I agree– great post, Erin. :)

Back to the original poster, Erin- very lovely entry, well done.

If you think about it– it’s what brings people together. In churches. In a time of need. In a time of celebration. In a time of rejoice. It’s essential, in a way. Whenever there’s a tragedy—music is used to bring people together to help raise money. I can see how people would rather choose being blind over being deaf.

I don’t see how NOT being able to listen to music is a big deal to hearing people. It is just a bonus to me. We can make up communication via pagers, e-mails, laptop writing, etc. Can blind people make up for the their lack of “sight”? No, they can’t. What do they really enjoy? Just music and communication?? To me, that doesn’t seem enough. How about the movies, sight-seeing, seeing babies grow up, looking at paintings, etc.?? Yes, I know some blind people can use computer but there is so much limits. It depends on certain websites that blind people have access to. My co worker is blind but hearing. I asked her this question about computer. She said something that hers is voice-activated. But is that enough to look at websites: pictures, etc?

http://www.deafdc.com/blog/?p=753

I think part of the problem is that it is hard for many hearing people to really conceive of what it means to not be able to hear. You can blindfold them and they immediately get a sense of what not being able to see means, and that scares the crap out of most of them. On the other hand, they conceive of deafness as just being this nice quiet solitude where you don’t have to deal with all the noise around you.

But then when I remind them what being deaf really entails - not being able to hear on a cell phone or listen to the radio in your car or understand group conversations at the local bar…then it really starts to dawn on them that there is a lot more to all of this than just the absence of sound. That doesn’t mean they necessarily change their minds, but they do start to appreciate what being able to hear is really all about.

Interestingly enough, tho…I did a presentation once where there were a few blind individuals in the audience and they came up to me afterwards and told me they didn’t like my asking that kind of question and found it somewhat offensive. Their point being that it was like comparing apples and oranges…how can you really say that one disability is “better than” or easier to deal with than another?

Some people deal with losing their hearing quite proactively - perhaps even going so far as to learn sign language, use devices and services such as interpreters and relay and flashing light signalers and pagers, and joining the Deaf Community; while others go through denial and mourn their loss, while researching surgical technologies such as CIs and struggling to get by with rudimentory lipreading skills and what little residual hearing they may still have. I suspect the same thing can be said for those who lose their sight - some will immediately begin learning mobility techniques, begin studying braille, investigate getting a seeing-eye dog and so forth…while others will go through that grieving and struggle to maintain what “normalcy” they can with what limited vision they might still have.

Failing that, both groups likely withdraw into isolation - fighting deep depression, suicidal thoughts, and increasing distancing from the world around them…be it things or people.

It’s a hard call. I don’t think any of us knows how we would deal with losing one of our senses until we are put into a situation where we are forced to confront such - any more than we know how we’d deal with a diagnosis of cancer or multiple sclerosis or alzheimer’s.

Kudos to Erin for a thought-provoking blog, and congrats on getting mentioned in the Post Express!