This tool is simple to use and is effective in exposing students to issues faced by people with learning disabilities that can be used to develop empathy.  Expanding the learning to other contexts can be done with additional reflections.  The activity was piloted with a small group of instructors who work with engaged design teams that partner with organizations that work with children with disabilities.  The title is overly broad and it is really about people with learning disabilities.   There is not much content to connect to other disabilities but these can be added by the facilitator.  The activity is very easy to do with minimal set up, just printing out the sections to read.  The text that is modified to make it harder to read and the participants read it aloud.  That provides them to experience some of the discomfort others may feel that can help develop insights and empathy.  The activity has potential to encourage empathy for those with learning disabilities and may be able to be stretched to other types of disabilities but that is not explicit.  This latter point was unclear from our discussions as to the transferability to people with disabilities in more general.  The issues that different disabilities offer different challenges and these could be explored with additional reflection questions.  There are interesting cases of famous people with learning disabilities who overcame their disabilities that can show successes.  They show techniques that some successful people have used to overcome their learning disabilities. For example, Tom Cruise learns his lines for his movies by listening to them in audio form.  This can lead to a misconception that all people with disabilities can find easy ways to succeed, however.  That was one concern raised.  The activity can also be used to experience discomfort that can be expanded to other settings that include cross cultural settings if the right reflective exercises were developed.  The reading aloud creates a feeling that can be leveraged into other settings.  Overall, the activity is easy to use but a facilitator may need to add more reflective activities to expand to meet their learning goals.

This activity simulates what people with disabilities experience is very effective to have students immerse themselves in something like reading that most of us take for granted each day and don't struggle with. It allows students to relate and experience an activity that students can then use to think about how others are affected and realize that it doesn't make the task impossible, but it slows down the process of understanding and that people with disabilities need to focus a lot of energy into just being able to read the text. These types of activities go beyond just telling students what someone with a disability would experience, but allowing students to experience it for themselves and actually process the information firsthand. These types of activities help students retain an understanding of the challenges that others experience and help them really understand the context of what a learning disability entails. Listing other people that have had similar disabilities and that have been successful in their careers also shows students that even with this disability, people can function at a high level and find ways to overcome the challenge of performing the task.