Coco’s Challenge I

Are you a risk taker?  Do you have high apathy? Do you really know how the Deaf Blind live, think, eat, communicate?

Then you should see what kind of challenge I have for you. Click on this and see if this easy, 5-minute challenge will open your mind a little more. Or rather, open your eyes.

Coco’s Challenge

July 4, 2007

I’ll be out of town this weekend. When I return, I want to see more than 40 comments here. I want to hear details. Stories, even.

I don’t really think a lot of people will do this. Not when history has proven over and over again.

Prove me wrong.

Tactile love,

Coco

Transcript done by Kate – many, many thanks!

TRANSCRIPT

Coco here. I have a challenge for you sighted people who have good vision – no eye disease, perfect 20/20 vision, or around that. It doesn’t really matter. Also the deafblind group – people with Usher’s Syndrome, full blindness, unclear vision, spots of vision, up-close vision – both groups are included in the challenge. Deaf blind who already know tactile sign, deafblind who don’t know tactile sign, sighted people who don’t know tactile sign, please get involved.

This is a challenge you can’t back out of. Once you commit to it you have to see ith through. Do it, okay? Ready? Are you ready for the challenge? Okay. It’s simple. Just five minutes, five little minutes of your time – that’s it, five minutes. Find a partner that can sign really well, get together with them and ask if they want to do the challenge. Go ahead and get two blindfolds, put them over your eyes, get close to each other, and TRY tactile signing. Tactile with sign language, ASL, for Americans, or BSL (British Sign Language), or GSL (German Sign Language), Hungarian [???]….ANY international sign language. Just sign language period. Take turns signing tactily.

If you don’t understand the signs, go ahead and fingerspell the alphabet. Slowly, patiently, take your time, don’t rush. Try to understand through touch. Take turns. Or you can do it in the dark without any light. That’s fine, it’s up to you. I challenge you because many many people see that I am an expert. “Coco, you are an expert! How?” they say. I just tell them that it only took me 2-3 weeks to learn the basics. It’s quite a challenge! Learn how to feel the alphabet plus signs. Now I can use one hand, but it used to be that I needed two hands to even struggle to figure out what was being signed. Like D-O-G, short, sits on the lap, and I still wouldn’t understand. They would sign again D-O-G, and by carefully feeling their fingers I was able to understand – dog. It was a struggle, but finally I could do it. Like YOU, now saying “But I don’t know tactile sign!” Just try.

It’s good for emergency situations too. What if the world’s electricity suddenly went out and the lights were out. Everything would be dark and you couldn’t wait until sunrise…everything’s dark. Where do you find the candles? How do you get by? You’d need a divverent mode of communication if you had no candles or light whatsoever. You need to communicate in such an emergency to know where to go. Think about it. You can talk and say “Coco, that sounds good, that challenge!” Go ahead and continue, or mock me. I can take it. Just do it right now, do it tonight, do it soon, and please let me know if you’ve done the challenge. Leave your stories in the comments on my blog. Come on! Good luck. Goodnight wherever you are around the world. Love ya!