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

Fri Sep 11 02:47:09 UTC 2009

Debby,
    I stand corrected! I guess I got the two of them mixed up! Well, at 
least they both wrote some books on better education for the blind child! I 
got that much right! (smile)

Fraternally yours,
Marion

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Debby B" <bwbddl at yahoo.com>
To: "NFB of Florida Listserv" <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 7:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Nfbf-l] Blindfolding Sighted People: Beware of Simulation


> Marion, wanted to make a quick correction. Carol Castellano wrote "Making 
> It Work: Educating the Blind/Visually Impaired Student in the Regular 
> School," on which we based our first parents' seminars. She also wrote 
> "Bridge to Braille" and "Because Books Matter."  The astronomy books were 
> written by Noreen Grice, who has also been a keynote speaker for the 
> parents' division.
>
> Debby
> bwbddl at yahoo.com
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Marion & Martin <swampfox1833 at verizon.net>
> To: NFBF List <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 4:43:06 AM
> Subject: [Nfbf-l] Blindfolding Sighted People: Beware of Simulation
>
> 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.
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