Re: New Research: "Blindness Simulation" Activities May Do More Harm than Good

Of course such simulation can be manipulated regardless of the
subject. I've read "studies" by well-meaning folk who lived for a
week or even a month in simulated poverty. I've also read studies by
White people who pretended to be Black, Mexican, Indian....you name
it. Too much of it is VooDoo psychology. I will not speculate the
underlying reasons, but profit does come to mind.
Before I forget it, I would like to be involved in a study simulating
what it is like to be very wealthy. I'd also like to simulate what
being sighted is like, but that's getting a bit crazy.
So in my humble opinion, it's all Bogus. "Let's Pretend We're Blind",
will change nothing anymore than, "Let's pretend we're Black....or
Gay." Do you think the simulating being a woman will change men's
attitudes toward women? Or women pretending for a day that they are
men? I'd be careful about peeing while standing up. All such
simulation is, is a method to grab a bit of attention. But in the
long run, it is not going to damage the current image of blindness,
nor improve it. In ten years we will have just about the same
attitudes we have today. Blind and sighted alike.
If we're going to waste time, let's do it on something more enjoyable.
Let's Shanghai one of those luxury cruise ships and simulate a bunch
of folks on a month long vacation to the Mediterranean. I'll even
take notes.

Carl Jarvis

On 1/25/15, David Chittenden <dchittenden@gmail.com> wrote:
> This study is attempting to match the NFB's agenda against simulations
> rather than following the facts. It is an excellent illustration of how
> statistics can be used to massage and manipulate the data to fit the desihed
> outcomes.
>
> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA
> Email: dchittenden@gmail.com
> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On 26 Jan 2015, at 06:45, ted chittenden <tchittenden@cox.net> wrote:
>>
>> The problem with this article (I don't know if it's true with the study)
>> is that the author relied too much on personal information and personal
>> preferences over statistical information when imparting the study's
>> results.
>> --
>> Ted Chittenden
>>
>> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
>> ---- "S. Kashdan" <skashdan@scn.org> wrote:
>> New Research: "Blindness Simulation" Activities May Do More Harm than Good
>>
>>
>>
>> by Maureen Duffy
>>
>>
>>
>> VisionAware, January 22, 2015
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.visionaware.org/blog/visionaware-blog/new-research-blindness-simulation-activities-may-do-more-harm-than-good-1746/12?mode=print
>>
>>
>>
>> New research findings from the University of Colorado indicate that
>> blindness simulations--intended to be bridge-builders resulting in greater
>>
>> compassion and understanding--can sometimes harm rather than help.
>> According
>> to the authors, simulation activities, and blindness simulations in
>> particular, "highlight the initial challenges of becoming disabled" and
>> thus
>> "decrease the perceived adaptability of being disabled and reduce the
>> judged
>> capabilities of disabled people."
>>
>>
>>
>> The lead author is Arielle Silverman, now a postdoctoral fellow at the
>> University of Washington in Seattle, who is blind and has experienced a
>> variety of reactions from the public, related to people's familiarity (or
>> not) with blindness and the capabilities of blind persons.
>>
>>
>>
>> From Social Psychological and Personality Science
>>
>>
>>
>> This thought-provoking research, entitled Stumbling in Their Shoes:
>> Disability Simulations Reduce Judged Capabilities of Disabled People, has
>> been published online ahead of print in the November 21, 2014 edition of
>> Social Psychological and Personality Science (SSPS). SPPS publishes short
>> reports of research studies that contribute to an understanding of
>> critical
>> issues in social and personality psychology, written to be accessible to a
>>
>> wide range of audiences. The authors are Arielle M. Silverman, Jason D.
>> Gwinn, and Leaf Van Boven, from the University of Washington, Seattle and
>> the University of Colorado, Boulder.
>>
>>
>>
>> About the Research
>>
>>
>>
>> Excerpted from How to worsen attitudes toward blindness - let people give
>> it
>> a try, via Science Codex:
>>
>>
>>
>> A common claim about getting people to understand one another... is to
>> "walk
>> a mile in their shoes." But 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 new paper.
>>
>>
>>
>> "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, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of
>> Washington in Seattle, who is lead author of the paper and blind.
>>
>>
>>
>> In one part of the study, after simulating blindness by having their eyes
>> covered, participants believed people who are blind are less capable of
>> work
>> and independent living than did participants who simulated other
>> impairments
>> like amputation, or had no impairment.
>>
>>
>>
>> In another part of the study, participants who were blindfolded said they
>> would be less capable if they personally became blind and slower to adjust
>>
>> to their new world compared with study participants who weren't
>> blindfolded.
