Aba Amoo My
date with Ashley
I
had met Ashley a few years ago when I started Kennesaw State. We became
roommates for about a year before I moved off campus. I recently had the chance
to spend the whole day with her. We decided first to go to our favorite frozen
yogurt place, Yogo Ono. Being that my friend is partially blind, the sun made
it hard for us to sit by the window. We got our frozen yogurt and sat down for a
while to catch up on old times. We became more social when we started talking to some other KSU students sitting
next to us. After we finished our yogurt, the next place we went to was Town Center
Mall.
The
time we went was in the afternoon so there were a lot of families. The mall was
beginning to get crowded as time
went on so we had to stay close together to avoid being shoved and pushed by
other people. We first made our way to Bath and Body Works to check out their
new fragrance collection. Every time we go to the mall we
pretty much make it a tradition to go there. They had a lot of fragrances to
choose from so I had to read most of the names to her. It was interesting to
see how she was able to identify some of the scents without having me read them
to her. I could tell she was using her sensory
stimulation skills since all of her other senses are heightened. From there
we went to Brookstone to try out their massage chairs. I think Brookstone has
to be my favorite store of all time, with different types of massage chairs to
choose from and foot rubs it made us feel like we were in heaven.
After
we left the mall, Ashley invited me to hang out at her place for the rest of
the afternoon. After all the walking around we did, we thought it was time to
have some privacy for ourselves without so many people around. The way
her house was designed made accessibility
easier for her. All of her furniture was placed to the wall and tables were
pushed away from the couch and were rounded at the edges. There was no clutter
on the floor and the place was clean so that helped her adaptability, which was helpful to her since she tends to forget to
turn the light on at night sometimes. Her furniture is very soft easing her comfort for when she has to do a lot of
work. She has a special machine that she uses to read her books and her
computer is zoomed in to help her do her homework. When it came to which activity she wanted to do, she had a lot of games at her place but
the one that we always loved was Uno. Her cards were made especially for the
blind and had each card marked with raised bumps so she could use her senses to
feel the cards. While we were playing, her roommate and some of her other
friends came over to hang out and socialize with us. I stayed for a little
while longer and then I had to leave.
One
thing I like about Ashley is that she doesn't let her disability stop her from
doing what she wants or getting places. There may be some days where she may
need me for a ride when the bus doesn't reach as far as she needs, but other than
that she is a very independent person and she has no problem telling people
that. I've heard the countless
stereotypes about the blind and how they can’t do anything for themselves and
can be a burden to some people but I know for a fact that Ashley and her other
blind friends are living proof that being disabled doesn't stop you from being
who you want to be.
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