[Ohio-talk] Fwd: [AERNet] Interesting study on unintended consequences of vision impairment simulation

[Marianne Denning]

I have always thought this was the case.  Using simulators for a very
short period of time only makes people more afraid of blindness rather
than helping people understand what we are capable of accomplishing.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andrea Story <story.andrea at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:35:06 -0900
Subject: [AERNet] Interesting study on unintended consequences of
vision impairment simulation
To: aer net list <aernet at lists.aerbvi.org>

"Simulated sightlessness can have negative effects on people's perceptions
of visual impaired"

This topic (unintended effects of blindfolding during short presentations)
has been discussed before on our listservs and Donna Sauerburger shared an
interesting alternative to the typical vision impairment simulation for
presentations a few years ago. I wish I could find that post but I cannot.
Below is an excerpt (and link) of the article on a recent research study on
this topic.

"Using simulation to walk in the shoes of a person who is blind -- such as
wearing a blindfold while performing everyday tasks -- has negative effects
on people's perceptions of the visually impaired, according to a University
of Colorado Boulder study.

"When people think about what it would be like to be blind, they take from
their own brief and relatively superficial experience and imagine it would
be really, really terrible and that they wouldn't be able to function
well," said Arielle Silverman, who is lead author of the paper and blind."
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150115/Simulated-sightlessness-can-have-negative-effects-on-peoples-perceptions-of-visually-impaired.aspx

-Andrea Story
Anchorage, AK



-- 
Marianne Denning, TVI, MA
Teacher of students who are blind or visually impaired
(513) 607-6053