[nabs-l] Device Helps Blind See with Tongue

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi Justin and everyone,

Sorry for the late posting on this thread; I have gotten behind on my emails
lately due to end-of-the-year schoolwork. Ah, the joy of finals... not!
<Smile!>

Justin, I think you hit the nail on the head. This device reminds me of that
extra-sensory cane which was posted about and discussed on the list some
time ago. The cane would, according to the designers, help us improve our
social skills by "leading" us to a person we know via some kind of high-tech
computer. These kinds of things come up often; just read some of the banquet
speeches at our past national conventions. In fact, if you ever want a good
laugh, read or listen to some of Dr. Jernigan's old banquet speeches, and
you will see the stupidity of the public when it comes to blindness!

Don't get me wrong here, I think these researchers had well-meaning
intentions, as do many sighted people who develop high-tech gadgets and do
other things which harm us more than help us. Now, this raises the question:
if these researchers and others have well-meaning intentions, why do their
developments harm us rather than help us? The answer, I believe, is simple:
because they generate a lot of harmful misconceptions about blindness among
the sighted public! Also, the more media attension these kinds of gadgets
receive, the more it harms us. Why? Because the media, despite all the
complaints of most of the public about it to the contrary, is a big factor
in molding public thought, and if the media has misconceptions about
blindness which they put out to the public, it's going to create new
misconceptions among the public at large, or reinforce the old ones. I think
the biggest thing these researchers didn't do was consult with the blind
ourselves by writing to organizations such as the NFB to see if we really
need this device. The only information they are getting is from the public,
and they already have misconceptions.

Just my thoughts,

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Justin Salisbury
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 6:13 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] Device Helps Blind See with Tongue

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

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