Many educators in facilitative roles have approached the subject of visual disabilities by constructing activities designed to simulate blindness, using a blindfold or similar device. Participants are subsequently encouraged to perform rudimentary tasks such as eating a meal or moving about with a sighted companion as a guide. Frequently, individuals will emerge from experiences where they have worn a visual occluder with the impression that they have, in essence, experienced what it is like to be blind. Serious misconceptions may be created as the result, due to the potential for creation of false impressions, and the issue of safety while moving about the environment when occluded and without proper training. Simulation participants have had no instruction in the skills of blindness, such as cane travel, and thus their lasting impression is that being blind is hard and there is not much that can be done. Safety issues arise in situations involving stairways, overhanging objects, or narrow passageways. A more favorable approach would be to invite positive community role models who are blind or parents of a child with blindness to the classroom and create an exchange among those in the class and the guest. (JDD)