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Blind Dining Expereince

Zhukun Sun

Rec 200 Serving Diverse Populations

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Blind Dining Experience

Eating is one of my favorite thing to do; whenever I am tired or feel bored, I like to eat

things that are pleasing to the eyes and flavorful to the tongue. However, I never thought about

how dining blindly will affect a person’s eating experience. We people with eyes many times

ignore how blind people suffer from troubles each day and go unnoticed. Particularly in their

dining experience, there aren’t many restaurants which support a better dining experience for

blind people. Therefore the blind dining experience assignment will help us to get a better

experience of what the life of blind people is like and how they experience it.

For this purpose, I chose to be with my two friends; it was hard to get them to agree to do

so since they didn’t have an obligation to experience so. However, for me, it was an assignment

that was supposed to be done for my course. However, after some persuasion, I was able to make

them both agree to do so.

One of my friends agreed to cook food for us and serve it, while the other agreed to

experience the blindfold challenge. In the evening, we reached his home and found that he was

already done cooking food. So we immediately entered to dining experiment. I put the blindfold

on my eyes, and my friend assisted me to the dining area. It was really hard for him to make me

sit at the table since, initially, I couldn’t get used to following his instructions and turned

opposite. Since he wasn’t holding me and was just telling me where to turn and how long to

walk, we realized this wasn’t the right way to do so. We had to have him hold me and take me to

my chair.

Once I was sitting at the table, I couldn’t understand what my surrounding was and how

my friends were interacting with each other. I could smell the food, and that was an important
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thing during the whole experience. I could smell some deep-fried items and meat, and from that,

I knew it was fast food. For starters, he served us some spring onion. I could only tell it when I

touched them. Since I was aware of the texture, therefore I was easy for me to tell that he served

us with some onion rings.

However, I desperately missed what they looked like since I love the golden color of

these rings. One thing that I noticed was my other sense were more active when I couldn’t see. I

was more focused on touching things and letting myself know how the texture felt without

looking at them and how my taste buds are working.

Though I was focused on tasting and getting to know more about the flavor, I noticed

there was something missing. Maybe I couldn’t see the food was the main reason behind this

feeling of incompleteness. Still, I could tell that my friend didn’t order food from the usual place.

This was a great accomplishment.

For the main course, he served us burgers, nuggets and drinks. It was a pretty simple

meal which made it easier for me to recognize it. I could smell the meat, cheese and sauce;

however, for nuggets, when I tried to put ketchup on them, I couldn’t tell which sauce was

ketchup and which other sauce was. It was a frustrating moment for me since every pack felt the

same. My other friend, by that time, had left the table to use the restroom, and the server was in

the kitchen.

It was a time when I desperately felt helpless and bound to feel like I needed someone to

open this for me. There was no sign or carving that would help me to understand. The frustration

might have gotten longer if my friend from the kitchen wouldn’t come back to the dining table. I
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asked him to open a ketchup pack for me, and he did so. However, within those few minutes, I

was completely helpless and frustrated, and for one moment, I wanted to remove the blindfold.

I could feel the helplessness that the blind people might have felt so many times during

their dining experience at outdoor dining. My friend even had to tell me where my tumbler was

and where I was putting my burger after bite.

These very few details aren’t the life of blind people since they are able to develop other

senses; however, for a person like me who went temporarily blind, adjusting to the changing

environment was very tough. I was able to ponder over the fact that when blind people would

leave their usual sitting and dining areas, they might have to face the same problem. Even though

they have other senses constructed for them, however, they still have to face the difficulty when

no help or consideration is shown from staff in that place.

For sweet dishes, he had ice cream. However, he knew my favourite flavour; however, he

wanted me to experience something new, that’s why he ordered a different flavour cream. I

could feel that the ice cream was plain, but it wasn’t vanilla. I couldn’t differentiate it from

vanilla, but my friend told me it was coconut milk. Later on, after ending the experiment, I could

see the packaging, and now I could taste coconut milk flavoured.

This was a very unusual experience since the change of flavour can occur if a person

can’t smell. However, I felt a bit embarrassed for not being able to tell the difference. After we

finished our food, my friend took me to the restroom so I could wash my hands and my shirt,

where I spilt some sauce, and I couldn’t even realize that.

As soon as I went back to the dining table, we were done with the experiment, and I took

off the blindfold. There was a sharp effect of light on my eyes, and it took some time to get
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adjusted to the new environment. Though overall, we were able to complete the experiment, and

I learned a lot of things.

I wouldn’t say there were a lot of benefits that I enjoyed; however, one thing that can be

mentioned here is the use of tumblers. It was a particular tumbler that I didn’t like however my

friend served me my drink in this, and I drank it pretty normally. However, when I took off the

blindfold, I felt a bit angry over my friend who had done it on purpose.

There were a lot of disadvantages that I felt during the experiment. The first thing was

associated with the people who get blind due to some reasons or accident and aren’t birth blind.

For them adjusting to the new life would be very tough since their house structure was made for

someone with eyes and a person who could see.

The house structures aren’t supportive of them, and they have to eventually get used to it

rather than having facilities in their homes. Moreover, I felt a lot of frustration over a pack of

ketchup and when I wouldn’t be able to reach my tumbler or put my burger outside of my plate.

This frustration could be felt in the blind people as well, who had to dine in the new environment

without any support.

Since I was only dependent on my friend, who assisted me during the experience, many

times, he had to get up from his chair and help me to grab things. The server friend had to open

the ketchup packet for me, and my assistant friend told me that he felt anxious due to the

responsibility that was imposed on me under this experiment. Hence the overall experiment was

a success, and I learned a lot of things.