A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

Blind charity aims to raise awareness of visual impairment with tour
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Instead of open-top buses and perfectly-poised binoculars, the only aide on the latest
Edinburgh tour is a pair of dark glasses. The pilot, launched by the Royal National
Institute of Blind People (RNIB), is aimed at making those who take the tour realise
what it is like to move around one of Europe's most picturesque cities as a visually-
impaired person... RNIB's inclusive society group director, Fazilet Hadi, said: "We
are asking the general public to consider what they would lose from their lives if
they lost their sight... The tours, launching next month, will be a really powerful way
for people to experience first hand just how much losing your sight can impact upon
your life." As well as raising awareness of the impact of sight loss on everyday life,
the RNIB hopes to boost its profile (The Scotsman, 2009:unpaged).
While the Royal National Institute for Blind People has made much of its name change in
2007 from the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB, 2009:unpaged), disabled
people‟s organisations have rejected the value of simulation exercises for the past two
decades:
Conclusion
Simulation exercises, by their very nature, focus on supposed difficulties, problems,
inadequacies and inabilities of disabled people. They contribute to rather than
challenge damaging stereotypes (Swain and Lawrence, 1994).
I mean, I often wondered what it would be like to be non-disabled… and I suppose
wished that I wasn‟t… but then, looking back, you‟re wishing not to be… the way
that you‟re being treated……that‟s what‟s at the heart of it… (l.1:255ff.)
Charles‟ words present us with two ways of responding to the experience of impairment and
disability. Charles recalls spending time during his adolescence measuring himself
unfavourably as a spastic against a standard or ideal of normality. While the subject position
of people with impairments is always invalidated, the subject position of the non-disabled
appears an enviable one. While much cultural work is done to ensure disability remains
identified as an individual condition, the disabled self experiences itself as flawed. Without
the social model, disability can only be understood as discreditable.
Returning to Schutz‟ description of imposed and intrinsic relevances, a rejection of disabled
identity by an impaired person involves an attempt at distancing himself from the imposed
relevances by which his life is circumscribed. While this may be an understandable response