OCC1011: Professional Issues Assessment Task 2022

OCC1011: Professional Issues
Assessment Task 1
Lived Experience Reflective Essay
(2,500 words; 30% of unit grade)
Student Name: Lateifah Rashed Ahmed Alyammahi
Student Number:28978579
Tutor:
Time of Tutorial:
Total Word Count:
Date of Submission:
Number of Pages:
Number of References:

Introduction:
Before discussing about disabilities it is important to know that people are essential
members of our society. Disability can be experienced by anyone at any stage of their life and
can be a result of sensory, neurological, physical, intellectual, cognitive or psychiatric
impairment or a combination of these. Furthermore, people with disabilities need special care
and a therapist can pursue their goals and dreams for a good life. Consequently, occupational
therapy is a section of the overall treatment plan that people with disabilities are using. The
overall aim is to promote the individual’s skills to proceed with daily activities in a way that
can help the teaches to enhance their quality of life. As a student of occupational therapy, it is
essential to examine the challenges that disabled people, face that can help us understand the
skills of analysis and thinking outside the box. This is an important aspect for achieving a
high level of awareness and enhance our experience as future therapists. This essay, will
provide two types of disability including the inability to move, which requires the owner to
use the wheelchair (Sunderland, Newby & Andrews, 2013). The second disability is the loss
of sight or visual impairment which requires the use of glasses and will display the
difficulties. A student can face these difficulties in the university life or their movement in the
campus.
Description of First Lived Experience:
Firstly, a wheelchair is a type of chair with wheels to help people move around. It is used
by disabled people. People having the issue called physical impairment are observed with
using the wheelchairs mostly. In this case, the wheelchairs are used as a tool to measure the
physical challenges faced by the physically challenged people (Vila, Darcy & González,
2015). We proceeded our assignment by following the instruction provided by the instructors.
Every individual student was provided with the facility to select the partner to start the
experiment with wheelchair. I started the experiment with visiting building D of the library.
The library was flexible enough with one obstacle of narrow pathway for wheelchair
movement (Brooker et al., 2013). However, the entrance of the library was expanded enough
for proper movement. Entering into the library was comparatively easy than moving upward
to the second floor through the staircase. The facility was not enough to take the impaired
people at the second floor and access the books. If the disabled person has any connection
with the librarian or assisted with any family members then only the person can access books
from the library. On the other hand, the computer access provide a benefit for the impaired
members of the library. After that, my partner was positioned for the wheelchair and we
moved towards the G building (Cologon, 2013). The entrance contains an electrical door that
was not comfortable to be used by the people with wheelchair. On the other hand, the
elevator made it quite easy to move from floor to floor in this building. There was a café at
the building and we moved forward to examine the feasibility and accessibility of the café by
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the disabled person. It was an attractive café with fast and quality service by the workers.
Afterwards, we headed for the D building using the same elevator of the G building.
Description of Second Live Experience:
Second obstacle selected for the assignment was visual impairedness or vision loss. We
used the simulated glass to examine for this case analysis. A simulated glass provides the
person the ability to move between one place to another. Here, we will be examining the
simulating glass in helping the needy people to perform library related activities. Visual
impairment or vision loss is one of the most challenging situations faced by the most
Australian people (Le et al., 2013). According to the study, the average rate of blindness is
three times more in the indigenous people rather than the non-indigenous people. After
fulfilling the first task, we started with the second measurement followed by a forty-five
minutes break. I used the simulated glass first and moved towards the campus bookshop to
locate the textbook of my choice. I selected the book related to my research work with
appropriate information for the subject of anatomy and physiology. Visit to the bookshop and
selecting the book was a good experience. However, using the computer for locating the book
in the library was not easy enough. Yet the entire procedure was not way to complicated for
me. Only hurdle was to access the computer with the simulated glass. After that, it was the
turn of the partner to complete the task. My partner for this assignment also faced the similar
experience. As per the instruction, completing the two tasks, we went from the front parking
to the Student Service office at the U building. We reached at the U building following the
direction signs provided at the campus instructions. According to my colleague, the signs
were not clear enough and we reached at the building with my assistance. Along with this,
my partner got a text message and it was difficult to understand the message from the less
bright screen with the simulated glass. However, the last task assigned for the work was to
visit the cafeteria which was a greater experience for me as well as for my partner. This was
the time we enjoyed most among all the assigned tasks of the assignment.
Critical Reflection:
The assignment is an experience of examining two different kinds of disability commonly
found within the Australian community. As the initial requirement, the tutor provided us with
some specific tips and specification to fulfill the assignment. It included, focusing on the
tools to be experimented by us for the activity. The tools used for this assignment are
wheelchair and simulated glass. It is important to note that, use of wheelchair require the
proper knowledge about its handling. The person needs to understand the safety and cautious
steps to be followed for using a wheelchair. The first task was to access the library of
building D moving along with the wheelchair. It was important to note the facility of the
staircase and proper spacing at the enter and exit of the building. We tried to enter into the
building from building G and the obstacle was still there for the wheelchair user. Second task
was dedicated for the visually impaired person. Accessing the library with the simulated glass
was not easy for me as well as for my partner. Even, my partner experienced difficulty in
reading the parking direction and text message received in the phone.
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