[nabs-l] Device Helps Blind See with Tongue

[Justin Salisbury]

Philosophy Discussion Time

I just caught this story on the local news, and I want to hear people's opinions of it.  There are many different versions of this news story, but here's a link to a page with a video and text article:

http://wearecentralpa.com/fulltext-healthcast?nxd_id=369932

Feel free to find other versions of this story using a simple search engine.

When I heard that Mark couldn't wait for the day that he could navigate his own home independently with a device, I thought to myself "hey, I already have one of those devices.  It's called a cane!"

In my reading on the story, I get the impression that researchers think that this device is important because we blind people are oblivious to our surroundings and need some way to get information about them.  I think this is cool research for the sake of research, but I see absolutely no practical need for the device.  With the proper skills and training, we can independently navigate our own surroundings.  I further wonder if maybe these uneducated or incorrectly educated researchers simply don't know about the techniques we blind people can use to independently navigate our surroundings or if they view them as inferior and think we should be trying to operate as closely to sighted people as we can.

What does everyone on the list think?

Justin Salisbury
President
North Carolina Association of Blind Students


Justin M. Salisbury
Class of 2012
B.A. in Mathematics
East Carolina University
president at alumni.ecu.edu

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”    —MARGARET MEAD