Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
Well said, Payal. Let us not give the world the impression that we are so content with blindness that we would reject any attempts by researchers at restoring sight. It is imperative that we have a choice. Geetha - Original Message - From: Payal [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind I would here like to express the opinion of a person who lost both sight and sense of hearing at the age of 22. from being an educated and financially independent individual I was reduced to being a mere vegetable. The difficulties both psychologically and emotionally, apart from the obvious physical was huge and quite impossible. Life did not allow too many choices but to wallow in self-pity,deny and then slowly pickup the pieces of life and move on. Today, I have partial hearing but no sight and am back to working for some years and doing most all that I have done in the past. I surely want to see again, but not to be a trial for any clinical therapy because I have put myself through several trials of all kinds. I want a hundred percent recovery, not a partial recovery. Apart from the adaptation issues, there is also the psychological implication of it all. I had it all and I want it all back, however that might sound. I'm willing to wait for that , I have nothing more to lose anyway! payal -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rajesh Asudani Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 10:29 To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Well, the logic may apply to those congenitally blind or having become so at an early age without any conscious recollection of sight. But, what about those acquiring the condition later in life? Do they also become so adapted to the los [or maybe so defensive about it] that they shun all and every opportunity to regain it? And, in the first place, won't the advantages of acquiring a natural sense like sight or hearing outway initially accompanying hurdles and hiccups which must by all counts be brief and transient? Yes, it requires adaptation in physiological and psychological sense even to have something obviously beneficial in the long run, but aren't those adaptation worth the trouble? I am not advocating never-ending efforts for gaining sight by running helter-skelter to all and every physician by the desperate but a reasonable chance even as a part of clinical trial in a new therapy by those who have maturely accepted their blindness. For that matter, I have, on numerous occasions, posed a challenge to ophthalmologists to try any sensible measure or new invention on my dysfunctional eyes, provided the procedure does not involve any intense and prolonged pain or drastic readjustment in my day to day life and has reasonable chance of success. I still maintain that there is no substitute for sight and adaptations after acquiring it may be worth the price. Rajesh - Original Message - From: Harish Kotian [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:52 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Hi All Actually, to understand the spirit of what is said, is that, vision is a very strong distractive stimulus. One will have to appreciate with an example. Imagine, a person who is born deaf and after say 30 or 40 years his hearing gets restored, what a patrifying experience it would be. His newly aquired hearing would be more of a problem than without it. Every single sound would be an uncettling experience. It takes quite a while to filter out this noise. Probably by that time he would have become a totally nervous wreck. There is no altruisim about it. Harish - Original Message - From: Rajesh Asudani [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:46 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind But what about advantages of learning this new but universal language? Are we afraid of change or learning something which is one of the fundamental attributes of human species, nay a right of every body arbitrarily denied to some? Please let us not make blindness a norm, let us accept that it is sight which is norm and lack of it a statistical exception. Surely the blindness is not favored by natural evolution. Do not confuse my contention with eugenic ideas but I am trying to argue against defensive glorification of a condition which surely merits to be made less stressful and disadvantageous. I won't regret if one day nobody is born blind or becomes blind by other contingencies. But, yes, nobody may advocate selective breeding marginalization of the blind. Any human being who is consciously aware of her/his existence [save the natural or brief states on unconsciousness] and wills to live must afforded reasonable opportunities to do so. Rajesh - Original Message
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
Dear Rajesh: Blindness may not be the norm, but talking as though it is absolutely a disappointing experience is what I find unacceptable. One of the stereotyping about blind people is that they always lead a sad and melancholic life; always regretting about not having to see and are desperate for a cure. I think this needs to be rejected completely. Though most of us would love to see again, we are not desperate or depressed if that doesn't happen. We develop a sort of identity around blindness, because we learn to grow up and live with it. As someone who lost sight after my teens, I know how difficult it is to adapt to blindness and I can also assess the advantage of being blind: I don't have enemies, for instance, I have only friends and strangers. You talked about changes, I feel you learn to adapt to change much better as a blind person than a sighted person. Being blind is perhaps the biggest motivation for me to do things I do and if I had remained sighted, I may have had motivation but certainly not at this level, because survival is more difficult and so you need greater level of motivation. Also, there is no room for complacency, I may know the layout of a particular place but I need to keep my mind sharper to tackle any unexpected obstacles. So, when you consider this, blindness isn't more an identity, but a perfect demonstration of survival of the fittest theory. