Before the DiD tour, i did not expect much from it. i merely thought that it was just a tour of a dimly lighted place and a blind guide to bring us around.
I saw it as a normal social enterprise that brings jobs to the visually handicapped and serves its role as a business model.
I thought that the inside of DiD is just a place where not so much emphasis is put upon the details in the dark room as no one can see though.
DiD has indeed been a very interesting and mindset-changing experience for me.
My greatest take-away from this tour experience has to be the concept of: People are created differently and for different reasons. Some may be normal people like us, some may be blind, some may be handicapped, some may be retarded, but everyone single one of us is useful in one way or another. NEVER LOOK DOWN ON ANYONE.
The guides may be blind but upon entering the dark room, we are the ones depending on them and we are the ones who feel so useless, unable to move on our own, without their help. They guide us as if they are in the light and the ability to see while we are just mainly the visually handicapped. We are in their shoes for this short period of time and this caused me to change my mindset of the visually handicapped as people who do not contribute to the society and are just dependent on people.
DiD is a new thing in Singapore and as a social enterprise, this has given a doorway for the visually handicapped to feel confident once again and prove their worth for the society. Working on a business concept, i am sure that DiD is able to proceed on to changing the mindsets of the society and also provide SIngaporeans an opportunity to experience the life of being blind for a period of time. DiD Singapore has clearly gone through many considerations and many plannings to achieve what it has now. I believe that this social enterprise will be established in the years to come and will be accepted by SIngaporeans in one way or another.
The appearance of DiD has allowed a platform for BZSE and PCS students to work from as this is ultimately, called our own. Knowing the whole process and why DiD is being brought to Singapore as a social enterprise, it will allow us to be able to understand how a business is done as a social enterprise. BZSE and PCS students are able to treat DiD as a draft or an example to learn and refer to.
BZSE students can help in planning activities to promote DiD and also at the same time, help to market DiD to the society and to potential sponsors who are willing to bring it to a greater height.
We can also provide project ideas that are able to expand the whole concept of DiD, giving the social enterprise other ways to do businesses with the support they have for manpower, in terms of visually handicapped people.
We are also able to help with collaboration with other organizations that are related in one way or another so as to bring DiD to a greater platform.
Josh (: t01
A week before visiting the Dialogue in the Dark (DID), I was trying to guess how the place was designed and what kind of situation I will experience during the tour. I was also thinking about how the tour guide, who is a visually impaired, would be able to lead us through the whole tour. The reason why I felt this way is because on the streets, I often witness visually impaired people having to rely on passer-by to get to their destination. Thus it made me wonder how they would be able to lead and guide us in the darkness.
After the tour, I was surprised by how well the tour guide could move around in the dark. One moment he was behind us doing a head count and the next moment he was already ahead of us guiding us to the next place. I was really admirable of him because when I was even having difficulty walking straight, he could actually move around so easily as there was a role switch and that he was able to see and we were the blind ones.
Another thing that I experience from the tour is the feeling of being blind. Although it was just an hour long of blindness, it made me realise several things. For once I felt the importance of our sense of sight. Without it, we would not be able to witness the wonderful and beautiful things that exist in this world. All we could was to try and visualise it. Going to this tour has definitely taught me an important lesson that is to treasure what we have now and do not take things for granted.
Many will say that they have already experienced how it feels to be blind through games that require them to be blindfolded or have witnessed a blackout before. But after going through the tour, I will tell you that those experience is nothing compared to the DID tour. DID is designed in such a way that you would be able to go through daily life routine while being blind by the darkness. That is the only way we can observe and get first hand information about how much difficulty a visually impaired person faced in everyday life.
Through DID, BZSE and PCS students can get a better understanding of what a social enterprise is and how it operates. And with chances of being an interns at DID during our final year, it allows us to gain experience before going working in other social enterprises when we graduate or even start our own social enterprise in the future.
