I saw an interesting article on an "aliens" thought experiment to reduce homophobia.  I wonder whether we could do something similar.

Here's my attempt: Imagine you visited a planet where everyone looked like humans but they always wanted to look at you and touch you all the time, all the clothing was scratchy and all the lights were bright.

I'm sure that someone like Callista can do a lot better.

Homophobia and things like sensory issues are two different things.

Homophobia doesn't do anything but show ignorance, while the latter are physically painful to some.

robexib: Homophobia and prejudice against other minority groups have a lot of similarities.  Therefore similar methods may work at combatting them.

If you mean ending prejudice in general, then yes, I see your point. It could.

This would interest me if it involved an alien version of Velvet Goldmine. I loved that movie. Okay, I know it's stereotyping gay people as all being flamers and wearing outrageous makeup and stuff, but it still was a great movie.

violet: You can write some like that if you wish.

Disability prejudice is somewhat different from prejudice against gays (or minority races, for that matter) in that the disabled are not one homogeneous, easy to define group. Disability has many definitions; Autism itself is extremely diverse.

The diversity of disability means that it's not just the extension of universal rights to everybody that is required; it's also the accommodation of specific differences. There are a lot of different disabilities and a lot of things that would be useful for disabled people--everything from wheelchair ramps and audible traffic signals to emotional support animals or a ban on strong perfume in enclosed environments. The nature of the many small things society has to do to make participation possible for its disabled population means that disability acceptance means more than just universal human rights, but a lot of little things which can be difficult to arrange even if you do think of them all. It's not that this isn't worth pursuing, just that it's going to be something you have to stay on top of, whether or not people eventually take for granted that it's OK to be disabled.

Oddly enough, I did write a blog post about the social perception of disability, a while ago-- http://chaoticidealism.livejournal.com/30335.html

Homophobia can do a lot more than show ignorance.  It can, and often does, lead to exclusion, bullying, violent assaults and murder.

I've given some small degree of thought to a sensory damping helmet - sort of earmuffs, sunglasses, and respirator in one. Ultimately would probably cause more problems than it solves, giving a visible means of singling out for harrassment.

ZodRau: Regular sunglasses are pretty common.  Headphones for listening to an MP3 player are also pretty common.  Face masks will often be considered to be not unreasonable in winter while swine flu is going around.  It seems that you could get what you want without looking like an extra in a sci-fi movie.