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rajesh Asudani Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:30 AM To: Geetha Shamanna; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind absolutely well said I am tired of idealism. Given a choice nobody would prefer to be blind, admittedly not even the lady who has written the article inquestion. Then, isn't it strange that given a choice and a reasonable assurance and affordability, they say, they would prefer not to take the advantage of becoming sighted-even partially!! Let us not confuse the things. It is one thing to live successfully as a blind person, but it is totally another to euphemize it as a state not fraught with any disadvantages--be those disadvantages inherent in the condition or man made! Words like identity, etc. are hollow semantic phrases. Andd, what is the identity of even a fully functioning/productive blind person in sighted world? Moreover, as said earlier, there is no substitute for sight, and a fully functioning/productive blind person is either a myth or a rarest of the rare species who fortunately or accidentally finds herself or himself bestowed with fortune and a field absolutely fitted to his/her working. Still it would be a vocational functionality, and granted he/she has noble family as not to make him aware of his shortcomings, still community would not spare him/her the crunch. And, for this, either family/vocational world/community is not to be blamed only. Sight is the norm and lack of it is not, even though it is desirable to make it less fraught with disadvantages either by human assistance or by technology or sometimes by reasonable modifications. I am afraid if I have not been able to communicate clearly. I wanted to write on the subject, but did not wish to stir the hornet's nest. Rajesh Rajesh - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
blindness is a very big drawback in our life and blind person has to face difficulties through out the life though many blind people achieved what sighted people can't achieve in their life. Some time we feel helpless and can't do anything but to curse our life and blindness also. Society is not ready to accept blind people even today even some time your family members do feel that blindness is burden upon them. It is very much disturbing and frustrating for us. - Original Message - From: Dr. Vipin Malhotra [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 11:09 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind i know why we become so hypocrite One can not celebrate his blindness even with so many justifications! With love and care, Vip! - Original Message - From: Rajesh Asudani [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED]; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:30 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind absolutely well said I am tired of idealism. Given a choice nobody would prefer to be blind, admittedly not even the lady who has written the article inquestion. Then, isn't it strange that given a choice and a reasonable assurance and affordability, they say, they would prefer not to take the advantage of becoming sighted-even partially!! Let us not confuse the things. It is one thing to live successfully as a blind person, but it is totally another to euphemize it as a state not fraught with any disadvantages--be those disadvantages inherent in the condition or man made! Words like identity, etc. are hollow semantic phrases. Andd, what is the identity of even a fully functioning/productive blind person in sighted world? Moreover, as said earlier, there is no substitute for sight, and a fully functioning/productive blind person is either a myth or a rarest of the rare species who fortunately or accidentally finds herself or himself bestowed with fortune and a field absolutely fitted to his/her working. Still it would be a vocational functionality, and granted he/she has noble family as not to make him aware of his shortcomings, still community would not spare him/her the crunch. And, for this, either family/vocational world/community is not to be blamed only. Sight is the norm and lack of it is not, even though it is desirable to make it less fraught with disadvantages either by human assistance or by technology or sometimes by reasonable modifications. I am afraid if I have not been able to communicate clearly. I wanted to write on the subject, but did not wish to stir the hornet's nest. Rajesh Rajesh - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
Hi All Actually, to understand the spirit of what is said, is that, vision is a very strong distractive stimulus. One will have to appreciate with an example. Imagine, a person who is born deaf and after say 30 or 40 years his hearing gets restored, what a patrifying experience it would be. His newly aquired hearing would be more of a problem than without it. Every single sound would be an uncettling experience. It takes quite a while to filter out this noise. Probably by that time he would have become a totally nervous wreck. There is no altruisim about it. Harish - Original Message - From: Rajesh Asudani [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:46 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind But what about advantages of learning this new but universal language? Are we afraid of change or learning something which is one of the fundamental attributes of human species, nay a right of every body arbitrarily denied to some? Please let us not make blindness a norm, let us accept that it is sight which is norm and lack of it a statistical exception. Surely the blindness is not favored by natural evolution. Do not confuse my contention with eugenic ideas but I am trying to argue against defensive glorification of a condition which surely merits to be made less stressful and disadvantageous. I won't regret if one day nobody is born blind or becomes blind by other contingencies. But, yes, nobody may advocate selective breeding marginalization of the blind. Any human being who is consciously aware of her/his existence [save the natural or brief states on unconsciousness] and wills to live must afforded reasonable opportunities to do so. Rajesh - Original Message - From: LSanjay [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED]; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 11:03 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Hi, If you are a born totally blind like me, restoration of sight will bring its own complexities. You have to learn a language called seeing which sighted people mastered since the very first day of their birth. I am sure, this is not as simple as both blind and most of the times sighted people believe to be. - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