>>
>>
>>
>> There also are variations on blindness simulations--activities that are
>> implemented with good intentions but that can exploit blindness, said
>> Silverman. These include trust walks, typically used as a group bonding
>> exercise, and blind cafes, where diners are blindfolded and dine in the
>> dark.
>>
>>
>>
>> Another important consideration when it comes to evaluating the
>> effectiveness of simulations is the fact that the built world and social
>> environments are not designed for people with disabilities.
>>
>>
>>
>> "A lot of the disability that I experience has nothing to do with not
>> being
>> able to see," said Silverman. "Instead, it's because I can't access
>> something like a poorly designed website, for example. So if there's a way
>>
>> for simulations to capture how much difficulty is caused by the social
>> environment and the built world, this could improve attitudes and help
>> people understand that those with disabilities are just as competent as
>> they
>> are."
>>
>>
>>
>> What are Blindness Simulation Activities?
>>
>>
>>
>> As a longtime professional in the field of adult low vision and vision
>> rehabilitation, I have participated in countless "blindness simulation"
>> activities.
>>
>>
>>
>> University-Based Training Programs
>>
>>
>>
>> Some have been education-based and served as highly effective learning
>> tools
>> for students in my Master's and Certificate Programs in Vision
>> Rehabilitation Therapy at Salus University. Our students learned to
>> perform--and teach--a variety of daily living skills, including complex
>> meal
>> preparation, under the blindfold in structured laboratory settings.
>>
>>
>>
>> Dining in the Dark
>>
>>
>>
>> Others have been less well-defined "awareness activities," such as the
>> ubiquitous Dining in the Dark franchise, which I and my friend Daniel
>> Aronoff, New York's well-known Blind Food Critic, discussed at length in
>> Dining in the Dark: Does Its Mission Succeed? Part 1 and Part 2 after
>> reading an aggressively negative review on the New York Eater blog.
>>
>>
>>
>> In this case, did the Dining in the Dark blindness immersion experience
>> succeed in its stated goal of providing "a unique sensorial, social, and
>> human experience where guests dine in total darkness and are guided and
>> served by the blind and visually impaired"? I think not; instead, it
>> created
>> confusion, frustration, and even revulsion, in some cases.
>>
>>
>>
>> Dialogue in the Dark
>>
>>
>>
>> I had an excellent experience, on the other hand, at the well-designed and
>>
>> executed Dialogue in the Dark, described as
>>
>>
>>
>> ... an awareness-raising social franchising company, offering exhibitions
>> and business training in total darkness and creating jobs for blind,
>> disabled, and disadvantaged people worldwide. The Dialogue exhibition uses
>>
>> blind and visually impaired guides to lead small groups of visitors
>> through
>> a series of darkened galleries that replicate everyday experiences.
>> Without
>> familiar sight clues, visitors learn to "see" in a completely new and
>> different way by using their non-visual senses. It also offers the public
>> an
>> experience that can change mindsets about disability and diversity.
>>
>>
>>
>> However, before Daniel and I visited the New York installation, we
>> discussed
>> our expectations over lunch, with Daniel expressing doubt about the
>> accuracy
>> of the Dialogue "message" transmitted to the general public:
>>
>>
>>
>> "I don't understand Dialogue in the Dark. Instead of learning about
>> blindness, people seem to treat me with either more pity or more
>> admiration
>> afterwards, neither of which I welcome. A woman from my building
>> approached
>> me and said, 'I saw the exhibit and it was so scary. You must be so brave
>> to
>> live like that!' I wasn't interested in attending Dialogue in the Dark
>> before, but now I believe it might be the best way to assess its level of
>> reality and accuracy."
>>
>>
>>
>> To this day, I laugh about my bumbling performance in the Dialogue in the
>> Dark exhibition, especially in the simulated subway gallery--but that was
>> the point of the Dialogue experience and the educational discussion that
>> followed. As a result, I acknowledged my own limitations and didn't
>> generalize my own discomfort (and ineptness) as being representative of
>> the
>> experience of living with blindness. Instead, my takeaway was that I
>> relied
>> almost exclusively on my visual sense and needed to improve my ability to
>> use input from my other senses to function more efficiently and
>> independently.
>>
>>
>>
>> What made the difference here? Thoughtful, knowledgeable guides and an
>> individualized education component.
>>
>>
>>
>> More about the Study from Social Psychological and Personality Science
>>
>>
>>
>> From the article abstract:
>>
>>
>>
>> Simulating other people's difficulties often improves attitudes toward
>> those
>> people. In the case of physical disabilities, however, such experience
>> simulations can backfire. By highlighting the initial challenges of
>> becoming
>> disabled, experience simulations decrease the perceived adaptability of
>> being disabled and reduce the judged capabilities of disabled people.
