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

Fri Apr 29 02:02:54 UTC 2011

But we do tend to judge people on appearances if we know what they look 
like. If we don't know, then we will judge someone on some other 
grounds like the way they talk. But you're right, at least so-and-so 
has less a chance of being juedged by us as quickly; at least we'll 
talk to them first before judging them.

Respectfully Submitted

Original message:
> 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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