Mickey Damelio, a teacher for the visually impaired and a professor at Florida State University, has created a class to illuminate the often-misunderstood lives of the blind.

The course, titled “The Blindness Experience,” aims to shatter the stereotypes and preconceived notions surrounding the blind community by allowing students to learn about and interact with the culture of the visually impaired, according to the course description.

Those enrolled discuss the anatomy of the eye, analyze current issues relating to blindness and enjoy visits by a variety of guest lecturers that are all affected by visual impairment in some sort of way, Damelio said.

Students also take part in simulations where they perform tasks and travel via the guidance of another student while wearing a blindfold, he added.

Damelio, an FSU alum who majored in visual disabilities, said he came up with the idea for the class after working with children who are blind. He saw that those who are visually impaired have a harder time finding work even though they are just as capable for a job as any non-disabled person, which he said has a lot to do with people having preconceived notions about how people who are visually impaired actually are.

“The basic point of the class is to show the student that there is so much more going on there, which is obvious when you think about it, but that’s the way stereotypes work,” Damelio said.

Steve Kuusisto, director of the Renée Crown Honors Program at Syracuse University and someone who has lived with blindness his whole life, said he agrees with Damelio in that the general public has a negative predisposition toward the visually impaired.

“There’s this sense that the blind are helpless and are without capacity,” Kuusisto said. “That still persists, even in the 21st century.”

However, Kuusisto has his doubts about the course.

“In general terms, people with disabilities like myself are not fond of events where people pretend to be disabled. The reason is that, in truth, disability is permanent,” Kuusisto said. “And so a daylong experiment might just very well give people the wrong impression. So I’m sure that might be a criticism of a class exercise where people try out being blind.”

With that in mind, though, Kuusisto said he thinks “The Blindness Experience” may be an exception to these criticisms.

“But in my view, the greater good is people giving positive models of blindness in the class, which strikes me as great. It sounds to me like the professor is doing it with a degree of thoughtfulness because he is doing it contextually,” Kuusisto said.

On the contrary, Diane Wiener, director of the Disability Cultural Center at SU, said that while she appreciates and respects Damelio’s intention in creating the course, she “would prefer that there were not classes offered like this.”

Wiener added that she worries that if those who take the course are not disabled, an “us-and-them” reality could be created and that maybe other approaches, such as interacting with or reading memoirs or blogs by people who identify as blind, should be considered.

“I appreciate and respect my colleague’s intention which is to create compassion and elevate awareness,” Wiener said. “My concern is that you can’t really simulate what it’s like to have a disability in a way that is putting on an outfit for pretending to be a crip because that could be unintentionally objectifying the experience.”

Published on September 23, 2015 at 9:51 pm

Contact Brigid: brkenned@syr.edu