Lights out!

Sure, you are probably familiar with Spend-a-Day-in-a-Wheelchair programs.  They can help sensitize people to some of the challenges of navigating through a daily routine from a wheelchair.  Participants are often asked to complete tasks such as rolling through a standard doorway or steering through an obstacle course.  Disability advocates might say these programs fail to adequately recreate the experience of living life with a mobility disability.  I can understand their perspective.  Still, some exposure to the disability experience seems better than none, right?

If I lived in Georgia, I would definitely be trying to get to the "Dialog in the Dark" interactive exhibition that will be showing in the Atlantic Station from late August to the beginning of March.  The exhibition is designed to give attendees the sensation of being blind.  Visitors will need to rely heavily on the senses of hearing, smell and touch because no light will shine on the display.  Guides who are actually blind or have low vision help attendees proceed.  Together, they will tour specially constructed settings including a boat ride, a café and a city street.  I love the juxtaposition of the people with the disabilities being the capable guides for those who have eyesight.

The impact of the experience is outlined in press materials prepared by the organizing company, Premier Exhibitions, Inc.:  "Dialogue in the Dark has been presented in over 20 countries and over 150 cities throughout Europe, Asia and America since 1988.  So far 5 millions visitors experienced Dialogue in the Dark worldwide and over 5.000 blind employees found a job and empowerment through Dialogue in the Dark."

If you ask me, that's an impressive record for what has been dubbed "the greatest exhibition you'll never see."