“We all believe we’d run into the burning building, but until we feel the heat on our face we can never know.” That’s a quote from the movie Tenet.
Until we have lived a day in their lives, we can never really and truly understand. Until we have lived a day in the darkness that is a blind man’s both day and night, we cannot honestly claim to understand what it’s like.
Until you are incapable of hearing the laughs of your loved ones or listening to those well-thought lyrics that are James Blunt’s songs or sit in a room full of hearing people whilst they crack jokes that you cannot understand, you cannot say you have an idea of what it is like to be deaf.
Until I am unable to walk freely into a building without having to worry about the accommodative nature of a said building or if I am going to have to depend on the kindness of a stranger to carry me into the building. Until then, I haven’t an ounce of a clue about the challenges that people using wheelchairs go through each day of their lives.
But should this, our lack of comprehension, mean we should give up the fight for inclusion? Absolutely not! The lack of comprehension should not result in a lack of compassion.
It is compassion that will make us think of what it’s like to be the other person. It is what will make sure our buildings are accommodative, that an interpreter is always there either physically or virtually through apps such as the assist all, in our inclusive meetings, and that there is always someone ready to guide that blind person whenever he walks into your organization.
For is the heart is willing, there ain’t nothing that cannot be achieved.
BY TOBIAS MWASARIGA OMONDI