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face=Arial><BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: Marion & Martin
<swampfox1833@verizon.net><BR>To: NFBF List
<nfbf-l@nfbnet.org><BR>Sent: Thu, Sep 10, 2009 4:43 am<BR>Subject:
[Nfbf-l] Blindfolding Sighted People: Beware of Simulation<BR><BR></DIV>
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id=AOLMsgPart_0_144c7b3b-a4a3-4254-8c48-739f0fae71ba><PRE style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><TT>Dear All,
I thought it would be instructive for everyone to read the entire text of
Carol Castellano's article concerning simulation exercises. Members may remember
that Carol was the guest of the Florida Parents of Blind Children seminar in
2007 and is the author of "To Touch the Stars", a book that brings astronomy to
blind children.
Fraternally yours,
Marion Gwizdala
Beware of Simulation
by Carol Castellano
<A title=http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr21/fr06ws09.htm href="http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr21/fr06ws09.htm" target=_blank>http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr21/fr06ws09.htm</A>
Teachers are often tempted to use simulation exercises to raise awareness and
"to show students what it is like to be blind." In these exercises, sighted
students don a blindfold and then attempt to perform various tasks or walk
around the school building being guided by a classmate to "build trust."
What are the goals of such exercises? Sighted students will probably have
trouble performing tasks under blindfold that they are accustomed to doing with
their eyesight. Is the goal to show them how hard it is to be blind? Sighted
students will probably be nervous giving over their safety to a guide who
is walking them around. Is the goal to show that blind people are helpless and
dependent and must put their trust in good-hearted sighted people in order
to get anywhere or to keep from falling down a flight of stairs?
Before you embark on such an activity, think about what you want the students to
learn. Wearing a blindfold for a little while might show what it would
be like to suddenly lose vision, but it certainly does not show what it is like
to be blind. Real blind/VI people learn a series of skills that enable
them to perform tasks without or with very little eyesight. Likewise, real
blind/VI people learn mobility skills so that they can trust themselves and
get where they need to go.
If children are blindfolded but are not taught any of the skills that real
blind/VI people use, they are likely to emerge from a simulation experience
feeling
that blindness/visual impairment is scary, sad, and difficult. Is this what you
want them to think blindness/visual impairment is like? Instead of fostering
acceptance, understanding, and respect, these exercises engender sadness, fear,
and pity. Instead of thinking of their blind/VI classmate as a potential
friend, students can end up feeling more distant from their blind/VI classmate
and feeling sorry for him or her.
<A title=http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm04/bm0411/bm041108.htm href="http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm04/bm0411/bm041108.htm" target=_blank>http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm04/bm0411/bm041108.htm</A>
November 2004
Half a Cup
by Dave Hyde
Dave Hyde
Dave Hyge
>From the Editor: Dave Hyde currently serves as secretary of the Rock County
chapter of the NFB of Wisconsin, is the affiliate's director of governmental
affairs, coordinates the Imagination Fund for Wisconsin, and is the newly
elected secretary of the affiliate. At work he develops and schedules
professional
development activities for vision teachers and O and M specialists all over the
state. In his spare time he coaches goal ball.
In the following little article Dave grapples with a frustration faced by many
competent blind people. His conclusion sheds some light, even if it does
not solve the problem. This is what he says:
Until she died, my mother never poured me more than half a cup of coffee. I'm
sure this was something she learned from some book or class about how blind
people did things. Somehow, some way, she learned that handling more than half a
cup of hot liquid would be hazardous and must be avoided.
She and I discussed her half-cup habit over the years and agreed that I should
have a full cup like everyone else and that I didn't spill a full cup any
more frequently than she did. But every time she poured it, the cup was half
full. As I grew up, I realized that there was a difference between what she
knew from experience about blindness and what she had learned from sighted
professionals about it. She had taken some parent training when I was very
young,
part of which involved eating under blindfold. She told me that it was very
hard, that she was afraid of spilling, and that after the experience she
understood
how hard it was for blind people to eat.
Strangely enough, I have never had any problem transporting food from the plate
to my mouth, drinking from a full cup, or locating things on a table. I
have done it every day because I have only two choices: eat or starve. I have
always preferred the former. Looking back, I can now see the difference between
what my mother was taught and what she learned. Mom was taught that she couldn't
do things as well under a blindfold as she could when she could see, but
the lesson she drew from this fact was that my experience would always be just
like her lesson under the blindfold.
The first of these statements is true. It is hard for a sighted person to do
things under a blindfold. The blindfold simulates total blindness and requires
the participant to do things in a way which is new, uncomfortable, and fearful.
I have often likened learning of the skills of blindness to learning to
drive a car. You can't or shouldn't assume that, just because a person owns a
car, he or she can drive it. Driving requires instruction and practice.
Eventually,
however, driving becomes easier and ultimately a matter of habit. The difficulty
with my mother's simulated blindness was that she didn't stick with it
long enough to develop skill. Incorrect though it was, she learned her lesson
well. Even after being around successful blind people at conventions; seeing
me married, employed, and successful; and knowing that many of the things she
couldn't do under blindfold my friends and I do all the time, she still
remembered
how hard it had been for her and behaved accordingly.
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