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NewsEducationDialogue in the Dark has opened in London, giving visitors a sense of what it's like to not be able to see in a visual world

Wednesday, 4th December 2019, 6:01 am

Im in the pitch black and my heart is racing. Its not the kind of darkness that my eyes can adjust to I cant see a thing, not a single sliver of light.

My cane, which Ive been told to move slowly in front of me from left to right, clangs against what feels like a metal gate. Im seriously worried that Im going to smack into a wall, so I go slowly.

With my free hand, I reach out to check whats nearby, touching what might be a tree trunk. Dogs bark as I make my way through what Im pretty sure is a market stall, rummaging around to find something that feels like an onion. I dont know if its red or white, but I can feel the layers of peel.

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I try to work out what coins I have in my pocket in order to buy a coffee, but Im not sure Ive got the right money. The waitress tells me Ive given her 10p, not the pound coin I owe.

The blind leading people who want to learn

Im not actually outside on a street, but inside a studio space set up to feel like a real neighbourhood. This is Dialogue in the Dark, a new immersive experience in Hackney, east London, which shows people what its like to carry out ordinary daily activities when you cant see.

Of all the senses humans fear losing the most, sight is usually top of the list. Yet there are more than 350,000 people in the UK registered as blind or partially sighted, who every day find their way through a visual world.

Dialogue in the Dark was set up 27 years ago in Germany by Dr. Andreas Heinecke in 1988 who, after helping train a new, blind journalist at the radio station he worked at, realised how little he understood about blindness.

The social enterprise project now exists in over 40 countries across the world, opening for the first time this week in the UK. The idea is to help people understand what its like not to see, but it also provides employment opportunities for blind and partially sighted people.

Dialogue in the Dark

As I pick my way carefully over gravel and feel my way past a parked car, trying not to whack it with my cane, my guide Adara, a 34-year-old who has been blind all his life, helps me find my way with his voice. Its very disorientating at first- is Adara to my left or right, is he behind me? How far away? At one point I bump into him, feeling terrible about it- but of course, hes used to this in the real world.

I ask Adara how people with sight could change their behaviour to make his life easier. The bus drivers could make sure the volume is up on the next stop announcements, he says. He often has to ask them to turn it up. It would also be good if people looked where they were going, he sighs, albeit good naturedly. They just stop in the middle of the street.

When setting up the UK version of Dialogue in the Dark, the three founders sought advice and help from various organisations including The Royal Society for Blind Children about recruiting guides, and about how to make the experience as real as possible. Huseyin Gunduzler, who first had the idea to bring the concept to London after visiting it in Istanbul, says that the UK has some way to go with catering for the differently abled.

Leaving a genuine impression

I wanted this to get people thinking about how they might be able to help design the world better for those who cant see, to help inclusion and to have a more forward-thinking society. The aim is that at some point in the UK we have designed daily life to make it so accessible that we can stop using the word accessible because accessible will become the norm.

Dialogue in the Dark in Hackney has started fairly small- in Istanbul visitors experience going to an airport and getting on a plane - but Gunduzler hopes his exhibition will grow in time.

Dialogue in the Dark has left a genuine impression on me. Experiencing my sight taken away even for just one hour reminds me how much I take it for granted. Its made me better understand that its not that being blind is necessarily a tragedy in itself, but that the world is so badly set up for the differently abled.

Read the rest here:
I spent a day experiencing blindness, which made me realise how badly the world is set up - inews

This entry was posted on December 5, 2019 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |