Simulations and Reality

SIMULATIONS AND REALITY

By Allan Appel

Simulations of disability serve no purpose. In fact, they result in excessive pity and outright fear. Such demonstrations are counter-productive and leave a false impression about living with a disability.

The cause of a disability, such as a disease or an accident, is certainly unfortunate. But living with a disability is no different than living with any other trait or characteristic of a person. Whether occurring at birth or later in life, a disability ranks with height or hair color or race as part of a person’s description.

The key to understanding why simulations do not serve a useful purpose is to realize the role of adaptation in the life of a person with a disability. The fact is that adaptation takes time. And simulations do not and cannot deal with that issue. Simulations try to short-cut emotions and seek to create an immediate understanding between the able-bodied public and what it is like to live with a disability.

What people with disabilities really need is to be treated with dignity, like any other person. The elimination of simulated demonstrations would go a long way toward replacing pity with respect.

People with disabilities necessarily devote much of their lives to developing and perfecting coping skills and strategies. We are constantly adapting to life around us. In that respect we are no different than anyone else growing up in the world.

A demonstration of weightlessness does not portray all the aspects of being an astronaut. And riding around a race track does not accurately depict life as an Indy car driver. Likewise, pretending to have a disability does not promote any meaningful understanding of what it is like to live with a disability.

Snapshots of people with disabilities, like those featured on the annual Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, do not promote respect. That kind of fundraising simply fosters pity for the disabled and needlessly generates fear.

People with disabilities do not seek and do not need to be treated as heroes. Nor do we have an extraordinary amount of courage. And we don’t care to serve as an inspiration to anyone. We only want to be treated with dignity and respect, just like anyone else.

We deserve access to accommodate for our disabilities, but only to create a level playing field with the able-bodied population, and not to gain any unfair advantage.

Allan Appel writes a biweekly column about disabilities. He can be reached c/o Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, 1939 S. Federal Highway, P.O. Box 9009, Stuart, FL 34994, or e-mail at aappel223@yahoo.com.