Simulation as a learning method to facilitate disability awareness

Within the traditional classroom and other learning settings, educators have often used disability simulation as a method to develop awareness and promote positive attitudes toward persons with disabilities. As a general teaching strategy, simulations have been used because they are reported to: (a) facilitate interaction among participants, (b) provide opportunities to practice decision-making skills and resulting behavioral consequences, (c) convey important social messages, (d) facilitate exploration of personal values, and (e) foster empathy and insight regarding events and issues being simulated (Hyman, 1978). As applied to acquiring greater sensitivity to disability issues, simulations allow learners to duplicate particular roles so that better awareness and insight result regarding the problems, strengths, weaknesses, and lifestyles of persons with disabilities (Patterson, 1980). For example, an individual without a disability may use a wheelchair to simulate paraplegia, place cotton balls in both ears to approximate a hearing impairment, use light-filtered glasses that block the center of a visual field to fabricate blindness, or remain silent for an extended period of time to create the experience of mental illness. As opposed to passive learning activities such as watching a movie or reading a book about disability, simulations allow learners to bridge the gap between passive learning and direct personal experience (Patterson, 1980).

Effectiveness of Using Disability Simulations

Despite reported benefits of using disability simulation (e.g., Chard, 1997), empirical evidence that supports its utility as a learning method to facilitate positive attitudes toward persons with disabilities is weak. For example, Wilson and Alcorn (1969) reported no attitudinal differences among college students who simulated blindness, deafness, or orthopedic disability. Most of the new insights acquired by persons who simulated a disability were negative reactions such as displeasure with self, embarrassment, frustration, and reliance on others. Glazzard (1979), in a report containing excerpts of students' comments regarding hearing, orthopedic (wheelchair), and visual simulation impairments, concluded that this method promoted increased understanding of disability. Yet images of frustration, isolation, humiliation, insecurity, and apprehension were the major themes expressed. Pfeiffer (1989) reported that although being perceived as a useful learning activity, persons simulating someone who used a wheelchair felt "demeaned" during the experience. Wurst and Wolford (1994) found that college students who simulated auditory and visual disabilities for one day perceived other people without...