Simulation Activities to Understand What it's Like to be Blind

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 an 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 the 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.

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 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.
Play catch with a playground ball, tennis ball or a beach ball.
Get a wet paper towel and clean the table top and sweep up crumbs from the floor.

Arrange for participants to go through the lunch line and get their lunch.
Alternatively, 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 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...

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 affect that low vision has on mobility, learning, employment, and activities of daily living.

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.

VisionSimulations.com is the largest medical illustrator of damaged vision in the United States. They regularly supply illustrations for use in the courtroom. Ten years of experience. Completed cases include loss of an eye, corneal scars, LASIK, PRK, RK, intraocular lenses, cataract surgery, strabismus surgery, glaucoma, retinal detachment, and macular disorders.

App Resources...

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.

$0.99. ColorDeBlind is an app that allows users to experience what it is like to be colorblind. It also modifies live video to help people who are color blind see the real world in ways they haven't before.

TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC

NEW!
TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind and Visually Impaired. 32 Thematic Units and over 450 age neutral ECC activities in one book! Available for purchase as a pdf digital download.

FREE VI Program Templates

Become a member for FREE to access the Printable VI Program Templates to support your district's vision program. Simply click on Log In|Register in the navigation bar at the top of the page and follow the directions to register and create your password.

Post a Job

Due to the nationwide shortage of vision professionals, it can be challenging to locate personnel. Announce a job vacancy on the Job Exchange of Teaching Students with Visual Impairments, an online listing of jobs specific to the visual impairment field.

About

Hi! I'm Carmen Willings. Welcome to my website! I developed this web resource to support fellow TVI's and to educate those new to the field of visual impairments in how to best support students who are blind or visually impaired. Read More

Social Etiquette Handout

This Social Etiquette Handout can be provided to anyone as guidelines for how to interact appropriately with persons who are blind or visually impaired.