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Visual-Spatial Challenges Interactive Demonstration

This MicroSim lets you experience five common visual-spatial deficits that affect people living with dementia. Each scenario is an abstract, interactive simulation of how a specific visual-spatial problem changes daily life. Switch between "Normal" and "Impaired" vision to feel the difference, read the explanation of what each deficit means, and then test your understanding with a short quiz.

Learning Objective

Understand how visual-spatial problems affect daily activities by experiencing simulated visual-spatial challenges (Bloom Level 2 - Understand).

  • Bloom Level: Understand (L2)
  • Bloom Verb: Understand, explain, demonstrate
  • Library: Custom HTML/CSS/JavaScript with SVG/Canvas

Preview

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The Five Scenarios

  1. Depth Perception — Tilt a pitcher with a slider and try to pour water into a glass. In impaired mode shadows and perspective cues are removed, making alignment very hard.
  2. Figure-Ground Discrimination — Find white pills on a tablecloth. In impaired mode the busy white pattern makes the pills blend into the background.
  3. Navigation in Familiar Space — Click rooms in a floor plan to walk from the bedroom to the kitchen. In impaired mode the layout subtly rearranges with every step.
  4. Spatial Relationships — Drag a plate, fork, knife, and glass into the correct positions for a table setting. In impaired mode dragging is jittery and precise placement becomes unreliable.
  5. Left-Side Neglect — Click all the objects you "see" on the table. In impaired mode the left half of the table is ignored by the brain, leaving half of the objects completely unnoticed.

How to Use

  1. Choose a scenario from the button row at the top.
  2. Read the task description and follow the on-screen instructions.
  3. Use the Vision: Impaired / Normal toggle to compare how each deficit changes the experience.
  4. Expand the Learn more panel to read about daily-living impact, safety concerns, and caregiver tips.
  5. After exploring all five scenarios, answer the four multiple-choice quiz questions at the bottom.

Key Takeaways

Visual-spatial problems are more than "bad eyesight" — the eyes usually work fine. The problem is how the brain interprets visual information. These deficits create real safety risks and daily-living challenges, but understanding them helps caregivers design safer, more supportive environments.