Well, the logic may apply to those congenitally blind or having become so at an early age without any conscious recollection of sight. But, what about those acquiring the condition later in life? Do they also become so adapted to the los [or maybe so defensive about it] that they shun all and every opportunity to regain it? And, in the first place, won't the advantages of acquiring a natural sense like sight or hearing outway initially accompanying hurdles and hiccups which must by all counts be brief and transient? Yes, it requires adaptation in physiological and psychological sense even to have something obviously beneficial in the long run, but aren't those adaptation worth the trouble? I am not advocating never-ending efforts for gaining sight by running helter-skelter to all and every physician by the desperate but a reasonable chance even as a part of clinical trial in a new therapy by those who have maturely accepted their blindness. For that matter, I have, on numerous occasions, posed a challenge to ophthalmologists to try any sensible measure or new invention on my dysfunctional eyes, provided the procedure does not involve any intense and prolonged pain or drastic readjustment in my day to day life and has reasonable chance of success. I still maintain that there is no substitute for sight and adaptations after acquiring it may be worth the price. Rajesh - Original Message - From: Harish Kotian [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:52 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Hi All Actually, to understand the spirit of what is said, is that, vision is a very strong distractive stimulus. One will have to appreciate with an example. Imagine, a person who is born deaf and after say 30 or 40 years his hearing gets restored, what a patrifying experience it would be. His newly aquired hearing would be more of a problem than without it. Every single sound would be an uncettling experience. It takes quite a while to filter out this noise. Probably by that time he would have become a totally nervous wreck. There is no altruisim about it. Harish - Original Message - From: Rajesh Asudani [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:46 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind But what about advantages of learning this new but universal language? Are we afraid of change or learning something which is one of the fundamental attributes of human species, nay a right of every body arbitrarily denied to some? Please let us not make blindness a norm, let us accept that it is sight which is norm and lack of it a statistical exception. Surely the blindness is not favored by natural evolution. Do not confuse my contention with eugenic ideas but I am trying to argue against defensive glorification of a condition which surely merits to be made less stressful and disadvantageous. I won't regret if one day nobody is born blind or becomes blind by other contingencies. But, yes, nobody may advocate selective breeding marginalization of the blind. Any human being who is consciously aware of her/his existence [save the natural or brief states on unconsciousness] and wills to live must afforded reasonable opportunities to do so. Rajesh - Original Message - From: LSanjay [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED]; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 11:03 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Hi, If you are a born totally blind like me, restoration of sight will bring its own complexities. You have to learn a language called seeing which sighted people mastered since the very first day of their birth. I am sure, this is not as simple as both blind and most of the times sighted people believe to be. - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
I would here like to express the opinion of a person who lost both sight and sense of hearing at the age of 22. from being an educated and financially independent individual I was reduced to being a mere vegetable. The difficulties both psychologically and emotionally, apart from the obvious physical was huge and quite impossible. Life did not allow too many choices but to wallow in self-pity,deny and then slowly pickup the pieces of life and move on. Today, I have partial hearing but no sight and am back to working for some years and doing most all that I have done in the past. I surely want to see again, but not to be a trial for any clinical therapy because I have put myself through several trials of all kinds. I want a hundred percent recovery, not a partial recovery. Apart from the adaptation issues, there is also the psychological implication of it all. I had it all and I want it all back, however that might sound. I'm willing to wait for that , I have nothing more to lose anyway! payal -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rajesh Asudani Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 10:29 To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Well, the logic may apply to those congenitally blind or having become so at an early age without any conscious recollection of sight. But, what about those acquiring the condition later in life? Do they also become so adapted to the los [or maybe so defensive about it] that they shun all and every opportunity to regain it? And, in the first place, won't the advantages of acquiring a natural sense like sight or hearing outway initially accompanying hurdles and hiccups which must by all counts be brief and transient? Yes, it requires adaptation in physiological and psychological sense even to have something obviously beneficial in the long run, but aren't those adaptation worth the trouble? I am not advocating never-ending efforts for gaining sight by running helter-skelter to all and every physician by the desperate but a reasonable chance even as a part of clinical trial in a new therapy by those who have maturely accepted their blindness. For that matter, I have, on numerous occasions, posed a challenge to ophthalmologists to try any sensible measure or new invention on my dysfunctional eyes, provided the procedure does not involve any intense and prolonged pain or drastic readjustment in my day to day life and has reasonable chance of success. I still maintain that there is no substitute for sight and adaptations after acquiring it may be worth the price. Rajesh - Original Message - From: Harish Kotian [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:52 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Hi All Actually, to understand the spirit of what is said, is that, vision is a very strong distractive stimulus. One will have to appreciate with an example. Imagine, a person who is born deaf and after say 30 or 40 years his hearing gets restored, what a patrifying experience it would be. His newly aquired hearing would be more of a problem than without it. Every single sound would be an uncettling experience. It takes quite a while to filter