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

Mike Freeman k7uij at panix.com
Fri Apr 29 04:55:19 UTC 2011 

Ignaci:

I agree with you.  Although I've heard a number of my colleagues opine that
use of the GUI and the mouse makes things much faster than use of the
keyboard, my experience has been the exact opposite, the same as you have
experienced.  Although, of course, it depends upon the type of material and
structure of the data one is accessing.  But in general, on average, I am
much faster at getting specific tasks done quickly using the keyboard than
are my mouse-bound colleagues.

Actually,. I have one objective confirmation of this.  A while back, I
couldn't figure out why my iPhone wouldn't update using iTunes on the PC.  I
called AppleCare up and got an agent who was very familiar with
screen-reader access and she remotely connected to my PC and watched me
using iTunes -- not the most intuitive of programs.  I was working under her
directions and she said she'd seldom seen anyone find what I wanted and do
what I needed to do as fast as I was going.

Incidentally, it turned out I had to disable Kaspersky antivirus in order
for iTunes to verify the update.

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ignasi Cambra
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 8:56 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..

If you were to regain sight, you can take all the time you need to relearn
whatever you want because you can already do things being blind. If
anything, you would figure out which things are more efficient to do with
sight and which things are better the way you do them right now. I can tell
you that I use my computer a lot faster than most sighted people around me,
for example. So if I were to become sighted, I would probably keep using the
keyboard to operate the computer most of the time...
On Apr 28, 2011, at 4:51 PM, Jorge Paez wrote:

> Chris:
> This may surprise you but I'm the same way, and I lost my sight a bit
later in life, though with all honesty I can't remember much of what I saw.
> 
> Though I will not comment on your other points, like I have said 
> earlier, the reason I would NOT choose to become sighted is not 
> because blindness has some benefit, but because I'd have to learn 
> everything all over again should I see.
> 
> Besides, because of my life with no sight, I feel that I'd still never
trust my sight, just because I never grew up with it.
> Because, it is my belief, that just as the sighted people would not 
> understand how it is to be blind, because they never have been, I think
for those of us who are blind either from birth or from very young, we
cannot imagine and wouldn't get used to sight, not to mention that our
brains are wired differently anyway.
> 
> FYI: what I mean by the above (and they've proven this 
> scientifically), is that for those of us who are born blind or lose 
> our sight very young--I don't know how that applies to others, our visual
cortex is actually rewired for audio, so that it would be scientifically
impossible to regain sight, since it means reprograming the brain.
> 
> Jorge
> 
> 
> On Apr 28, 2011, at 4:03 PM, Chris Nusbaum wrote:
> 
>> 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 lik  e 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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