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The Pitfalls of Simulating Blindness

Most people have either participated in or witnessed the infamous "trust walk," an exercise designed to outline the challenges created by visual impairment. This usually involves having one participant guide his blindfolded charge through corridors and around obstacles. The underlying idea: that people who have experienced wearing blindfolds develop a greater empathy for the blind.

Since most people involved in these walks know next to nothing about blindness, or about alternative techniques, participants are often left with the impression of being helpless in a world of unremitting darkness. 

Dr. Charles Hallenbeck, a blind psychologist, criticized this practice nearly 20 years ago:

"With no training in the alternative techniques of blindness, persons who wear blindfolds are forced to 'trust' in the help of others with unobstructed vision. This practice usually strengthens the misconception most people have about being blind. In fact, the trust walk is designed to teach sighted people about dependence and not about blindness."

A colleague, Dr. Jane Jarrow, disagreed. She argued that, when alternative techniques (blindness skills) are taught in conjunction with sufficiently lengthy simulation exercises, these activities have merit. Unfortunately, now as then, most people involved in blind walks either don't know about or don't practice these coping strategies. On May 6, 2003, for example, Yahoo news picked up a story by TV station WGAL: York, Pennsylvania mayor John Brenner had, to quote the article, "experienc[ed] what it is like to be blind" by wearing goggles for a few hours. He walked down the street carrying a cane, but "...he is [also] getting some help from people who are staying with him." This exercise was carried out as part of an awareness campaign designed to make areas of the city more accessible to people with disabilities.

Dealing directly with competent blind people - asking them questions about how to accommodate their disability - paints a more realistic picture of their accessibility concerns than trying to simulate blindness.

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