For an evening, residence hall students walked through life in the darkness to experience their surroundings through the eyes of a visually impaired person.

Students attending a disability speech sponsored by the Inter-Residence Hall Association and People Understanding Disabilities stumbled through the Maple Hall classroom with their eyes blindfolded and looked through binoculars to get a different view of life.

Aimee Birlingmair, disability resident graduate assistant, conducted a quiz and led students through the events Thursday to explain how to work with the blind. “This helps them to understand their perceptions because it is difficult for us to imagine when we have always had the ability to see normally,” said Birlingmair, graduate student in history.

Students learned about visual, mental, speech, hearing and mobility impairments. The speakers also offered advice on how to work with people who have these kinds of impairments.

“[We wanted students] to come away with an experience of what it is like to have a disability,” People Understanding Disabilities adviser Gwen Woodward said.

Iowa State’s programs for the disabled is growing, yet they do not let the students know what is available, said Katie Greiman, president of People Understanding Disabilities, an organization that fights for a more holistic comprehension of disabilities.

“My first semester I struggled half way through a class, but then I found out I could have someone that is paid by ISU to take notes for me,” said Greiman, who has an 80 percent hearing loss due to a premature birth.

She said her grades suffered until she found out about the note-taking system. “The students really have to be aware of the accommodations,” said Greiman, junior in communication studies. “They really put it as the responsibilities of the students to get help when they need it.”

During the speech-impairment session, Susann Heft, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies, stuttered as she began her presentation to show how perceptions of her changed based on her speech. The students replied by saying they saw her as being dumb and it took too long to listen to her speech.

Becky Vianden, who works in the Academic Success Center, challenged students to trace between lines while watching their hand in a mirror. The activity during the learning skills segment was designed to portray how someone with dyslexia functions.

“They have to sift out and take certain things to understand and represent reality in a way they can comprehend,” said Vianden, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies.

Brian Hickey, junior in agricultural business, participated and found how people with a learning disability must use additional processes.

“I had to imagine writing a star and then check myself by the mirror,” he said.

The event concluded with a wheelchair obstacle course. Students wheeled up a steep grade that strained their arms.