One particular PPAT class involved a disability simulation of a person in a wheelchair. The simulation was very insightful in a number of ways and I had a couple of interesting incidents:
- People are sometimes overly helpful towards people in wheelchairs, and this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. A man continued to push me in my wheelchair despite me telling him that I could manage on my own.
- Another unfortunate incident involved a person without a disability occupying the disabled stall in the washroom.
- I found slopes, in general, to be very scary. Upward slopes were painful to climb and downward slopes felt like I was losing control.
Three things that made this experience a ‘successful’ simulation were the week’s reading on ‘Disability-related Simulations: If, When, and How to Use Them in Professional Development’, the handout given before the simulation and the debriefing after the simulation.
Not only did the reading help me understand the difference between a good and bad simulation, but also did it stop me from learning a hidden curriculum. So every time I started thinking about how uncomfortable or painful using this wheelchair must be on a regular basis, I was able to force myself to think about the environment and the activities instead. Similarly, the hand-out given out at the beginning of the class helped me to clearly understand what the objectives of the simulation were and the greatest part about the debriefing after the simulation was that it felt just like a conversation- where everyone was sharing their experiences and there was no bias/contradiction.