Years ago I visited San Francisco. As my friend and I approached Fisherman's Wharf, a group of mimes approached us. One male mime began to dance around us, gesticulating madly and pointing at my friend, who was from Holland.
"What is this?" she asked in broken English, looking at me nervously. "What is he saying?"
This, of course, made him dance even more energetically - around her. As she reacted, he put on a show for a gathering crowd. I tried to reassure her that he was just an entertainer, but I couldn't translate fast enough to explain. Meanwhile, my friend was trying to talk to the mime and ask him questions.
It was pretty amusing to everyone except my poor friend. When it all ended a few moments later, she just tossed her long hair back and said "I knew all the time what that was."
I've always remembered this incident, because it highlights how difficult it is for us when we are in a culture we don't understand to really "get" what's going on. My friend was having a hard enough time trying to translate what everyone was saying without running into a mime who wasn't saying anything! Her reaction of pretending to understand what she clearly didn't understand is - understandable. After all, she was at the end of her rope with guessing all of the time as to what was happening or being said around her. That's a really uncomfortable feeling after awhile.
So what does this have to do with disabilities? I see situations happen like this sometimes when people get frustrated with not having the right information. Some people pretend to know what to do while others just freeze.
It's kind of sad when this happens because there is an easy solution. Instead of acting like the mime in this story, we can reach out to help people understand disabilities better. We can do handicapped awareness. We can be more visible and proactive. We can be clear with our instructions when people offer assistance. And, if we do have questions, we can ask for information.
Most importantly, we can try to put people at ease. Whether you're a person with a disability or not, none of us need to play the role of the mime in our communities.
1 comment:
I've seen this go both ways. Sometimes a person with a disability will expect people to know things - other times people without disabilities make assumptions. I guess what's important is to communicate and if one person doesn't do that, no one is going to feel comfortable. GOod post.
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