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

Tue May 3 04:32:04 UTC 2011

Of course.  In any event, we agree on what should be done *now.*

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Nicole B. Torcolini at Home
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2011 9:52 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..

I like and greatly appreciate your willingness to agree to disagree.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2011 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..

> That presumes that diversity always equals benefit.  You and I are going 
> to
> have to differ on this one.
>
> Mike
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
> Behalf
> Of Jedi
> Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2011 6:45 PM
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..
>
> 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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>
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