out this noise. Probably by that time he would have become a totally nervous wreck. There is no altruisim about it. Harish - Original Message - From: Rajesh Asudani [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:46 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind But what about advantages of learning this new but universal language? Are we afraid of change or learning something which is one of the fundamental attributes of human species, nay a right of every body arbitrarily denied to some? Please let us not make blindness a norm, let us accept that it is sight which is norm and lack of it a statistical exception. Surely the blindness is not favored by natural evolution. Do not confuse my contention with eugenic ideas but I am trying to argue against defensive glorification of a condition which surely merits to be made less stressful and disadvantageous. I won't regret if one day nobody is born blind or becomes blind by other contingencies. But, yes, nobody may advocate selective breeding marginalization of the blind. Any human being who is consciously aware of her/his existence [save the natural or brief states on unconsciousness] and wills to live must afforded reasonable opportunities to do so. Rajesh - Original Message - From: LSanjay [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED]; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 11:03 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Hi, If you are a born totally blind like me, restoration of sight will bring its own complexities. You have to learn a language called seeing which sighted people mastered since
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
You are right. Even if we have accepted our condition and want to live with it, our well wishers will not admit it and they will persuade us to go for any method of treatment which they have heard thinking it will make us happy. But they don't realise the difficulty in becoming a guini pig. Renuka - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am not recommending this to anyone as ways of gaining acceptance into the mainstream world, but am merely trying to point out the weirdness in thinking among the able-bodied individuals in our society. Subramani -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of LSanjay Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:03 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Reflections on Becoming Blind by Rebecca Atkinson From the Editor: On July 17, 2007, the Guardian, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the United Kingdom, published an essay by a woman who is losing her sight from retinitis pigmentosa. In some ways her assumptions and experience of blindness depart startlingly from the American, or at least NFB, presumption that a trained blind person can travel as rapidly and cross streets as efficiently as sighted pedestrians. Yet by and large her experience and attitudes are healthy and articularly expressed. This is what she says: Rebecca Atkinson is going blind. An experimental therapy could offer her the chance to see again, but would she take it? Earlier this year doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, began the world's first gene therapy trials to treat twelve patients who have Leber's congenital amaurosis, a condition that causes progressive sight loss. Following successful animal trials (said to have restored the vision of blind dogs so they could navigate a maze without difficulty), it is hoped that the technique, which involves injecting working copies of faulty genes directly into the retina, will prove equally effective when carried out on humans. The results will not be made public for a year, but, if the technique works, scientists hope it could eventually be used to treat a wide range of inherited sight disorders affecting up to 30,000 visually impaired people in the UK and potentially millions more worldwide. The first viable treatment for blindness is twinkling on the horizon, and, as one reader said on a national newspaper message board discussing the trials, The possibility of being able to give improved sight to people with visual impairments is a great development for the human race. But what of the people we seek to repair? Those who have been born blind and those, like me, who are losing or have
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am not recommending this to anyone as ways of gaining acceptance into the mainstream world, but am merely trying to point out the weirdness in thinking among the able-bodied individuals in our society. Subramani -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of LSanjay Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:03 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Reflections on Becoming Blind by Rebecca Atkinson From the Editor: On July 17, 2007, the Guardian, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the United Kingdom, published an essay by a woman who is losing her sight from retinitis pigmentosa. In some ways her assumptions and experience of blindness depart startlingly from the American, or at least NFB, presumption that a trained blind person can travel as rapidly and cross streets as efficiently as sighted pedestrians. Yet by and large her experience and attitudes are healthy and articularly expressed. This is what she says: Rebecca Atkinson is going blind. An experimental therapy could offer her the chance to see again, but would she take it? Earlier this year doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, began the world's first gene therapy trials to treat twelve patients who have Leber's congenital amaurosis, a condition that causes progressive sight loss. Following successful animal trials (said to have restored the vision of blind dogs so they could navigate a maze without difficulty), it is hoped that the technique, which involves injecting working copies of faulty genes directly into the retina, will prove equally effective when carried out on humans. The results will not be made public for a year, but, if the technique works, scientists hope it could eventually be used to treat a wide range of inherited sight disorders affecting up to 30,000 visually impaired people in the UK and potentially millions more worldwide. The first viable treatment for blindness is twinkling on the horizon, and, as one reader said on a national newspaper message board discussing the trials, The possibility of being able to give improved sight to people with visual impairments is a great development for the human race
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
