Development & Aid, Europe, Headlines, Health, Population

GERMANY: The Blind Lead the Way to a Unique Food Experience

Maricel Drazer

COLOGNE, Germany, Aug 10 2005 (IPS) - "It’s like entering a completely different world, suddenly everything in your own world just disappears," says Ralf Mechlinski, manager of the world’s first restaurant staffed entirely by the blind and visually impaired, where patrons are invited to experience what it is like to live without sight.

The Unsicht-Bar (Invisible Bar) in Cologne, not far from this German city’s world-famous cathedral, arose from an idea put forward by psychologist Axel Rudolph, who conceived of it as a means of promoting integration.

Diners are greeted at the door by a blind waiter, who guides them inside and gives them basic instructions: no smoking is allowed, and all mobile phones and even illuminated watches must be turned off.

They are then ushered single file through a "light lock" that separates the reception area from the restaurant itself, and are suddenly plunged into utter darkness.

The waiter reassures them that he will remain close by throughout the meal, and will come to the side of anyone who needs him within two or three minutes of being called.

He also explains the location of the eating utensils using the hands of a clock as a reference, with the spoons placed at 12 o’clock, for example, but adds that they are free to eat with their hands if they wish.

Once they are seated at their table, the patrons are not offered specific dishes, but rather types of food, such as fish, poultry, cheese or a vegetarian selection. By not being told what the particular ingredients of a dish are, they are more fully challenged to discover through their other senses what they would normally determine through sight.

"The food is different from other restaurants, because we try to preserve the original flavours of the ingredients. We try not to cover them up, so that people will be better able to recognise them," explained Mechlinski.

Once they have finished their meal, most diners head back to the reception area to confirm exactly what they have just eaten.

"I knew right away when I was eating sauerkraut, but I couldn’t identify any of the other foods. It’s incredible, I never would have thought that you eat with your eyes," said one woman who had come with her partner to celebrate a special date.

"When you come here, you put yourself in the place of a blind person for a moment. We’re only here for a few hours, and it’s like a game. But it’s really an amazing experience, it helps you understand what life is like for people who can’t see," commented Heiko, another diner.

Rudolph noted that dining at the Unsicht-Bar involves a kind of role reversal. "People who are sighted arrive as ‘able’ individuals and suddenly become ‘disabled’, while the blind or visually impaired become the ‘able’ ones. The usual roles are switched," he explained.

Waiter Felisberto Assuba, who has worked at the restaurant longer than any of the other staff members, lost 88 percent of his sight in a car accident. Forced to start his life over, he found not only employment and emotional support at Unsicht-Bar, but also a new sense of meaning to his existence.

"For me this job is very important," Assuba told IPS. "It’s an opportunity to show and explain to people who can see how those of us who can’t see manage to get by. For just a short while, they can feel what we feel."

The Unsicht-Bar is a valuable source of employment for a dozen blind and visually impaired workers, and its success has led to the opening of another in Berlin.

There are roughly 650,000 blind or visually impaired people in Germany, out of a total population of 82 million.

The unemployment rate in this segment of the population is over 60 percent, according to estimates from organisations of the blind and visually impaired, compared to a national average of less than 10 percent.

"Working here represents the only job position on earth where blind people are needed and valued because of their disability," said Rudolph.

In the meantime, for those who visit the restaurant, the focus is not placed on the brief experience of losing their sight, but rather on enhancing their other senses.

"The idea is to show that perception is a holistic process. When you can’t see, then the other senses take over," he remarked.

Most patrons find that after only a few minutes of being immersed in total darkness, their senses of hearing, smell, taste and touch are heightened.

The restaurant can evoke highly diverse reactions in people, Rudolph noted. A small number ask to leave almost immediately after entering, while others refuse to even come through the door.

"Sometimes fears and insecurities can emerge. There are some people who cannot bear losing control," he said.

"You feel totally helpless, absolutely powerless," remarked one diner who was clearly relieved to emerge from the darkness.

But for those who are brave enough to accept the challenge, the restaurant offers "an opportunity to delve into your own inner self," Mechlinski commented to IPS.

It also gives diners the chance "to relate with others in a special way," he added.

"In here, everyone is equal, any judgements based on surface appearances just disappear. Often there are diners who don’t know each other and begin to talk together anyway, regardless of differences in age, sex or social class," he said.

As one patron, Jörn, explained after spending over two hours inside, "this restaurant is not like others where people go to see and be seen" – a refreshing reprieve from superficial concerns.

Or as another diner summed it up in the visitors book: "An occasion when you don’t need to use your eyes. Hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling: a totally different experience in time and space."