Thinking about that time in elementary school (in the 90s) when my class was made to "simulate being disabled" to increase sympathy for disabled people. These exercises are horseshit for a variety of reasons (including that you can't "simulate disability" and it's an especially nonsensical aim in a short form classroom setting, they cause negative perceptions of disabled people, and, critically, they aren't how actual disabled people teach anything about disability). We played with crutches, wheelchairs, being blindfolded, and taping our fingers together. This was again, meant to give us insight into disability. This fell apart pretty quickly because someone in my class was actually disabled. She had limb differences in both her arms and hands. A regular part of school life was watching well meaning but (to our eyes) ridiculous adults try to help her with tasks that she did not need help with and laughing at those adults.
So when we were made to tape our fingers together and try to cut with scissors or write with a pencil (things my peer did all the time) and we found it difficult to do, one of us said, "hey, but [name] can do this. I'm just not used to having my hands taped. I'd probably be better at it if I was used to it?"
And its just couldn't get traction past that. We're bad at using the (shitty, meant to be pushed) wheelchairs? Yeah, none of us use wheelchairs, that makes sense. We have trouble navigating with our eyes covered (and no cane)? Yeah, none of us are blind.
This is just a memory, not a parable. That disabled child's job wasn't to give the abled children insight. It's just what happened. That adults should have done better, but they didn't, and the kids did.