>>
>>
>>
>> In two experiments, participants engaged in a challenging blindness
>> simulation and afterward judged blind people as less capable of work and
>> independent living than did participants after simulating a different
>> impairment, no impairment, or after merely watching someone else simulate
>> blindness.
>>
>>
>>
>> Blindness simulators forecast that they would be less capable themselves
>> if
>> blind and that they would adapt to blindness more slowly, highlighting the
>>
>> self-centered nature of judged capabilities of disabled people. The
>> findings
>> demonstrate that experience simulation can sometimes harm rather than help
>>
>> attitudes toward other people's difficulties.
>>
>>
>>
>> What's Your Opinion?
>>
>>
>>
>> Readers: Have you participated in, or planned, a blindness simulation
>> exercise? If so, what was your opinion? Did the experience change your
>> impressions of, or attitudes about, blindness? Please let us know in the
>> comment section.
>>
>>
>>
>> Additional Information
>>
>>
>>
>> Could Echolocation Become a "Complete Sensory Replacement" For Sight? New
>> Research Says YesA Blind Professional's Take on the Batman Episode, "This
>> American Life"Topics:Cultural DiversityPersonal ReflectionsGetting
>> AroundEducationEnvironmental assessment and modificationThere are
>> currently
>> 4 comments
>>
>>
>>
>> Comments
>>
>>
>>
>> Re: New Research: "Blindness Simulation" Activities May Do More Harm than
>> Good
>>
>>
>>
>> Posted by SueMartin on 1/22/2015 at 8:57 AM
>>
>>
>>
>> I've long felt that blindness simulations in no way replicate what it's
>> like
>> to be blind. It's wonderful to see this qualified in research. From:
>> http://www.afb.org/info/programs-and-services/professional-development/experts-guide/press-release-archive-3641/1235:
>>
>>
>>
>> "AFB Survey: Americans Fear Impact of Vision Loss More Than Cancer,
>> HIV/AIDS, Heart Disease, and Stroke."
>>
>>
>>
>> So blindfolding somebody is inviting misunderstanding. Inducing something
>> that is most likely going to engender fear is unlikely to produce anything
>>
>> positive. It's far more effective to spend time with someone who is blind,
>>
>> to get to know the person. This is far more likely to help someone
>> understand that blindness is just part of who someone is. It's not the
>> most
>> important part. In fact, at this point in my life blindness is a pretty
>> insignificant part of who I am as a person. Thanks for this post!
>>
>>
>>
>> Re: New Research: "Blindness Simulation" Activities May Do More Harm than
>> Good
>>
>>
>>
>> Posted by MdeB on 1/22/2015 at 10:26 AM
>>
>>
>>
>> During training at a guide dog school, I was blind-folded for a walk with
>> the dog. My trainer said that I had done better with the blind-fold than
>> without it. (I am extremely sensitive to glare; so I had trusted the dog
>> rather than fought the light while I walked.) Later after snow had fallen,
>> I
>> asked if I could use the blind-fold to continue my training and take my
>> exam; using the blind-fold meant that I could successfully complete my
>> training. I don't think that you can make large absolute statements on
>> blind-folds, or much anything else for that matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> Re: New Research: "Blindness Simulation" Activities May Do More Harm than
>> Good
>>
>>
>>
>> Posted by MaureenD on 1/22/2015 at 10:42 AM
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello MdeB:
>>
>>
>>
>> This is Maureen, and I thank you very much for commenting and adding to
>> the
>> discussion.
>>
>>
>>
>> Actually, I agree with you. As I said in my post, I believe in the
>> blindfold
>> as an essential component of a structured educational program. I used the
>> blindfold frequently in my classes at Salus University.
>>
>>
>>
>> What the research is describing are the blindfold simulation exercises
>> that
>> are used to give sighted people the experience of being blind - and it is
>> those exercises that the authors found to be detrimental, in most cases.
>>
>>
>>
>> I hope that clarifies my meaning and I thank you again for commenting.
>>
>>
>>
>> Re: New Research: "Blindness Simulation" Activities May Do More Harm than
>> Good
>>
>>
>>
>> Posted by Jerni on 1/22/2015 at 2:25 PM
>>
>>
>>
>> I think if the blind activity is set up in a training setting for example
>> the O&M will put a clients family member under shade and provide them some
>>
>> instruction as though the family member was blind and thus teaching the
>> family member actual O&M travel skills, that family member may come to
>> realize the possibilities that a blind traveler has versus feeling even
>> worse for the client.
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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