I feel that DID is a successful social enterprise as they are able to help the visually impaired by hiring them to work as tour guide so that they can earn an income. This is because visually impaired people hardly can get a normal job as they are unable to see. Thus I feel that the only thing BZSE student can do is to help expand DID business and getting more customer. We can do this by helping in the marketing sector of DID to come up with new promotions to help increase the number of customers.
Not only that, we can retain existing customers by maybe setting up another DID in Singapore, with different types of experience, maybe such as studying in class, learning how to get onto a bus and so on. Only with more customers, DID will be able to expand its business and increase the number of visually impaired they can hire.
Eugene T02
The activities and updates of DID always reach me through the word of mouth during guest lectures, friends doing internship in DID and even the HMS (School of Humanities) lecturers. Everything could only be based on my own interpretation and imagination of the limited information provided for us. My imagination only considered the things I would encounter but not how I would cope and feel when groping and orientating myself in a new unfamiliar environment. I did not know what to expect knowing we were going for the DID tour. However, our peers who went before us injected the excitement in us re-enacting their experience to us.
The pre-introduction was a good warm-up activity for us to activate all our other 4 senses without the help of our eyes. Since my group did not have much time to go through the whole pre-introduction, we prepared ourselves by coming up with contingency plans such as making sure we stick close to the walls (if there were any since we weren’t inside yet) and had our accountability partner behind us all the time. The sticks was definitely a great relief to most of us as it assured that we would have less bruises if there were ever obstacles that may come our way. Personally, it did not take me long to get used to the dark and having to use my hands and stick to find my way around. What made it more assuring and certain was the voice of the guide. His voice was clear and he never failed to describe the particular place we were at with great detail which assured us that we were in good hands.
This experience helped me realised that the other senses are just as sensitive and powerful as the eyes. We need not our eyes to tell where we are or interpret someone else’s emotion or feelings. Having a phobia of darkness, this experience has definitely helped me to gain a different perspective of darkness. There was not a second I felt fearful inside but instead I felt at peace. My 4 senses allowed me to connect with the serenity void of distraction. We often rely too much on our eyes to take note of our surroundings. Very often, the reason why we miss out the minute of things due to the neglect of our other sense.
The darkness reminded me of how vulnerable we are as human beings. Knowing that we are in obvious darkness gives us a chance to orientate and adapt to the new, unfamiliar environment. However, many a times we are not even aware of the darkness present in our lives. We no longer use our hearts to feel but give in to the shallowness our eyes make us assume. The vulnerability of it is that it would have been too late to react by the time we realise our lives are almost consumed by darkness. This experience has helped me to recognise how sensitive the other senses are when it is interpreted not only by our mind but by the heart to best understand our surroundings or people.
The guide often played around with our imagination with the words and intonations he had when he spoke. It made me asked myself how a person born blind would know what to imagine since he has never seen the world. Till now I have not been able to answer that but it made me appreciate the colours and even the piece of rubbish on the ground. I would never have known what an ant would look like or that I just crushed it under my feet if I had not been blessed with sight.
It is a learning model for us because it not only provides them with a stable job but also acknowledging their independence and courage through their contribution to the organisation. They have been empowered by being able to make full use of darkness in which they have the upper hand and having us to rely on them instead. It helps create awareness among the public that their presence and needs are often neglected due to the stereotype and assumption/ label we place on them. We have unknowingly created a barrier between us and the gap will only get bigger if we choose to stay in our comfort zone and follow the conventional. This stigma will be carried through generations if we do not put in effort to start changing our own mindsets/ discrimination against them. This also applies to the other minorities of society.
We could contribute to DID by making its activities and updates known to the public. Not only what is present and available at DID Singapore but how DID has impacted the blind all over the world. This allows better understanding of how DID sustain as a social enterprise and identification of the beneficiaries’ needs which may have been overlooked here in Singapore. With better understanding, new proposed ideas would not clash or overlap but instead complement existing core values to bring DID Singapore to higher level of empowerment, awareness and benefit.
Melissa Poh, T02
In the past, I had experience dining with a blindfold but it was not as dark because I could still see some light under the blindfold. Hence, this trip was mysterious to me for the reason that I had no idea what was lined up ahead for us and I had never experienced being in total darkness. The thought of it made me feel frightened as I had the thinking that I might get lost or even fall in the midst of the tour.
