What are Alternatives to Disability-Related Simulations to Promote Disability Awareness?

In the last issue of DO-IT News, we touched upon disability-related simulations. Disability-related simulations, where a person supposedly experiences what it’s like to have a disability by covering their eyes or maneuvering in a wheelchair, are often criticized because they promote negative stereotypes of helplessness. At best, they only simulate an initial experience with a disability, not the experience of someone who has learned the skills of using a wheelchair or other assistive devices and strategies to accomplish tasks.

This topic is one that people often bring up when engaging with the disability community and looking for ways to include others.  Instead of having a simulation, I often recommend hosting a panel of individuals with disabilities who can share their personal experiences and make direct connections with an audience. Another way to do this is to show videos of real individuals with disabilities sharing their experiences, including challenges as well as solutions. We recommend a few YouTube Channels  and videos listed here:

• Ask an Autistic, a channel where one person answers questions about what it’s like for her live with autism
• The Tommy Edison Experience, a channel where one person uses humor to answer popular questions about living without sight
• A Day Through a Deaf Person’s Eyes, a video that features people sharing different aspects of their life while Deaf
• Disability, the Truth, a video that interviews people to hear their insights on disability

You can learn more about simulations and alternative activities to simulations by consulting the following articles:

• I Won’t Pretend That Disability Simulation Works
• How Disability Simulations Promote Damaging Stereotypes
• Disability Simulations: What Does the Research Say?
• Disability-Related Simulations: If, When, and How to Use Them