[nabs-l] Heightened Senses

[Marc Workman]

Like most others, I explain that it is all a matter of using my sense of 
hearing or touch, or my memory more often than the average person.

Though, if you think about it, what is the difference between having an 
enhanced/heightened sense of hearing, and using your sense of hearing more 
effectively than the average person?

No, I don't have an enhanced ability to run, I just trained really hard and 
became faster than most people.

To me, there's something strange about that way of describing things.

I sometimes think that in our effort to demonstrate that we are just like 
everyone else, there is a tendency to claim that the only difference between 
blind and sighted people is the ability to see.

I agree that that is probably true for many blind people, but there is a 
fairly substantial body of research, research that I think some people too 
often tend to dismiss out of hand, that certain processes, I'm thinking 
particularly of language processing, do occur differently in the brains of 
blind people, particularly those who have been blind since birth.

But wait, you protest, sighted people could have those abilities too; they 
are not inherent to blindness.  That's true, any sighted person that went 
through her life relying exclusively on her hearing would develop the 
ability to discriminate between sounds that the average sighted person 
cannot distinguish.

There is enough evidence now to demonstrate the plasticity of the brain, and 
it seems dogmatic, though perhaps politically expedient, to insist that 
blindness, even when it has been present from birth, does not result in 
certain heightened or enhanced abilities that are not possessed by the 
average sighted person.

The stereotype of super-human hearing is a myth that ought to be challenged, 
but it seems equally wrong to me to insist that blindness makes no 
difference in one's ability to hear, to process language, to recall 
information, to discriminate better through touch, etc.

The only reason for the diatribe, which is not directed at what anyone has 
said thus far, is that I have received the impression before, particularly 
in a previous discussion about blindness and identity, that some do hold the 
position that blindness makes no difference to one's ability to hear, 
process language, etc.

Apologies, Joe, if this is too much of a digression from the original 
question, but you did say, all thoughts welcome.

Best,

Marc
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com>
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 5:46 PM
Subject: [nabs-l] Heightened Senses


> Dear all,
>
> Today I had the rare privilege to meet some of my favorite Fox News 
> Channel
> personalities.  One of my friends from judo practice made it happen, and
> while we were telling one of the anchors about how we'd met, she, the
> anchor, said judo must not come all that difficult for me since it only 
> made
> sense that with the loss of sight, my other senses would be enhanced.  I
> only consider myself a somewhat average judoka, but I did not have a 
> brief,
> witty comment to educate her on my reality that my hearing and other 
> senses
> are similarly average.  My sense of smell is most definitely not 
> impressive.
> I had too many questions of her to bother correcting the misperception.
>
> My questions are these:
>
> 1. Do you feel that blindness has enhanced your other senses?
>
> 2. How do you generally field remarks like these?
>
> Under normal circumstances I would have more time to educate people.  If 
> the
> anchor in question weren't one of my favorites, I may have taken a more
> instructive tone, but in general I want to answer such perceptions
> accurately and succinctly.  Church is another one of those venues where 
> you
> want to be polite but informative.
>
> Anyway, all thoughts welcomed.
>
> Best,
>
> Joe
>
> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
>
>
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