Hi, If you are a born totally blind like me, restoration of sight will bring its own complexities. You have to learn a language called seeing which sighted people mastered since the very first day of their birth. I am sure, this is not as simple as both blind and most of the times sighted people believe to be. - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am not recommending this to anyone as ways of gaining acceptance into the mainstream world, but am merely trying to point out the weirdness in thinking among the able-bodied individuals in our society. Subramani -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of LSanjay Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:03 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Reflections on Becoming Blind by Rebecca Atkinson From the Editor: On July 17, 2007, the Guardian, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the United Kingdom, published an essay by a woman who is losing her sight from retinitis pigmentosa. In some ways her assumptions and experience of blindness depart startlingly from the American, or at least NFB, presumption that a trained blind person can travel as rapidly and cross streets as efficiently as sighted pedestrians. Yet by and large her experience and attitudes are healthy and articularly expressed. This is what she says: Rebecca Atkinson is going blind. An experimental therapy could offer her the chance to see again, but would she take it? Earlier this year doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, began the world's first gene therapy trials to treat twelve patients who have Leber's congenital amaurosis, a condition that causes progressive sight loss. Following successful animal trials (said to have restored the vision of blind dogs so they could navigate a maze without difficulty), it is hoped that the technique, which involves injecting working copies of faulty genes directly into the retina, will prove equally effective when carried out on humans. The results will not be made public for a year, but, if the technique works
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
But what about advantages of learning this new but universal language? Are we afraid of change or learning something which is one of the fundamental attributes of human species, nay a right of every body arbitrarily denied to some? Please let us not make blindness a norm, let us accept that it is sight which is norm and lack of it a statistical exception. Surely the blindness is not favored by natural evolution. Do not confuse my contention with eugenic ideas but I am trying to argue against defensive glorification of a condition which surely merits to be made less stressful and disadvantageous. I won't regret if one day nobody is born blind or becomes blind by other contingencies. But, yes, nobody may advocate selective breeding marginalization of the blind. Any human being who is consciously aware of her/his existence [save the natural or brief states on unconsciousness] and wills to live must afforded reasonable opportunities to do so. Rajesh - Original Message - From: LSanjay [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED]; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 11:03 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Hi, If you are a born totally blind like me, restoration of sight will bring its own complexities. You have to learn a language called seeing which sighted people mastered since the very first day of their birth. I am sure, this is not as simple as both blind and most of the times sighted people believe to be. - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am not recommending this to anyone as ways of gaining acceptance into the mainstream world, but am merely trying to point out the weirdness in thinking among the able-bodied individuals in our society. Subramani -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of LSanjay Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:03 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Reflections on Becoming Blind by Rebecca Atkinson From the Editor: On July 17, 2007, the Guardian, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the United Kingdom, published an essay by a woman who is losing her sight from
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
i know why we become so hypocrite One can not celebrate his blindness even with so many justifications! With love and care, Vip! - Original Message - From: Rajesh Asudani [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED]; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:30 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind absolutely well said I am tired of idealism. Given a choice nobody would prefer to be blind, admittedly not even the lady who has written the article inquestion. Then, isn't it strange that given a choice and a reasonable assurance and affordability, they say, they would prefer not to take the advantage of becoming sighted-even partially!! Let us not confuse the things. It is one thing to live successfully as a blind person, but it is totally another to euphemize it as a state not fraught with any disadvantages--be those disadvantages inherent in the condition or man made! Words like identity, etc. are hollow semantic phrases. Andd, what is the identity of even a fully functioning/productive blind person in sighted world? Moreover, as said earlier, there is no substitute for sight, and a fully functioning/productive blind person is either a myth or a rarest of the rare species who fortunately or accidentally finds herself or himself bestowed with fortune and a field absolutely fitted to his/her working. Still it would be a vocational functionality, and granted he/she has noble family as not to make him aware of his shortcomings, still community would not spare him/her the crunch. And, for this, either family/vocational world/community is not to be blamed only. Sight is the norm and lack of it is not, even though it is desirable to make it less fraught with disadvantages either by human assistance or by technology or sometimes by reasonable modifications. I am afraid if I have not been able to communicate clearly. I wanted to write on the subject, but did not wish to stir the hornet's nest. Rajesh Rajesh - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am not recommending this to anyone as ways of gaining acceptance into the mainstream world, but am merely trying to point out the weirdness in thinking among
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
