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

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi, Arielle and all.

What an interesting question! I'm interested to see what 
discussion that brings about on the list.  I'm of the opinion 
that blindness is generally indifferent to our daily function.  
In fact, I have been asked many times, "If it were ever possible 
for you to surgically regain your sight, would you do it?" 
Surprisingly to all the sighted people who ask that question, my 
answer is "No." See, I believe that blindness is the most 
adaptable disability there is.  Think about it.  If you're deaf, 
you can't communicate with others except for the small group of 
people (compared to the number of people in America or the world 
at that) who know sign language.  If you're wheelchair-bound, you 
can either buy a power wheelchair, which is pretty expensive, or 
you'll need somebody to push that thing for you everywhere unless 
you push it yourself.  If you're mentally handicapped, you can't 
learn well with your peers and will probably have trouble 
communicating, depending on the severity of it.  But if you're 
blind, you can still learn, walk, communicate, and do most 
everything that sighted people can independently with just a few 
minor adaptations.  As the great Dr.  Kenneth Jernigan said, "The 
real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight.  The real 
problem is the lack of understanding and education which exist.  
If a blind person has the proper training and opportunity, 
blindness can be reduced to a minor physical nuissance." But keep 
in mind, though, that I'm blind from birth, so I'm a little 
biassed.  Probably someone who lost their sight later in life 
would want to try to regain their sight in a heartbeat.  So, I 
don't think it would be necessary to get rid of all blindness 
altogether.  I think blindness has presented a great educational 
opportunity to the sighted world, because from blind people like 
the ones in NFB, they've learned that they don't have to rely on 
their sight for everything in life.  That's why when people ask 
me, "What's it like to be blind," I answer, "It's pretty much the 
same as being sighted.  You just travel with a long cane and read 
Braille, but that's really the only difference." And yes, you can 
use that line if you want, LOL.  Hopefuly, I gave some food for 
thought to you all.  What do you think?

  Chris Nusbaum

"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)

----- Original Message -----
From: Arielle Silverman <nabs.president at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:08:30 -0600
Subject: [nabs-l] 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

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