However the DID tour was not as scary as I had expected and it turned out to be a memorable and captivating experience for me. I also enjoyed the mini-activities because it helps to be mentally prepared for the tour. The activities taught me that our sense of taste weakens when we cannot see what we are eating. When we are about to enter the dark room, they provided us each with a walking cane and taught us how to hold them properly. I understood more about what the blind are going through once we entered the dark room with the walking cane. Our guide, Wesley was very experienced and he gave made us felt assured and safe even though we are like a flock of lost sheep wandering in the darkness. I was glad that I did not have to go through the trip alone but with my friends because with them around I feel more secured. The tour has taught me how to view being blind in a positive light because this trip was more of fun than really what the blind really face in the society. In real life, they have no walls to depend on when they are outside unlike when we are in the dark room. To add on, they also had to learn how to feel and adapt by themselves, which I felt was really admirable! It really takes a lot of courage to accept the fact that they had lost their eyesight and move on with their lives positively. Personally, I enjoyed the boat ride the most because it was a very joyful experience to be riding in boat but you cannot see how it looks like. The different locations such as the market place, the statue of Stamford Raffles and the Café triggered my imagination and I was picturing how they looked like during the trip. I thought it was good leaving the place without really seeing how it looks like because I can keep those images of imagination into my memory. I sincerely feel that everyone should have a chance to go for this trip because it really is very different from other field trips or holidays where you depend more on your sense of sight to see and admire the scenery around them. They should try using depending more on their other senses, such as their hearing and smell to have a different perspective of way people view things.
I feel that DID is a wonderful learning model for BZSE and PCS students. DID is a very innovative example that we can follow and help us develop our creativity. It also gives us encouragement that we can come up with more of such social enterprises to help those disadvantaged in the society by employing them into new formed social enterprises!
Lastly, we can help to contribute to the DID social enterprise by telling our fellow mates in school or even out of school about DID and its purposes. Furthermore we can also help to come up with advertising campaigns for them and market DID to more Singaporeans. Together we can help and create more change to improve the lives of the marginalized!
PeiQing
BZSE T01
1.
During the tour, I remember feeling very insecure and worried. The entire place was in COMPLETE DARKNESS. Even if you were to put your hands in front of yourself, you will realize that you could not even see anything at all. The funniest thing was that I started crying after stepping in. I will try to grab Mabel’s and Singyee’s hands and everything that allows me to feel secure. Thus, communication is vital for us to know our ways. I am very glad to have Jason as our blind guide. He was really very friendly and nice. He allows us to feel comfortable with the place and even without our eyes, we could feel the place with our heart and also allowing ourselves to imagine how the place is like. Throughout the entire trip, Jason explained the place to us and this let us to feel calmer and slowly enjoying the tour. We have learnt so many things from this tour itself and especially from Jason. We sat down at the café in DID and he told us about his personal story. Jason is now 30 years old and he only lost his sight three years ago. Instead of feeling despair and becoming dependent on others, he chose to stand up on his feet and get on with life. He came to know about this job and agreed to be one of the blind guides in DID. I really admire him a lot. He made me realized that even though there can be many ups and downs in our lives, the most important thing is to be able to let things go and appreciate life in another way. So why should other people discriminate them? If we think it again, the visually handicapped are actually those that show us hope in our lives. I remember we had a post reflection talk with one of the interns in DID, Feng Kai. He mentioned something which I totally agreed with him. In the sighted world, we are the kings and the queens and we tend to forget about those that are less fortunate than us. However, during the tour when everything is in darkness, who are the kings and queens then? I believe that everyone ought to know that all humans are equal and that everyone should be given the equal chances in life. Many times, we tend to take things for granted but after this trip, I have learnt to be more positive in life and to appreciate my sight better.
