"Wheelchair Experience"
A few days ago the first years in my middle school in Nishikata, Japan (they are 11-12ish) had a "wheelchair experience." My school hired a company to come with a whole slue (is that how you spell that?) of manual chairs and give an assembly.
The basic rundown was:
1) Movie about how to correctly push a (manual) chair in a way that is comfortable for the person who uses it. Ex "Use your toe on the caster to gently life the front wheels of the chair. When safetly across the drainage grate, delicately allow the wheels to again touch the ground."
2) Next, the "experience" part. Everyone took turns sitting in the chairs and being pushed around so that the pusher could practice pushing correctly.
I don't know how I feel about the whole thing. It all seemed very..."mimic the disability and you'll understand it" or something. The video didn't even show the people's faces. Just the chair and the appropriate places to grasp, ect...
I mean, Japanese culture is all about "fitting in," and everyone "co-existing peacefully," and it's not really completely my culture, so I don't want to be the judgey-whitey, but it kinda made me uncomfortable. How about adding a part to the movie about asking the person who uses the chair if/how they would like to be pushed?
The accessibility of public places in Japan is really...interesting. For example, all stations are "accessible," but accessible means having this really horrible lift which blocks the whole passage way (so example all 20,000 people who are trying to catch their train at rush hour in Shinjuku station can stop and stare at you, while they fidget angrily about being late and possibly getting fired). Worse yet, if there is no lift, "accessible" means that the 70 year old train conductor and three of his buddies come out and CARRY you and your chair up the stairs. (Obviously this only works for manual chairs).
I dunno, I mean you gotta do what you gotta do. If you gotta take the train, its good that there are lifts in most places. It all just feels like...the emphasis is put on making sure you can function smoothly in society, (read: go to work, ect...) but not on how you feel about it. Like, "aren't you lucky that you have a nice lift so you can take the train?" and, "aren't you happy that we educate in schools so that 11 year-olds know how to push you smoothly?"
The grade two years ago had a "wheelchair basketball experience." I wasn't there so I don't really know, but that sounds a bit better to me. At least the focus was on people using chairs and DOING shiz, instead of having shiz DONE TO them.
On a side note, in Japanese, you can say "I am a wheelchair" which is grammatically correct, and is the most common way of saying you use a chair.
The basic rundown was:
1) Movie about how to correctly push a (manual) chair in a way that is comfortable for the person who uses it. Ex "Use your toe on the caster to gently life the front wheels of the chair. When safetly across the drainage grate, delicately allow the wheels to again touch the ground."
2) Next, the "experience" part. Everyone took turns sitting in the chairs and being pushed around so that the pusher could practice pushing correctly.
I don't know how I feel about the whole thing. It all seemed very..."mimic the disability and you'll understand it" or something. The video didn't even show the people's faces. Just the chair and the appropriate places to grasp, ect...
I mean, Japanese culture is all about "fitting in," and everyone "co-existing peacefully," and it's not really completely my culture, so I don't want to be the judgey-whitey, but it kinda made me uncomfortable. How about adding a part to the movie about asking the person who uses the chair if/how they would like to be pushed?
The accessibility of public places in Japan is really...interesting. For example, all stations are "accessible," but accessible means having this really horrible lift which blocks the whole passage way (so example all 20,000 people who are trying to catch their train at rush hour in Shinjuku station can stop and stare at you, while they fidget angrily about being late and possibly getting fired). Worse yet, if there is no lift, "accessible" means that the 70 year old train conductor and three of his buddies come out and CARRY you and your chair up the stairs. (Obviously this only works for manual chairs).
I dunno, I mean you gotta do what you gotta do. If you gotta take the train, its good that there are lifts in most places. It all just feels like...the emphasis is put on making sure you can function smoothly in society, (read: go to work, ect...) but not on how you feel about it. Like, "aren't you lucky that you have a nice lift so you can take the train?" and, "aren't you happy that we educate in schools so that 11 year-olds know how to push you smoothly?"
The grade two years ago had a "wheelchair basketball experience." I wasn't there so I don't really know, but that sounds a bit better to me. At least the focus was on people using chairs and DOING shiz, instead of having shiz DONE TO them.
On a side note, in Japanese, you can say "I am a wheelchair" which is grammatically correct, and is the most common way of saying you use a chair.