Life as a Crippled

Life as a Crippled

Abby Peterson, Chelsea McDermand, & Lindsey Moore

For our project we decided to put Chelsea in a back brace and give her a walker. She acted completely normal and dressed normal, except for the back brace she wore on the outside of her clothes. We went to several places including McDonald’s, Target, Barnes & Nobel, Shoe Carnival, and the mall.
The first place that we went was McDonald’s. When we first arrived one lady came up to us and held the door open for Chelsea. As soon as we walked in everyone started to stare at Chelsea. After we sat down and got our food, one man came up to us and said that he didn’t want to be nosy but he wanted to know what happened to Chelsea. Chelsea told him that she had scoliosis and had to have surgery on her back. He said that he was sorry and that he hoped she felt better soon. We ate our food and when we were getting ready to leave the lady that opened the door for us came up and started talking to us. She asked what happened and said that she was a nurse and told Chelsea to take it easy and get a lot of rest.
After we left McDonald’s we went to Target. When we went to target no one said anything to us or Chelsea, but we got a lot of weird looks. One little boy walked around the corner and saw Chelsea and began walking very slowly as he stared at her. He was so focused on Chelsea that he tripped and fell. It was quite funny.
We went to a couple of other stores and then we went to the mall. At the mall we got a lot of reactions. In almost every store that we went to the sales people were extra helpful. No one asked us what happened or said anything directly to us, but as soon as they walked by they would turn around and stare at us and start to talk about us. Many people pointed and gave us weird looks.
Chelsea was very nervous. She felt very shy. Everyone that walked by was staring. It made her feel like she was different than everyone else, even though she was not. It is amazing how differently people look at you and treat you when your appearance has changed. Nothing about her on the inside was changed. We learned to respect people more and what it is like to be the person that is always stared at because of their differences. It is what’s on the inside that really matters. It is wrong to judge people by what they are wearing or what they look like. We now understand what those people are going through. We know that a person should not stare at other people no matter what. We won’t make the mistake of staring again.

Other shoes project.

My group is includes Lindsey, Abby and myself.
Our plan included putting me in a back brace and walking around with a walker.
We went to McDonald's, Target, Barnes and Noble, and the mall.
Our hypothesis was that people would give us funny looks and try to help me.