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I heard a blind person recently say on a radio program that the idea that blind people feel deprived and crave the ability to see is a weird concept dreamed up by seeing people.
I've heard this position from several disability advocates.
Was this person born blind? I feel like a person with a degenerative disease might think differently.
I knew a girl in a wheelchair who lost the ability to walk in a car accident. She definitely wanted to walk again.
I'm guessing that people who were disabled their whole lives don't (usually) desire to be able-bodied because that's just how reality is for them, and people who were once able-bodied would understandably desire the abilities and senses they once had. At least that's how I'd think of it.
Seems a little strawman-ish. "Feel deprived and crave the ability to see" is a hyberbole way to say that "blind people would rather have the ability to see". An assumption that would be safe to make for anyone with a disability, despite if they have learned to have a good life with it.
There's a really large contingent of congenitally disabled people that get up in arms about not needing to be "fixed." They'll start babbling on about "medical vs social models," which has some admittedly good points in there, and then they bump into a lamppost.
Nobody is going to force them to be "fixed" but a nontrivial number of disabled people want to rid themselves of their disability if possible.
It's why we have prosthetic legs, and cochlear implants. Not everyone gets them, but they're an option if you want them. Unless you're poor and live in the USA, then you don't have the option. Gg USA.
Perhaps, but fwiw I am a disability chat rep for a company and I often help people with hearing impairments. All of my training stressed that you treat everyone the same until they ask for different treatment. I suppose the term "differently abled" arisea from this as well.
Being a chat rep, of course, I do not deal with the vision impaired nearly as often.
I read a paper once about how even if someone born blind could suddenly "see," their brain still wouldn't know what to do with the information.
I think there's a Val Kilmer film about this.
Yes, At First Sight.
Edit to add: gave me very Flowers for Algernon vibes.
First time I realised this was when Lilly says "I feel the same about seeing as you do about your inability to hear two people whispering across the room" in Katawa shoujo.
Man that was was wonderful VN.
Cope
I feel like if I was blind I would tell myself that.
You are not going to meet a person who is as incompetent as music theory as me and can still hear. I would love to have any kinda musical ability.