DisBlueCircle

  • Mic’d

    I landed in Austin, Texas this Friday, for a semester. I’ve discussed the needed accommodations with the responsible departments, and still was somewhat worried. I’m not used to getting live transcription in lectures, for example. It’s actually quite the opposite: at least for a while, I was known for being the one sharing her notes on every course.

    Well, I was in for a surprise. Not only was it surprisingly easy to set up the hardware and software needed to get the captioner going, the professors recognized the neck microphone and asked me whether they should wear it. For the first time in a while, I got every word that was said in the class.

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  • A Bath

    I hate showers. I have nothing against taking a shower. Once I’m in and the water’s running, everything’s great. Everything else, the logistics needed to get me to this moment, terrifies me. There are so many possible accidents just waiting to happen. When a look at a bathroom, I see a slippery floor. I pay attention to any unsupervised soap. Baths are especially nasty, as I usually can’t get in without help, or I need help getting out.

    Last Friday, for the first time ever, I checked a bathroom and saw an opportunity. I saw a tub and a handle in the right height. I took no chances, and tried getting in and out when it was dry. Then I filled it, grabbed the handle and very carefully sat down. Then, a bit confused, very tired and somewhat surprised, I took a bath.

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  • Gifts

    I’ve always had a special relationship with medicine. As a kid, I often had to undergo tests to determine my accurate condition. To better break the news to me, my parents sometimes connected a checkup with a gift. I got the fourth Harry Potter this way, and read it while waiting for an especially harsh examination. However, with all due respect to The Boy Who Lived, the best gift I ever got after being a young patient was a building game. I saw it in one of the clinics I was treated at, and got hooked. My parents, an engineer and a math lecturer, obviously loved it. When I woke up after the next medical event, I was still quite blurry and recovering from the anesthesia. But I saw my parents standing next to me with a box in a familiar shape. I smiled, then fell asleep again as they rolled my bed somewhere else.

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  • Thorns

    When I was in 6th grade, I had a reading part in a ceremony at school. I was so excited. To get on the stage, that was actually just the front yard of the school, was a bit difficult. All the kids had to stand together, very close to each other, on a ramp. The ramp was next to a big bush of roses. During the final rehearsal, someone made a wrong move next to me. I lost my already shaken balance and fell straight on the roses. Even though two teachers were present, the lesson was not learned. The same happened on the actual event. I didn’t get to read my part. As my dad helped me walk to the car, I heard some other girl reading it.

    When we got home, Dad cleaned the wound and estimated the damage. I sat on my bed and cried. I still had one more part left to read, toward the end of the ceremony. “We can make it,” he said, “Do you want to go back?”. I didn’t want to. But whenever I notice the scar again, I regret not returning.

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  • Why DisBlueCircle?

    Hi! Great meeting you. This is a stage I long thought I don’t even need. It started as a project for a seminar I was taking, and I hope it’ll grow into something else.
    I tried to find a simple, clean way to communicate disability and life situations surrounding it. Every post will include a drawing of a real situation I encountered, with some context and explanations. Honestly, I’m more excited about making it up as I go along. We’ll see what happens! So for now: Hello, I’m The Blue Circle.