I feel that it is great setting up DID as a social enterprise. Firstly, there can be more jobs opening up for the visually handicapped and creating awareness of the marginalized people in our community. When more people come to know about DID and after the experience, I am sure they will be able to appreciate things better and to be able to empathize with the blinds. Through this, I hope that discrimination on the visually handicapped can be reduced and more job opportunities can be opened up for them. It is a great idea to have this as a tour and implementing charges for the tickets. DID can thus be able to sustain itself as a social enterprise and also as an educational institute. DID definitely serves as a learning platform for PCS and BZSE students. I really look up to this social enterprise and it does help us to understand that we too can play our parts in helping the marginalized sector in the society.
BZSE students can help them to do marketing! We can share our experiences with our friends, family, relatives and etc and invite them to come down for a tour. If not, we can also find working opportunities with DID.
Chow Wei Ling, T02
When entering the exhibition, I thought to myself, “well… how dark can it be?” and confidently I stepped into the exhibition, but just after three to four steps into the exhibition, I started grabbing onto my friend who was in front of me and kept on asking whether if the one behind me was still there. I felt helpless, because for the very first time, there is no difference from having your eyes close or open. This is the first time in my life my eyes can’t lead me in the direction that I should be going. Instead all I had was a walking stick and the voice of the guide. After being introduced to our guide Helemy, He welcomed us and after which he asked us to explore our surrounding for ourselves. I did not really dare to leave my group of friends and explore, instead I held onto the one who is in front of me and followed him wherever he went. I was afraid that I will be lost in the dark and I will never be able to find my way out. But after much encouragement from Helemy, telling us if ever we are lost, we just got to walk towards his voice, I took up the courage to just wander off. Using the walking stick to feel what in front of me and whenever one of our group mates found something, our guide will always say “call out to the others so that they know where you are.”, and the rest of us will move towards his/her voice. Before going for the tour, I didn’t expect much from the tour. I felt that it was just walking in the dark, never did I expect the tour to be “that dark” so much so that I needed to depend on the guide’s voice and not my sight.
I think one of the greatest take away for me is to have a conversation with the guide in the dark. HE introduced himself and shared about his life and we found out that he was not born blind but was blind because of some tumor in the brain and all. I asked him, how was it like when he knew that he is going to be blind and how did he feel when he woke up that very day in the hospital without your sigh. He told us he was prepared and quite positive about things. He carried on by saying, it is to find something positive in the negative. That really caught me, I thought to myself, if I became blind I think I will feel all helpless and probably I will fall into depression. Just minutes in the tour and I was feeling all helpless and scared made me realize how much I depended on my sight and through the tour experience I then realize how much dependency we have put in our sight, without it we feel scared and helpless, imagine those who become blind permanently, it must have took them a lot of courage to carry on living. Not being able to see a single thing, going through landmarks of Singapore in the exhibition, it seemed so fascinating, touching the tree, touching the statue of Stanford Raffles, touching a car, fruits and many other things. It felt so different touching those things and feeling them without our vision. This made me realize that our sight is something that is given and somehow we took for granted of this gift given to us and think that it is something which we deserve, while others need to live everyday without it and continue to live as if one has sight.
I think DID Singapore is like a platform, a benchmark for BZSE and PCS students. To set a certain standard for the students, that in the future this is something the students can do and do it better. It is a statement to BZSE students especially that, a successful social enterprise is do-able and possible in Singapore. One of the ways which BZSE students can contribute to DID Singapore is through publicizing it to our friends and family members, encouraging them to come and experience the tour and remind them of the blind community in Singapore.
Jonathan Lau, T01
Before the DiD tour, I thought the tour would be quite boring,
because we would be just walking round and round inside.
As it's pure darkness inside the tour, we won't feel the excitement and thrill,
I thought we would be feeling fear and scared, that's it, nothing else.
I also thought that we would finish the tour very fast as from the outside, it looks small.
My greatest take-away from the DiD tour experience is that, the visually impaired are actually the KINGS, in the dark, while we are the KINGS, in the light. So in the light, we can help them, whereas in the dark, we rely on them a lot.
