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Medical Xpress:
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. She conducted the research as part of
her doctoral dissertation in CU-Boulder's Department of Psychology and
Neuroscience and now is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of
Washington in Seattle.
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.
The findings, published online in Social Psychological and Personality Science, demonstrate the self-centered nature with which people reflect on other's difficulties.
The findings also show that blindness simulations—typically meant to
be bridge-builders resulting in compassion and understanding—can
sometimes harm rather than help attitudes.
Silverman became interested in studying the effects of blindness
simulations in part because of her own interactions with strangers
enthusiastically wanting to help her navigate her way across a street,
for example.
"I noticed and wondered why people who've never met a blind person before seem to intuitively have good attitudes toward blind people and people who tell me they have interacted with a blind person before tend to seem more condescending," she said.
Blindness simulations are often used to train teachers and
professionals in other fields who are preparing to work with people with
visual impairments.
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.
More than 100 undergraduate CU-Boulder students participated in the
study, some of whom were blindfolded and performed tasks like walking
across a room or down a hallway; figuring out that a water pitcher they
were given had a closed spout, opening it and then filling a glass as
full as possible without overflowing; and sorting coins into groups of
common denominations.
Afterward, all of the participants, some of whom were not blindfolded
or had different impairments, completed questionnaires asking about
their competency perceptions of blind people as well as themselves if
they were to become blind.
Jason Gwinn, also a CU-Boulder doctoral student in psychology at the
time of the study, and Leaf Van Boven, professor of psychology at
CU-Boulder, co-authored the paper.
A blindness simulation
that might improve people's attitudes would go further than the typical
activity and teach people good strategies for adapting to blindness,
said Silverman. Developing friendships with people with disabilities and
in other underrepresented groups, perhaps through team-building
exercises, also is a good strategy, she said.
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."