I don't see need for idealism, it's about personal preference. Given a reliable technology, I would surely like to see the world again, and my identity is not blindness, nor it is my nationality, nor it is my religion, I consider that I am a human, which is not going to change in the forseeable future. Regards Dinesh Kaushal blog at dineshkaushal.blogspot.com -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rajesh Asudani Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:30 AM To: Geetha Shamanna; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind absolutely well said I am tired of idealism. Given a choice nobody would prefer to be blind, admittedly not even the lady who has written the article inquestion. Then, isn't it strange that given a choice and a reasonable assurance and affordability, they say, they would prefer not to take the advantage of becoming sighted-even partially!! Let us not confuse the things. It is one thing to live successfully as a blind person, but it is totally another to euphemize it as a state not fraught with any disadvantages--be those disadvantages inherent in the condition or man made! Words like identity, etc. are hollow semantic phrases. Andd, what is the identity of even a fully functioning/productive blind person in sighted world? Moreover, as said earlier, there is no substitute for sight, and a fully functioning/productive blind person is either a myth or a rarest of the rare species who fortunately or accidentally finds herself or himself bestowed with fortune and a field absolutely fitted to his/her working. Still it would be a vocational functionality, and granted he/she has noble family as not to make him aware of his shortcomings, still community would not spare him/her the crunch. And, for this, either family/vocational world/community is not to be blamed only. Sight is the norm and lack of it is not, even though it is desirable to make it less fraught with disadvantages either by human assistance or by technology or sometimes by reasonable modifications. I am afraid if I have not been able to communicate clearly. I wanted to write on the subject, but did not wish to stir the hornet's nest. Rajesh Rajesh - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
On 11/13/07, Dr. Vipin Malhotra [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i know why we become so hypocrite One can not celebrate his blindness even with so many justifications! With love and care, Vip! - Original Message - From: Rajesh Asudani [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED]; accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 10:30 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind absolutely well said I am tired of idealism. Given a choice nobody would prefer to be blind, admittedly not even the lady who has written the article inquestion. Then, isn't it strange that given a choice and a reasonable assurance and affordability, they say, they would prefer not to take the advantage of becoming sighted-even partially!! Let us not confuse the things. It is one thing to live successfully as a blind person, but it is totally another to euphemize it as a state not fraught with any disadvantages--be those disadvantages inherent in the condition or man made! Words like identity, etc. are hollow semantic phrases. Andd, what is the identity of even a fully functioning/productive blind person in sighted world? Moreover, as said earlier, there is no substitute for sight, and a fully functioning/productive blind person is either a myth or a rarest of the rare species who fortunately or accidentally finds herself or himself bestowed with fortune and a field absolutely fitted to his/her working. Still it would be a vocational functionality, and granted he/she has noble family as not to make him aware of his shortcomings, still community would not spare him/her the crunch. And, for this, either family/vocational world/community is not to be blamed only. Sight is the norm and lack of it is not, even though it is desirable to make it less fraught with disadvantages either by human assistance or by technology or sometimes by reasonable modifications. I am afraid if I have not been able to communicate clearly. I wanted to write on the subject, but did not wish to stir the hornet's nest. Rajesh Rajesh - Original Message - From: Geetha Shamanna [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 8:48 PM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind While I do not disagree with anything said in the article, if gene therapy is made available and if it guarantees restoration of sight, I would be the first one to take it. Identity and all that sounds good in the ideal world. Although I have adjusted reasonably well to blindness, nothing can replace the total and absolute independence that sight grants a person. There is simply no substitute for it. Geetha - Original Message - From: Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 10:47 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am not recommending this to anyone as ways of gaining acceptance into the mainstream world, but am merely trying to point out the weirdness in thinking among the able-bodied individuals in our society. Subramani -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of LSanjay Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:03 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Reflections on Becoming Blind by Rebecca Atkinson From the Editor: On July 17, 2007, the Guardian, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the United Kingdom, published an essay by a woman who is losing her sight from retinitis pigmentosa. In some ways her assumptions and experience of blindness depart startlingly from the American, or at least NFB, presumption that a trained blind person can travel as rapidly and cross streets as efficiently as sighted pedestrians. Yet by and large her experience and attitudes are healthy and articularly expressed. This is what she says: Rebecca Atkinson is going blind. An experimental therapy could offer her the chance to see again, but would she take it? Earlier this year doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, began the world's first gene therapy trials to treat twelve patients who have Leber's congenital amaurosis, a condition that causes progressive sight loss. Following successful animal trials (said to have restored the vision of blind dogs so they could navigate a maze without difficulty), it is hoped that the technique, which involves injecting working copies of faulty genes directly into the retina, will prove equally effective when carried out on humans. The results will not be made public for a year, but, if the technique works, scientists hope it could eventually be used to treat a wide range of inherited sight disorders affecting up to 30,000 visually impaired people in the UK and potentially millions more worldwide. The first viable treatment for blindness is twinkling on the horizon, and, as one reader said on a national newspaper message board discussing the trials, The possibility of being able to give improved sight to people with visual impairments is a great development for the human race. But what of the people we seek to repair? Those who have been born blind and those, like me, who are losing or have lost their vision. Is this what we have been waiting for? Is it a great development for the human race, or a step forward in the eugenic quest for an über race, free of imperfection and rid of the unease about disability that nestles quietly in society's pocket? For the past thirteen years I have been losing my sight, due to a genetic and incurable condition called retinitis pigmentosa (RP). RP causes the photoreceptive cells on the retina to die off, causing, in my case, tunnel vision
