Going beyond simulations to promote education about people with disabilities
Abstract
Oftentimes national service and disability organizations use "disability awareness days" to teach service members and volunteers about the disability experience. During these training days, it is typical to use simulations to convey what it's like to live with a disability. Participants are blindfolded, for example, or put into a wheelchair and told not to use their legs. However, many disability advocates feel that simulations are the wrong approach, and that there are better, more useful ways to educate national service members, volunteers, and employees on inclusion issues. This effective practice was submitted by Elesheva Soloff, training specialist, with the National Service Inclusion Project in August, 2006.Issue
Instead of promoting understanding, disability simulations can engender pity, or a sense that people with disabilities are in some way "super human."Action
National service organizations should indeed try to sensitize participants to the disability experience, but there are better ways to do so than relying on simplistic simulations. The key to increasing understanding is to have people see what it's like to have a disability first-hand — from people in the disability community, not a blindfold or a wheelchair.
Some better ideas on disability awareness education include the following:
Read books and magazines written by people with disabilities. These publications give a uniquely "for us/by us" perspective. Publications include Ragged Edge, Braille Monitor, and Mouth magazine. For a list of books, see the "Resource" section of this effective practice.
Invite people with disabilities to talk to service groups. Ask persons who have had a disability from birth or a longtime disability to speak about their experiences. Encourage service members to ask questions.
Include people with disabilities as service members, volunteer leaders, and employees. More likely than not, you already do! Organizations benefit from everyone's contributions. Having people with disabilities in your organization helps everyone keep the disability perspective in mind.
Learn about disability culture. The history of the disability rights movement is rich and illuminating. There is ample information on how people with disabilities have been viewed and treated over time; civil rights laws; and heroes such as Ed Roberts, Gini Laurie (grandmother of the independent living movement), and Justin Dart (father of the Americans with Disabilities Act). Start your education with the following websites:
Disability Social History Project
Society for Disability Studies
Disability History MuseumAttend meetings of disability consumer groups, where people with disabilities take leadership roles. Nothing illustrates the "independent living" philosophy like a group of people who live it. These experiences give service members the message that despite a disability, a person can cope, learn, and contribute to society. Attitude change doesn't happen overnight, but these doses of real-life experience can open doors for service members.
Context
Although widely used, disability awareness simulations are unrealistic. A person who's been blind for 25 years has the coping skills to handle their environment. But a sighted person who is blindfolded doesn't have those skills. This gives participants a false idea of what it's like to live with a disability. In fact, some find the simulated experience terrifying — which does little to promote understanding and can perpetuate either stereotypes about people with disabilities or pity. Stuck in a situation they haven't learned how to handle, participants may react with amazement that people with disabilities can accomplish everyday tasks: To think you can drive without using your arms! Or, participants may find the experience so unpleasant that it makes them think that life with a disability is miserable.
When a person with a disability is seen as helpless, barriers go up in the minds of the people around them. People with disabilities want to be included in their communities and be treated like anyone else — with dignity and respect. In reality, people with disabilities do everything others do, just differently.
Citation
This effective practice was excerpted from a brief that was adapted by Danielle Dreilinger from a National Service Inclusion Project presentation by Valerie Brew-Parrish, and from her article "The Wrong Message—Still," published in Ragged Edge Magazine, 2004.[Also adapted in part from the websites of IMPACT (Illinois), and the Center for Independent Living (Berkeley, California).]
Valerie Brew-Parrish is a polio survivor and a longtime disability activist. She has a M.S. degree from Southern Illinois University and writes a disability column for the Herald News.
Outcome
For an example of a how a person with a disability can affect change, consider the following story of Ed Roberts, father of the independent living movement, as conveyed by Valerie Brew-Parrish:A polio survivor born in 1939, Ed Roberts used a ventilator by day and an iron lung by night. In 1961, California Vocational Rehabilitation denied him services due to the severity of his disability, which led the agency to consider him unemployable. The University of California at Berkeley hesitated to admit him for the same reason, but did in 1962. There he earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in political science.
On campus, Roberts began to talk with other students who had disabilities, eventually organizing them into a disability rights group called "The Rolling Quads." Roberts couched their demands as a civil rights struggle, not one of health care. In 1970, he established an on-campus center for people with disabilities. He then shifted his focus to the surrounding city, helping to establish the Berkeley Center for Independent Living. This spawned a movement of independent living centers, which share the core values of advocacy, independent living skills training, information and referral, and peer counseling. Today there are nearly 400 independent living centers in the U.S.
Ironically, in 1975 Roberts became the director of the same agency that claimed that he was too severely disabled to be educated. He led the agency for eight years, then co-founded the World Institute on Disability think tank. Roberts was also a MacArthur Fellow, an avid traveler, and a father. His story illustrates the need for people with disabilities to direct their own futures. And it shows that no one should be underestimated or dismissed out of hand.
Posted On
May 11, 2007For More Information
Resources
Books
Awakening to Disability: Nothing About Us Without Us, Karen G. Stone
By Trust Betrayed and FDR's Splendid Deception, Hugh Gregory Gallagher
Don't Laugh at Me (for ages 4-8), Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin/illustrations by Glin Dibley, Afterword by Peter Yarrow
Extraordinary People with Disabilities, Deborah Kent
Make Them Go Away: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve, and the Case Against Disability Rights, Mary Johnson
Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence, John Hockenberry
No Pity, Joseph P. Shapiro
Reflections from a Different Journey: What Adults with Disabilities Wish All Parents Knew, Stanley D. Klein & John D. Kemp
Magazines