The World Through His Eyes by Samantha Rowell

For my accessible date project I decided to take my good friend's son out for an afternoon of fun! Alex (my date) is 9 years old and has pretty severe Asperger's syndrome - which is an autism disorder.

For our date, I decided to take Alex bowling which is one of his favorite things to do! We went to Brunswick Zone lanes in Austell, GA. When we arrived we saw that it was not very busy - except for about 10 lanes at the far side which looked to be used for a bowling league.

SENSORY STIMULATION - One thing I noticed right away was how distracting the neon lights and flashing TV screens, flashing lights, and loud music were. I could see that Alex was becoming a little anxious with the amount of sensory stimulation that the lights and sound were providing.

CROWDING - I was pretty disappointed when we were assigned a lane because we were given a lane that was right smack in the middle of the bowling league lanes. There was an entire half of the alley that was not being used. We really no personal space as we had children from other lanes coming over and moving our bowling balls and trying to sit at our table. This made the bowling experience more difficult for Alex as he had a hard time understanding that he needed to wait his turn to bowl as well as stay out of the way of the league bowlers.

COMFORT - Because of the crowding we experienced, our experience was not very comfortable. I was very on edge making sure that Alex did not interfere with the intense bowlers in the league as well as making sure that he did not go over the line onto the slick part of the alley or throw his ball into another lane. 

ACTIVITY - Although only half of the bowling alley was full, Alex and I both felt that it was a very busy environment because of our location. There were kids running around while their parent's bowled as well as coaches running around trying to be involved in every game being played.

ADAPTABILITY - I was happy with the adaptability at this bowling alley in the sense that all of their bowling balls were on shelves according to their weight. This made it easy for Alex to find a ball that was a good size and weight for him to use.

Also, one of the employee's put the bumpers up on our lane so that Alex could bowl without the worry of getting a "gutter ball" every time. This made him very happy as he was able to play the way he had imagined in his head.

LEGIBILITY - The bowling alley was pretty easy to maneuver, the lanes were numbered in large print, the tables for each lane were easy to differentiate.

After working up an appetite (losing to Alex) bowling, we decided to go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

ACCESSIBILITY - This Chick-fil-a was hard for us to enter. It was lunch time on a Saturday and the drive-thru line was very busy. As you can see in the photo, we had to walk across the drive-thru lane to enter the restaurant. When we were leaving, a woman who was not paying attention almost hit Alex and I as we were crossing. Alex could not have walked to the entrance himself.

ADAPTABILITY - Chick-fil-a had upsides for this and downsides. The upsides were that this particular CFA had a "kid zone" play area outside, as well as lower door handles to the play area and back in. One thing I noticed was there were no family bathrooms, or bathrooms that I could enter to help Alex. As he cannot do some of these normal tasks alone, I was torn on how to help him use the restroom. I ended up having to take a 9-year-old boy into the women's bathroom (which severely embarrassed him) so that I could help him. 

SOCIALITY - There were two tables outside in the play area to choose from to eat our food. Alex and I were able to sit across from each other and have a conversation without much trouble.

PRIVACY - There was a full enclosed fence around the outside play area that made me feel much safer for the kids playing on the playground.

CROWDING - Alex and I were the only people who chose to eat outside, so we really did not feel crowded at all which was a nice break from the intense crowding we experienced at the bowling alley.

ACTIVITY - Although we were the only ones seated outside, many children had been allowed to go out to the play area on their own (unattended) to play. These kids were screaming and fighting and were so loud that at one point Alex had to put his fingers in his ears because the noises were very distracting to him. Alex wanted to go down to slide a few times in a slow, relaxed manner, but the other children would go down the slide right behind him and end up on top of him.

Lastly, we decided to go back to his home for some private time of eating ice cream and playing hide-and-go seek. As we had limited time, we were unable to have private time in an environment other than his environment that he is accustomed too.

MEANING - Alex felt very comfortable in his own home, he is an only child and was thankful to be back in the quite. We played with his toys in his room as well as hide-n-go seek in a familiar environment. I asked him to show me some of his favorite things and he showed me a trophy that he had earned and a track that he had made for his matchbox cars.

Overall, it was a great date and I was very intrigued to try and experience the date from his perspective and to see the world through his eyes.