I think that DiD Singapore is a very important stepping stone in Singapore,
to really show people that, Social enterprises are very useful and helpful,
they can actually give such an important job to the visually impaired,
and they are doing it so well !
Showing people that, not everyone is useless and can't contribute to the society!
It can also help in motivating BZSE & PCS students as in, how they can further help the marginalized and having the society accepting them and respect them.
BZSE students can contribute to the DiD social enterprise by,
promoting DiD to their friends, as we have the first-hand experience of the tour,
we know how it feels like,
and we were like suddenly enlightened or shocked, that the visually impaired is so,
helpful to us and we were so dependent on them inside the dark !
We can also try to get more sponsors or companies,
to participate in the tour, so that they understand how it feels like.
To suddenly feel blindness and yet having the confidence to carry on with their life.
So that, they can help out in expanding DiD Singapore ! : )
- Ronny Lim,
BZSE Year 2
My DID experience is entitled as ‘The blinds colors of life.’
Before stepping into DID, I had this preconceived notion that the visually handicapped are a group of people whose lives are filled with dull colors. I do not mean in a literal sense that they are unable to see and therefore they do not get to experience bright colors. Instead, my thoughts are that these people tend to see the dull side in life which stems from the constant injustice that they feel due to their disability.
However, I beg to differ after my insightful experience. This is because the visually handicapped in DID showed me the wonderful colors of life. The visually handicapped are just like anyone of us, whose lives are filled with an array of colors. They are driven people who aim to live life to the fullest in spite of their disability. Hence, their supposed handicap does not pose as an obstacle for them if they persevere till the end.
Now, I shall share my DID experience that led me to this conclusion.
At the start of our DID program, my group had the opportunity to play some DID activities before stepping into the darkness. First and foremost, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the activities gave us a glimpse on what it is like to be visually handicapped. During the activities, I tasted the wrong flavor of sweets and I could not figure out certain alphabets based on my sense of touch. Stepping into their shoes reaffirmed my initial thoughts on the tremendous amount of difficulties faced by visually handicapped.
Soon, it was time to enter the darkness. A timid person like me tingled with a potent mix of fear and apprehension at the start of the journey. But, as we progressed on in the darkness with Jason, our visually handicapped guide, he quelled my fear with his constant encouragement. When we reached the end, Jason shared with us his life journey, and I was truly inspired by him. His positive spirit stirred my guilty conscience as I perpetually harped on trivial matters in life that is totally not worth expanding time and energy on as life has so much more to offer.
In my opinion, DID Singapore is a social enterprise that will give a new look to Singapore Social Enterprises as DID is a new concept whereby the beneficiaries are not only at the receiving end but are also responsible for the growth of the social enterprise. Hence it works both ways. It promotes the ideology of social enterprises and that is, we are not charitable organizations, but we are a business entity which aims to do business with a social purpose.
As regards to the BZSE and PCS students, DID acts as a platform to rediscover our objectives for both courses. For the PCS students DID will give them the opportunity to interact with the visually handicapped, thus having the taste of working with people of disabilities. Through this interaction, they may possibly ponder on what they can do to reach out to people with disabilities. As a student in BZSE, DID poses to me as a stepping stone to being a social entrepreneur, as I can put myself in a social entrepreneur’s shoes, hence thinking like one. With DID, BZSE students can practice on what they have learn, and gain the plentiful experience that we need as a BZSE student.
As a social enterprise model, I think there is a large pool of potential waiting to be unleashed and this mission is the responsibility of BZSE students. I feel that the BZSE students can contribute to DID social enterprise in a few areas. For example, we can devise methods to increase the publicity of DID in Singapore. BZSE students can volunteer for internships in DID as it will be a good chance to learn the ropes of being a social entrepreneur. Besides, we can plan events for DID to increase awareness in Ngee Ann itself. Essentially, my idea is for the BZSE students to be the walking ambassadors of DID! As, I strongly believe that the BZSE students have to believe that DID can work in order for DID social enterprise to expand to greater heights.
Amanda Neo
BZSE YEAR 2 STUDENT
CLASS T01