The Blindfolded Exercise Experiment.

To gain a better understanding of clients. We aim to invest ourselves into their lives and try to experience what they do as best we can. With the go-ahead from the client’s mother, we decided to to a blindfolded exercise experiment.

Our aim was to experience the sounds, feelings, and sensations as close to what the clients would feel, by doing so. I was also trained by one of our EP’s with strong EP experience in many fields but no experience in training someone who is blind. We would both learn.

The “client’s” main learnings:

• While I was familiar with my own gym I still found my orientation off of where I was in it.
• I was hyper-aware of the language used and whether it was useful.
• The descriptions were off, such as using colour or a description explaining what it looks like.
• While I understood the description as I’d seen it before, would someone who’s never seen a cable or pulley understand it, perhaps taking their hand and placing it on the cable and pulley, running along the movement pattern would be best?).
• I wanted to EP at times to just take my hand/arm/leg and place it onto where it needed to be
• I wanted to be lead more from in front rather that side on.
• I tended to shuffle unless I knew the EP was in front of me, in case I kicked something.
• I was totally unable to open my eyes if I wanted to due to the theraband blindfold holding them down (it was rubber), and not knowing at times where someone was either by voice or touch was quite anxiety-inducing.

The “EP trainer’s” main learnings:

• Typically would help someone by describing then getting them to independently complete it (with supervision) to the total opposite of this.
• We need to provide the “independence” for them in many cases.
• Over-describing things and then needing to find a different version of the words used to get the outcome. Is a word even needed vs using feel?
• Typically and EP would assist someone from the side as part of a professional relationship, as to being in their space right in front of them, in this case, that may have been needed.
• What is safe and suitable for someone whom is blind vs someone with full vision?

What did you learn? Hope you enjoyed it. It was also raining heavily so there’s some of that noise through the clip.