work experience
When I wasn't able to get my first or second choice of work experience placements the school decided to send me to a back-up place they keep for just such occasions. I knew nothing about this place except that is was a distribution warehouse for various products and I was to be gaining valuable experience as the office junior doing the usual photocopying, faxing, filing, etc.

It took a couple of days of working there to realise that almost everyone in the place had some kind of disability and this was actually a place to enable disabled people to gain enough skills and experience to go out and become part of the workforce.

I was doing some photocopying when the paper ran out and, having never used a photocopier before, I had to ask for help re-filling it. One of the office girls came over and bent down to pick up some fresh paper from a box on the floor and only after she'd been struggling for a while to pick it up I noticed she had and artificial arm so could only use her good hand to grab the paper. So I said to her "do you need a hand?"

I ran and hid in the toilets until the redness subsided
(antigen is running away from something, Wed 3 Dec 2008, 2:27, 3 replies)

Easily done
We sold our kitchen on Ebay (we've also sold 60 bags of dirt for £1 too but that's a whole other story).

My missus spoke to the guy about how he was going to pick it up, we discussed the possible problems of getting it fit into a VW Golf and left it at that. All he asked was that if there could be someone to help move the kitchen to the car.

He turns up at the appropriate time, I answer the door and go to shake his right hand. He offers up his left and I realise that his whole right arm is false. He's obviously so use to it that he forgets to mention it on the phone.

It also didn't stop him from carry the cabinet shells and the solid wood work top.

It wasn't until we'd move the kitchen into his car that he went to pick something else up...and of course the obvious happened, "do you need a hand?" came flying out of my mouth.

What can you do? I just pretended it didn't have any connotations to what I had meant, he didn't even raise an eyebrow.

Oh what fun.
( bacon and egg roll is going to be big downunder, Wed 3 Dec 2008, 2:52, closed)

I wouldn't worry too much
'do you need a hand' is a common phrase.
You will often hear blind people saying 'see you later' and other similar phrases.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Wed 3 Dec 2008, 7:26, closed)

I know...
... but as a 14 year old kid I hadn't encountered too many people with disabilities so I was mortified!!

A year later my mum lost her leg and got a prosthetic one which helped put it into perspective. Her favourite joke was "look at me, I'm legless!"
(antigen is running away from something, Thu 4 Dec 2008, 2:52, closed)