[nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..

Thu Apr 28 15:12:04 UTC 2011

Right on!  Blindness is no protection against misjudgments or prejudice.

Mike Freeman
sent from my iPhone

On Apr 27, 2011, at 22:34, Ignasi Cambra <ignasicambra at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is scary... I was about to post a message saying the same thing!
> I know that I don't judge people by their appearances, but sometimes I find myself unconsciously judging people by their voice. I think this can be even worse, because if appearances already tell you very little about a person, their voice is going to tell you just as little or perhaps even less.
> On Apr 28, 2011, at 1:26 AM, Nicole B. Torcolini at Home wrote:
> 
>> I do find that blindness seems to have at least one benefit. I cannot judge people by their appearances without having someone describe them to me. Given that I don't walk around with a describer every day, most if not all of my friendships and acquaintances are made without knowing what a person looks like and without judging them by it. Yes, sighted people can ignore appearances, but it is different when you don't have a choice.
>> 
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
>> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:53 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..
>> 
>> 
>>> But are these examples of the virtue of blindness or, rather, are they just
>>> taking advantage of a group that exists?  And the fact that blindness caused
>>> some innovation in the past doesn't necessarily mean that it will in the
>>> future.
>>> 
>>> Examples such as the Blind Driver Challenge and Ray Kurzweil's OCR work,
>>> while true, do not, in my view, constitute a reason for *preserving*
>>> blindness.  After all, schizophrenics are often damned creative.  Does this
>>> mean we shouldn't work for a cure or at least an amelioration of the
>>> destructive symptoms of schizophrenia?  Before you reflexively say "yes".
>>> Consider all the harm schizophrenia does.  I'm not saying blindness causes
>>> harm; it doesn't.  but in a world structured for the sighted, I don't see
>>> any great benefits of blindness in and of itself.
>>> 
>>> Mike
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
>>> Of Jedi
>>> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 7:57 PM
>>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..
>>> 
>>> Arielle,
>>> 
>>> I think blindness does serve a purpose. First of all, we learn more
>>> about our species when there are differences among us. So for example,
>>> blind people have been used as controls or experimental groups for all
>>> kinds of neural research having nothing to do with sight as a means by
>>> which to understand the human experience. Then, there's the fact that
>>> we, because of our technological needs, push innovation. For example a
>>> lot of people are thinking that the blind driver challenge will create
>>> a lot of technologies that will help others. Similarly, the scanning
>>> and reading technology the sighted take for granted came as a result of
>>> Ray Kurzweil's desire to provide a reading medium for the blind.
>>> Text-to-speech is another   example; we now use TTS for a variety of
>>> applications having nothihng to do with blindness.
>>> 
>>> In general, I think disability is a good thing because it makes us
>>> realize that there are multiple ways to live in the  universe and there
>>> really is no such thing as total perfection and that we are perfect in
>>> our imperfection. I know that may seem a little high-minded and crazy
>>> to some, but it makes sense to me. As blind people, we are in the
>>> unique position of getting people to think. When they see us, the
>>> sighted go crazy. but that craziness has nothing to do with us, but has
>>> everything to do with themselves in a fundamental way. To the sighted
>>> (and I'm basing this on philosophical and art history research), we
>>> represent everything from death to the unknown, everything from fear of
>>> the dark to a feeling of being out of control. The sighted see us and
>>> think, how in the hell can they live like that? I think we remind them
>>> on some level that control is a mental illusion and that feeling out of
>>> control is also a mental illusion. Again, another of Jedi's weird
>>> ideas, but it makes sense to me. Basically, no human is ever really in
>>> control, but at the same time, we have more control of our lives than
>>> we think. So when a sighted person sees us (especially those of us who
>>> remind them of themselves as normal people), we cause them to question
>>> everything they thought they knew, and that's a good thing. That's the
>>> value of having diversity in general. if we were all the same, we would
>>> not learn nearly as much as we have.
>>> 
>>> Respectfully,
>>> Jedi
>>> Original message:
>>>> 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
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
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