The Blackout Zone: SM Cares, CHED Turn Experience Into Understanding

 

Stepping Into Darkness: What SM Cares and CHED's Blackout Zone Taught Visitors About Inclusion

QUEZON CITY, Philippines — For two days this July, the CHED Central Office Auditorium in Diliman went dark on purpose. SM Cares and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) set up The Blackout Zone at the Higher Education Development Center Building from July 21 to 22, 2026 — an exhibit built to put sighted visitors, briefly, in someone else's shoes.

An Exhibit Built Around Experience

Part of SM's Mall for All inclusivity push, the exhibit sends students, teachers, and members of the academic community through ordinary tasks with zero visibility, guided the whole way through for safety. It's not meant to be a stunt — it's meant to leave people with a real sense of how much independence and skill it takes to navigate the world without sight.

“Sometimes, understanding begins when we are willing to step outside what is familiar,” said Richard V. Caluyo, Senior Assistant Vice President for SM Cares. “By bringing The Blackout Zone closer to schools and the academic community, we hope to inspire young people and educators to help build learning environments where every person feels seen, respected, and included.”

Guided by touch, sound, and scent, participants worked through everyday routines with a companion close by. Most left with more than a story to tell — they left with a much clearer picture of what daily life looks like for people with visual impairments.

Moving Beyond the Mall Setting

This isn't the exhibit's first run — SM malls have hosted it before, with activities like tying shoes, making coffee, identifying candy by smell, and watching Movies for the Blind. Bringing it to CHED this time was a deliberate shift, aiming the experience at the people who design classrooms and curricula rather than mall visitors passing through.

SM Cares is banking on that shift to push accessibility further into how higher education actually operates — less an occasional event, more a built-in standard.

“Our united goal with SM for The Blackout Zone is for the program to serve as a catalyst for meaningful action,” said CHED Commissioner Michelle A. Ong. “Empathy allows us to dismantle the barriers that hamper inclusion and education of Filipinos with vision impairments. Through this shared effort, we hope to further guide policies tightly woven with real-life experiences to serve this sector better.”

Turning Empathy Into Practice

Knowing inclusion matters isn't the same as practicing it. That takes real skill: offering help without taking over, stepping back to let people be independent, and designing spaces that work for every ability rather than merely tolerating them.

The Blackout Zone is one piece of a much longer list of SM Cares initiatives for persons with disabilities — covering accessibility upgrades, sensitivity training, inclusive hiring, and community programs.

Visitors walked in unable to see anything. Many walked out seeing inclusion in a whole new way.