ABSTRACT
The concept of disabilities is fraught and contested; cross-culturally, there are huge gulfs in the acceptance and treatment of disability. Down syndrome, a prime example of intellectual disability, is welcomed in some cultures. No practical simulation of the full cultural experience of disability is possible short of actually living with it. Many hearing loss and vision loss simulations are available online, though they are often passive demonstrations of the grades of attenuation of sensation. Possibly the closest approach to a demonstration of how hearing loss might affect social interaction and performance would be to set up some form of virtual auditory experience in which sounds were strategically placed around a room to either distort or impede communication. Discussion and a simulated ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would provide a full spectrum of the ways in which disabilities integrate with all aspects of culture worldwide.
