define a person.
“Even though someone may have something different about them and may not to see or hear as well, it doesn’t make them less than (others), it just makes them different,” Armstrong said. “Everyone has something different about them, and it’s important to see that whether they are born with (a disability) or have acquired it, they are still just as much of a person as you are.”
The program is held in the memory of David Garcia who perished during the Sept. 11th attack on the World Trade Center. Garcia worked there as a computer programmer. He lived with a degenerate eye disease, but continued to stay active, driving until he legally couldn’t anymore, and coaching soccer teams.
Some of the activities included reading a Katy Perry article where the words and letters on the page were backwards, and tracing a star using only a mirror’s reflection. These activities were meant to simulate learning disabilities and dyslexia.
Oxford junior Amanda Delapaz found these activities difficult and got a glimpse of what living with a disability would entail.
“Once you start doing these activities it’s very difficult,” Delapaz said. “I never thought that I could get so frustrated throughout reading something or just trying to write my name.”
Dowagiac junior Kristyn Turner participated in a David Garcia Project last year, and returned this year to participate in the program again.
“The learning disability activity was very eye-opening being that I’m going to be a teacher,” Turner said. “I think it will help me as a teacher just to be more aware and cognizant of who is in my classroom, and noticing each individual student’s needs.”
Many people in the audience gave stories of their encounters with people who have disabilities and some of the stories hit very close to home.
“My brother has a degenerative eye disease kind of like David Garcia had,” Turner said. “I’m a carrier of that, so any son that I have will have that also.”
