[Nfbf-l] Blindfolding Sighted People: Beware of Simulation

[Marion & Martin]

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

 

http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr21/fr06ws09.htm

 



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.     

 

 

http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm04/bm0411/bm041108.htm                                                                           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.