At least once a week, I hear about some disability “advocate” using disability simulation to try to create empathy with non-disabled people. This is wrong in so many dimensions, and is even more irritating when that advocate says it’s OK because they are a person with a disability themselves.
1) Simulations leave a negative feeling about the disability for the person doing the simulation.
2) Simulations don’t convey the frustration, fatigue, worry, anxiety or other emotions experienced by people with disabilities bring with them to each and every inaccessible experience.
3) It is impossible to simulate the neurodiverse experience.
The next time you hear or see of a disability simulation, call them out. We need to stop acting like this behavior is acceptable.
Alt: I am more than a diagnosis. I am a person with decades of lived experience as a woman with multiple disabilities. You cannot and should not try to simulate my lived experience.