[nabs-l] Opinions wanted on an event.

Arielle Silverman arielle71 at gmail.com
Tue Oct 2 04:01:48 UTC 2012


Hi John,
As you may know, I am doing research for my dissertation on how
blindness simulations affect attitudes about blindness. At this point
in my research I have found that brief blindness simulations, if not
done carefully  and with the involvement of blind people, can do quite
a bit of harm. I do believe it is possible to conduct a simulation
that is not harmful, but I am still a little doubtful of how much a
simulation could actually help foster more positive attitudes. If you
do go the simulation route, I think it is imperative to include tasks
that are simple enough for a blindfolded person to do a good job at
them after only a short bit of training. For example, a cane walk
should be relatively simple and short-distance, and ideally include a
lot of guidance from blind people. One finding from my early research
is that the more trouble people have during simulations, the more
negative their attitudes become. If you include tasks that people can
do well at, or learn how to do nonvisually in a brief period of time,
the simulation may not be harmful. The headphone thing may actually be
a decent idea. However, I still question whether the simulations
actually benefit people more than doing nothing at all.
Two other things you should do. First, I believe it is imperative to
have at least one person with the disability either in charge of any
activities specific to that disability, or at least on hand to answer
questions. That means if you specifically focus on both blindness and
mobility disabilities, you'll want to have someone who is blind and
someone who uses a wheelchair who can both talk about the alternative
techniques they use that are specific to their disability.
Second, instead of doing physical simulations like cane walks or
wheelchair rides, you might consider  giving a talk where you have
people imagine they are on an alien planet where, say, everybody else
has X-ray vision or is able to fly. Have them imagine being treated
like they are helpless, or unable to find  a job, just because they
walk instead of fly or because they read print instead of reading in
X-ray. With some creativity, you could tell a story that shows how
reading Braille isn't any worse than reading print, but the only
reason blindness is  considered a "disability" is because everybody
else in society uses a different reading medium than you do and
society is set up for the majority.
Best of luck,
Arielle

On 10/1/12, John Moore <coasterfreak88 at me.com> wrote:
> We'd need to figure out what to do if we were going to do that. We were not
> going to have someone walk sighted guide.
>
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