Simulation Activities

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
​Updated March 11, 2018

It can be beneficial, and in some cases necessary, to formally instruct those new to the vision field, team members, or peers with the opportunity to experience some of what it is like to be blind or have a visual impairment.  Providing in-service training using vision simulators is an excellent teaching tool to help educators learn about the impact of vision impairment on their students. Low vision simulators can make for a fun and educational in-service!
It must be stressed that simulating a visual impairment is not the same as having a visual impairment. The sighted person has the visual memory and experiences to draw from and assist them in identifying information and navigating their way through the environment. 
Keep in mind that it is critical to ensure that everyone stays safe during any type of simulation especially during any movement activities. Each person under simulation should have a sighted monitor to ensure safety.

Simulation with O&M Instructor

  • Walk in a hallway to locate specific room numbers or areas. You may choose to provide the person with a verbal prompt or provide them with a card with the room number in print/braille and request they find the room.
  • Locate a doorway leading to the outside.
  • Go outdoors and locate a specific car in the parking lot or locate the correct bus.
  • Walk in well lit and dimly lit areas. Similarly, walk from a brightly lit to a dimly lit environment and vice versa.
  • Provide the person with a coin purse and encourage them to use a vending machine.
  • Request the person to locate and use a water fountain.
  • Find a requested item in a familiar and unfamiliar classroom.
  • Provide the student with a set of keys and request that they open a locked door.
  • Arrange for participants to go through the lunch line and get their lunch.

Simulation with TVI

  • Play catch with a playground ball, a tennis ball or a beach ball.
  • Get a wet paper towel and clean the table top and sweep up crumbs from the floor
  • Provide a "potluck" meal. Prepare labels in different fonts and sizes and have participants fix themselves a plate.
  • Provide items to create a simple snack and encourage participants to assemble their snack including spreading cream cheese, peanut butter, etc.
  • Present an educational video and quiz participants on information that was dependent on vision.
  • Write information on the board and require participants to take notes.
  • Provide participants with textbooks, books, or worksheets and call on different participants to take turns reading passages and locating different pages in the text as well as reading diagrams. Also, have the students look up information in the glossary.
  • Encourage participants to locate specific websites and find specific information.
  • Find a particular item in a flyer or on a menu.
  • Provide participants with a word search and require that they complete it in a designated amount of time.
  • Provide participants with an "I Spy" book and require that they locate items in the picture in a designated amount of time. 

Vision Simulation Kits & Resources...

Zimmerman Low Vision Simulation Kit
The Zimmerman Low Vision Simulation Kit contains goggles and interchangeable visual acuity and visual pathology simulations, as well as peripheral field restriction simulations that allow family, friends, colleagues, and those who work with individuals who have low vision, to better understand the effect that low vision has on mobility, learning, employment, and activities of daily living.
Fork in the Road logo
Vision Rehabilitation Services offers simulators that provide a reasonably accurate picture of some of the functional limitations and abilities that may be experienced with different types of visual impairments.

App Resources...

VisionSim app
Free. Braille Institute's VisionSim (v3.0) app for iPhone and iPad was developed to allow people with healthy vision to see the world through the eyes of a person experiencing one of nine degenerative eye diseases. The eye diseases that are simulated are age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, chronic open-angle glaucoma, corneal edema, diabetic retinopathy, homonymous hemianopia, macular degeneration, retinal detachment, retinitis pigmentosa.
ColorDeBlind app
$0.99. ColorDeBlind is an app that allows users to experience what it is like to be colorblind. It also modifies the live video to help people who are color blind see the real world in ways they haven't before. 
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