What's Your Handicap?

The US Census data estimated that there were 52.6 million Americans with disabilities. Nearly half of these people are characterized as having mild or non-severe disabilities such as depression, color-blindness, and dwarfism. A person with a non-severe disability has difficulty performing one or more activities of daily living, but is not necessarily incapable of performing these functions or activities.

Chances are you sit across from one of them at the game table. Understanding how they see the world — and how they see the games they play — can help you appreciate the difficulties they must overcome.

General Data

The following table of data from the Harris Survey of Americans with Disabilities in 2000 compares the general population, the severely disabled, and the non-severely disabled.

* Go to events related to their hobbies such as dancing, art shows, or events for collectors 4 or more times per year.
** Socialize with friends, family, and neighbors at least once per week.

Color-blindness

There are three types of color receptors in our eyes: red, green and blue. Color blindness occurs when one or more of the color receptors are damaged or malformed. The result is a lack of perceptual sensitivity to certain colors. Color-blindness is usually caused by genetics, but can also be the result of injury, disease, or the aging process.

Most color perception defects are for red or green, or both. Yellow-blue color-blindness is the second most common form, but is very rare. Total color-blindness, known as achromatopsia, is almost entirely unknown.

Fast Facts About Color-Blindness

• About 10% of males have a color perception defect, but it is rare in females.
• 99% of color deficiencies are red, green, or red-green.
• 7% of men, .4% of women suffer from Red-Green color blindness.
• When people age, their corneas typically turn yellowish, reducing their ability to see blue colors. This is not color-blindness.

Click the Start/Reset button to see games through the eyes of a color-blind person:

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is not just a severe reading disorder characterized by reversals. The symptoms also include:

• Poor handwriting.
• Memory instability for spelling, grammar, math, names, dates, and lists.
• Speech disorders such as slurring, stuttering, and poor word recall.
• Right/left confusion.

Dyslexia is most likely caused by problems in the inner-ear system which can be a result of frequent ear infections and colds during childhood. Genetics may also play a part as dyslexia tends to run in families.

Fast Facts About Dyslexia

• The word dyslexia is derived from a Greek word meaning 'difficulty with words'.
• Dyslexia affects between 5% and 12% of the population.
• Boys are two to three times more likely to suffer from dyslexia than girls.

Click the Start button to see games through the eyes of a person with dyslexia:

Dwarfism

Dwarfism is an umbrella term for a genetic defect that causes a person to have disproportionately short arms and legs. The most common form of dwarfism is achondroplasia. If both parents have achondroplasia, there is a 25% the child will be average-size.

The average height of someone with achondroplasia is 4 feet.

The symptoms of dwarfism are untreatable, although some people with achondroplasia and hypochondroplasia undergo limb-lengthening surgery.

Fast Facts About Dwarfism

• Achondroplasia occurs in one per 26,000 to 40,000 births.
• Most children with dwarfism are from parents of average stature.
• The difference between dwarves and midgets is that midgets are proportionally small.
• The preferred term for a dwarf is "Little Person".
• There are over 200 verified types of Dwarfism.

Click the Start/Reset button to see games through the eyes of a little person:

Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by the following symptoms:

• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• Cataplexy (sudden, brief episodes of muscle weakness or paralysis brought on by strong emotions such as laughter, anger, surprise or anticipation)
• Sleep paralysis (paralysis upon falling asleep or waking up)
• Hypnagogic hallucinations (vivid dream-like images that occur at sleep onset)

Narcolepsy is caused by missing cells from the hypothalamus that secrete a hormone called hypocretin, or orexin, which normally stimulates arousal and helps regulate sleep. The cause of these missing cells is unknown and there is no cure, however many medications are available to treat the symptoms of narcolepsy.

Fast Facts about Narcolepsy

• Affects more than 1 in every 2,000 Americans.
• Affects both sexes equally.
• Usually strikes people in their mid-teens to about the age of 25.
• Most individuals are unaware they have a sleep disorder and are not diagnosed, some are even misdiagnosed and thus not treated.

Click the Play/Reset button to see games through the eyes of a narcoleptic:

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by drastic measures to prevent weight gain such as self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives, diuretics and enemas, and excessive exercise. Bulimics also tend to have distorted images of their bodies.

Fast Facts about Bulimia Nervosa

• Affects 3% of young women.
• There may be a small genetic contribution to the occurrence of the disorder.
• Frequent and regular vomiting does not cause weight loss.

Click the Start/Reset button to see games through the eyes of a bulimic:

Unpaid Advertisement