[nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi, Sean and all.

I respectfully disagree.  Certainly all things in life, including 
blindness, come with pros and cons.  Everything has a trade-off.  
But you have to weigh the pros and cons, no matter how many of 
each, and decide which outweighs which.  In other words, will the 
pros outweigh the cons, or the other way around? Although we miss 
out on the things that only are available through vision and 
can't be well described, we're not missing out on that much.  We 
can read and write with Braille.  We can use assistive technology 
like notetakers and screen readers to access many digital things 
that sighted people use all the time in this new digital age, 
i.e.  email, list serves (hint hint, what are we using right 
now), social media/networking, instant messaging, many Web sites 
used for school research, work, or pleasure, wordprocessors, 
Braille printers, etc.  We can, we can, we can! I think we 
shouldn't be focusing on the small number of things we can't do, 
but rather on the many things we can do with minor adaptations.  
There is still a lot of work to be done, but as I said in a 
speech I gave to the NFB of Maryland a couple years ago at our 
state convention, "Blind people have come along way, baby!" 
Although I wanted to have a little fun with that statement, it's 
true.  Looking back at history, we're doing things now without 
sight that people couldn't have imagined just fifty or a hundred 
years ago.  Frankly, if we want positive attitudes from our 
sighted-based society, I think we need more positive attitudes 
about blindness from our own blind community.  I hope we can 
respectfuly disagree.  I welcome yours and everyone else's 
opinions on this.

Chris Nusbaum

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

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean Whalen" <smwhalenpsp at gmail.com
To: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:19:04 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted

What qualifies as “harm?” There are certainly plenty of negatives 
associated
with being blind; many of them borne of societal prejudices, and
misunderstandings, as well as the world’s being structured for 
the sighted.
However, I would contend that there is a list of negatives 
inherent to
blindness.  This doesn’t mean that blindness is more than a 
characteristic.
It also doesn’t mean that I am unhappy with who I am.  But all
characteristics bring along with them certain positives and 
negatives, and
blindness is no different in that regard.  Not all 
characteristics are
created equal, and blindness surely has more implications on 
one’s life than
the color of one’s hair or eyes.  If this were not the case, we 
wouldn’t have
an NFB.



I think Mike is right on with thinking that there is no reason to 
preserve
blindness in our world.  If blindness could be eradicated, I 
would view that
as a positive, not because blind people are inferior people, but 
because
blindness is, to my mind, a net negative.  If I could become 
sighted by means
of a procedure or medicine that was proven to work and be free of 
side
effects, and do so without losing anything of serious value in my 
life, I
don’t think there would be a lot to think about.  As somebody 
pointed out, I
would still have all the nonvisual ways of doing things at my 
disposal.
Becoming sighted, and I mean here obtaining functional usable 
vision, not
simply having my eyes work but having my brain have no idea how 
to process
the information, would do nothing but make my life easier.  It 
would also
afford me the ability to enjoy aesthetic beauty.  The inability 
to see the
sunset, a great work of art, or a lover’s face, while seemingly 
cliché, are
certainly inherently valuable parts of the human experience.  
Before anybody
wants to argue that those things are just incidental and not 
really
important, imagine that you were never able to hear music; that 
The best you
could do was to have describe to you how wonderful the tone of 
the saxophone
or how rich the chords in a piece.  Would you not be missing out 
on something
fundamentally good in the human experience.  I think you would.  
Similarly, I
think that we, as blind people, miss out on some stuff.  I don’t 
think I am
breaking news here, but I do run across those who will not cede 
this point.
I think that a key part of understanding blindness as a 
characteristic is
understanding that something’s being a characteristic doesn’t 
mean that it
doesn’t matter or have implications on one’s life.  Would my 
life, all else
being equal, be easier, and maybe better, if I were sighted? I 
think so.  It
would also be better if I were taller, better looking, or more 
patient.
Similarly, my life would be worse if I were less intelligent or 
didn’t have
a sense of humor.  Let me stress, I am comfortable in my own 
skin.  I am happy
with the person that I am.  Blindness is just part of who I am, 
and does not
define me.  I don’t think it is inconsistent, and I think it is 
probably
healthy, to be able to recognize the ways in which blindness 
affects one’s
life, while at the same time not letting one’s life or life 
prospects be
dictated by blindness.



I hope this makes some sense.



Take care,



Sean





_______________________________________________
nabs-l mailing list
nabs-l at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
for nabs-l:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/dotkid.nu
sbaum%40gmail.com