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
The article is simply brilliant and touching. As a person sailing in the same boat, I can really understand the meaning of every sentence. For the sake of being honest. please let me share some of my inner thoughts. Due to RP, when I started losing sight some 14 years ago, my wife ,who is not highly accomplished, started reading for me. I used to get annoyed and often abused her for the poor reading. I little understood then about my own real position. Slowly, the thought that I am blind has sunk into my mind. Today, it is only because of my so called less accomplished wife that I have read volumes and volumes of books(of course in Kannada), which I never would have read had I been sighted. Becoming blind, today I can empathise more to sufferings than when I was OK. Yes, every incident and happening has its own merit. B.Niranjan Raj Urs On 11/12/07, Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am not recommending this to anyone as ways of gaining acceptance into the mainstream world, but am merely trying to point out the weirdness in thinking among the able-bodied individuals in our society. Subramani -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of LSanjay Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:03 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Reflections on Becoming Blind by Rebecca Atkinson From the Editor: On July 17, 2007, the Guardian, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the United Kingdom, published an essay by a woman who is losing her sight from retinitis pigmentosa. In some ways her assumptions and experience of blindness depart startlingly from the American, or at least NFB, presumption that a trained blind person can travel as rapidly and cross streets as efficiently as sighted pedestrians. Yet by and large her experience and attitudes are healthy and articularly expressed. This is what she says: Rebecca Atkinson is going blind. An experimental therapy could offer her the chance to see again, but would she take it? Earlier this year doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, began the world's first gene therapy trials to treat twelve patients who have Leber's congenital amaurosis, a condition that causes progressive sight loss. Following successful animal trials (said to have restored the vision of blind dogs so they could navigate a maze without difficulty), it is hoped that the technique, which involves injecting working copies of faulty genes directly into the retina, will prove equally effective when carried out on humans. The results will not be made public for a year, but, if the technique works, scientists hope it could eventually be used to treat a wide range of inherited sight disorders affecting up to 30,000 visually impaired people in the UK
Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
i agree to all points you all mention i my self also late blind person started enjoying blind life only draw back i always felt is when i was able to see much better so many of my so called friends used to wait for half an hour just to mit me when they used to get news i am coming to their area now after total blindness same people passed through me so silently in order to avoid me even if they are in my area - Original Message - From: niranjanraj urs [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 11:24 AM Subject: Re: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind The article is simply brilliant and touching. As a person sailing in the same boat, I can really understand the meaning of every sentence. For the sake of being honest. please let me share some of my inner thoughts. Due to RP, when I started losing sight some 14 years ago, my wife ,who is not highly accomplished, started reading for me. I used to get annoyed and often abused her for the poor reading. I little understood then about my own real position. Slowly, the thought that I am blind has sunk into my mind. Today, it is only because of my so called less accomplished wife that I have read volumes and volumes of books(of course in Kannada), which I never would have read had I been sighted. Becoming blind, today I can empathise more to sufferings than when I was OK. Yes, every incident and happening has its own merit. B.Niranjan Raj Urs On 11/12/07, Subramani L [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Fantastic story. After reading this, I wanted to forget about our agreed etiquette regarding on and off topics and wanted to express my feelings on this one. I think the whole thing sounds extremely honest and seem to reflect my own experiences of becoming blind from the same condition. When I reacted indifferently to my mom's suggestion that I must seriously consider gene therapy to restore my sight, she was shocked and couldn't understand how such an important thing as getting back my sight failed to evince a serious response from me. I told her blindness has become my identity in the last 15 years and I am not all that comfortable shedding that identity. I told her it offered a fresh and a totally different perspective to life and so on, much on the same lines as Becky has described in her article, but the problem with the so-called able-bodied people is that they somehow fail to see the other side of things. Also, I don't know how many of you agree with me if I say this: when we are blind, the world wants us to follow their weird and convoluted understanding of morality. They, for instance, can't digest a blind person smoking. Forget about the health implications of smoking or drinking, but most people think it is utterly wrong as a habit for a blind person to