Observation: Sometimes, when it’s not a true disability, it’s actually funny when people can’t see or hear well.
Case in point – my new team was in training for two days in Chicago. My boss pulled out her iPad to share some photos with us. The first photo was of her dog, lying on a doggie bed. One person she showed it to said, “That’s adorable. And it’s so classical looking because it’s in black and white.”
Um. The thing is, the photo wasn’t in black and white. Nothing about it lacked color, from any angle. I’m pretty sure I wrinkled my brow trying to squint my eyes and see it in every possible way, and I could see my boss, shifting the iPad in every direction to see if it appeared even sepia when blurred. It did not.
We both silently shrugged it off, until the next picture popped up, featuring a dog on a different (red) doggie bed with paw prints all over it. “So cute!” the woman exclaimed. “It looks like a ladybug!”
Again with the record scratch. A ladybug?!?
I’m open to creative interpretations – trust me, I LIKE to find animal faces in wood paneling knots – but I just wasn’t seeing this. Then, thirty seconds later she exclaimed, “Oh! There’s a dog there!”
WHAT??? What did you think she was showing us, a pillow?
I’ll cut her some slack – she’s new, she was tired, and she was viewing it on an iPad held at an odd angle across a table. But it still made me giggle.
Given all the psychological evaluations employers perform now to ensure they’re not hiring a freak, it occurred to me that we could patent our own test, using random photos and an iPad. “What do you see here?” I imagine us asking.
Then we present the following image:
And in my mind, the ad promoting this new app I’ve developed sounds like a cross between a Mastercard and an Apple commercial.
Want to find out if your new co-worker is a whack-job?
There’s an app for that.
Confirming she finds butt-humor as funny as you do?
Priceless.
pithypants 
I can’t hear that well but it isn’t a real disability, and when people mumble to me, I hear all KINDS of strange things. Please make me part of your interview process.