[Blindtlk] If the World Went Sighted..

[Sherri]

Some blind people have certainly contributed in a positive way to society, 
whether it is from their talent or social contributions. I don't think being 
blind has that much to do with it; therefore, eradicating blindness totally 
won't make that much difference.

Sherri

Please check out the link below and help blind people in your local area 
achieve their dreams by visiting
http://www.raceforindependence.org/goto/Sherri.Brun
Thank you.

Character is the side of yourself you choose to show the world. Integrity is 
what you do, what you say and how you act when you think no one is paying 
attention.
Sherri Brun
flmom2006 at gmail.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "humberto" <humbertoa5369 at netzero.net>
To: <BlindTlk at nfbNet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 11:16 PM
Subject: [Blindtlk] If the World Went Sighted..


>
>
> Hi all,
>
> We recently had a discussion about how we would react if some of our
> blind friends could become sighted, and we asked whether it would be
> reasonable for a sighted person to want to go blind. This made me
> think of an interesting, although a bit painful, question:
> Would the world be better off, worse off, or about the same if
> blindness were completely eradicated, through genetic engineering
> and/or mandatory treatment of all causes of blindness?
> The question may sound silly, but for many vision researchers,
> eradication of blindness is a real goal. But does the presence of
> blind people in our society have any benefit to the society or the
> world as a whole?
>
> Certainly there are costs of having a small group of people in society
> who read and travel using different techniques than the rest. These
> specialized techniques have to be taught, technology has to be adapted
> to their use and negative public attitudes prevent this minority of
> people who do things differently from having full access to societal
> goods and opportunities. So would it be cheaper and less
> resource-demanding if everybody could use the same visual techniques
> to accomplish life tasks?
> On the other hand, you could perhaps argue that having people who use
> different senses to do things in society is advantageous. Technology
> is forced to innovate to become usable by those who don't have vision
> as well as those who do. And conceivably, if a darkness plague struck
> the planet, it would be better for the species if some of its members
> could fully function without light.
>
> What do you think? Should we as a society make an effort to get rid of
> blindness? Or does blindness serve any kind of social function?
> There obviously isn't a right answer here, but it's something that,
> for better or for worse, could become relevant to us someday.
>
> Arielle
>
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nabs-l:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/humbertoa
> 5369%40netzero.net
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindtlk mailing list
> blindtlk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindtlk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> blindtlk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindtlk_nfbnet.org/flmom2006%40gmail.com