AARP Eye Center
News To Know: Walk A Mile In Someone Else's Shoes
By Dave Goldstein, August 4, 2008 09:01 AM
What would it be like to be 85? Many people wonder what things will be like later in life, but few actually get the opportunity to experience this. At one retirement community in Ohio, employees are getting such a chance. In order to better understand the people they serve, employees of the retirement community took part in a course in which they put on glasses to distort vision, put cotton balls in their mouths and noses to inhibit hearing and smell, and wore gloves with rubber bands on the knuckles to simulate a loss of dexterity. These people could experience what it's like to be 85. The result? A much greater understanding of the trials and tribulations that older Americans go through every day.