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

[Jedi]

I say that disability is a form of diversity, so I wouldn't want to erase it.

Respectfully,
Jedi

Original message:
> Hello all,

> This is an interesting discussion, so I thought I'd pop in for a minute.

> This question goes, at the root of it, to how you view disability. If 
> you view it as an aspect that creates diversity, then erasing it would 
> be like erasing races or different languages. If you view disability as 
> a disease, then logically the first response would be to want to cure it.

> What do you guys think?

> Briley
> On Apr 27, 2011, at 7:55 AM, Jorge Paez wrote:

>> Arielle:
>> I think blindness does play a roll--in that it is just one of many 
>> things that make up an individual,
>> and in a world where genetics would be preprogramed,
>> it just be too perfect.
>> It'd just bee too flawless--too artificial.
>> I'm sure some people would want it--but a world in which blindness and 
>> other disabilities are completely eradicated would just be too artificial,
>> almost like we literally managed to create our own world in a way.

>> Worse, it would make it a whole lot worse for any blind who were born 
>> cause then everyone would consider them a scientific failure so to speak.
>> Of course,
>> I'm hypothetically talking about a very cold  world in which science 
>> would create people which I hope would never happen but its a good 
>> talking  point anyway.

>> Jorge


>> On Apr 27, 2011, at 12:08 AM, Arielle Silverman wrote:

>>> 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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