smoke, even if he enjoys this activity with his sighted friends who are more than willing to light their cigarette for them or pour their drinks. As a smoker myself until three years ago, I used to learn from my sighted friends that I attracted disgusted looks from sighted strangers (who themselves would have gathered near that Tea shop to light a cigarette), whenever I smoked. As a teenager losing sight, smoking then was a way of gaining acceptance in the mainstream world that never used to treat me on par. Only after realising the serious health implications as a thirty-something, did I ever quit smoking and drinking. I am not recommending this to anyone as ways of gaining acceptance into the mainstream world, but am merely trying to point out the weirdness in thinking among the able-bodied individuals in our society. Subramani -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of LSanjay Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:03 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind Reflections on Becoming Blind by Rebecca Atkinson From the Editor: On July 17, 2007, the Guardian, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the United Kingdom, published an essay by a woman who is losing her sight from retinitis pigmentosa. In some ways her assumptions and experience of blindness depart startlingly from the American, or at least NFB, presumption that a trained blind person can travel as rapidly and cross streets as efficiently as sighted pedestrians. Yet by and large her experience and attitudes are healthy and articularly expressed. This is what she says: Rebecca Atkinson is going blind. An experimental therapy could offer her the chance to see again, but would she take it? Earlier this year doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, began the world's first gene therapy trials to treat twelve patients who have
[AI] Reflections on Becoming Blind
Reflections on Becoming Blind by Rebecca Atkinson From the Editor: On July 17, 2007, the Guardian, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the United Kingdom, published an essay by a woman who is losing her sight from retinitis pigmentosa. In some ways her assumptions and experience of blindness depart startlingly from the American, or at least NFB, presumption that a trained blind person can travel as rapidly and cross streets as efficiently as sighted pedestrians. Yet by and large her experience and attitudes are healthy and articularly expressed. This is what she says: Rebecca Atkinson is going blind. An experimental therapy could offer her the chance to see again, but would she take it? Earlier this year doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, began the world's first gene therapy trials to treat twelve patients who have Leber's congenital amaurosis, a condition that causes progressive sight loss. Following successful animal trials (said to have restored the vision of blind dogs so they could navigate a maze without difficulty), it is hoped that the technique, which involves injecting working copies of faulty genes directly into the retina, will prove equally effective when carried out on humans. The results will not be made public for a year, but, if the technique works, scientists hope it could eventually be used to treat a wide range of inherited sight disorders affecting up to 30,000 visually impaired people in the UK and potentially millions more worldwide. The first viable treatment for blindness is twinkling on the horizon, and, as one reader said on a national newspaper message board discussing the trials, The possibility of being able to give improved sight to people with visual impairments is a great development for the human race. But what of the people we seek to repair? Those who have been born blind and those, like me, who are losing or have lost their vision. Is this what we have been waiting for? Is it a great development for the human race, or a step forward in the eugenic quest for an über race, free of imperfection and rid of the unease about disability that nestles quietly in society's pocket? For the past thirteen years I have been losing my sight, due to a genetic and incurable condition called retinitis pigmentosa (RP). RP causes the photoreceptive cells on the retina to die off, causing, in my case, tunnel vision. I liken it to looking at the world down the middle of two toilet rolls. My central vision remains intact, but where once was peripheral vision, now float only my thoughts. In time these loo rolls will shrink to knotholes and then pinholes and then possibly nothing. In the early years after my diagnosis, blindness remained a repulsive and terrifying concept. Every year I would visit the doctor, and he would say the same thing--that I must live and plan my life with the certainty that blindness was inevitable. And so, slowly over time, that is what I learned to do. But now the advent of gene therapy has pushed open a chink in the door. Disabled people have long asked themselves the hypothetical would you be cured if you could? question. Now for the first time there is a chance, albeit very small, that maybe one day I might actually get my sight back. Hurrah, you cry. I must be thrilled. Actually I am a bit confused. It is easy to assume that all visually impaired people will be hammering down the doors should gene therapy prove successful. But to say this is to assume that a blind life is lesser and that all blind people really want to be sighted. They don't. The first blind man I ever met, who also happened to be my boss at the time, is one of them. I recently asked him if he would have gene therapy if he could. No, came his reply. Because, he tells me, regaining sight is more than just seeing again. There are issues of identity and culture at stake too. As the blind-from-birth son of blind parents, I am, in part of my soul, defined by my blindness, he explains. It directly equates to ethnic or racial origin. If you give a black person the choice to be white, there may well be significant advantages in such a deal: more access to better jobs; freedom from the shackles of ignorant prejudice; in short, a step closer to equality. But I'd bet most would turn the offer down flat. But what if, unlike my old boss, you haven't always been blind? What if, like me, you grew up with full vision and have seen all the cliché- ridden things that those born totally blind are pitied for never having seen--the sunset, your own reflection, the look in your lover's eyes. What if your soul is sighted, and then you go blind? You will cry and wonder why. You will hope and pray. You will wish it would all go away. But the longer your
