Yes I know, this question has probably been overused, but it's basically what this post is about. Would you rather be deaf or blind?
So I've been taking this deafblind class, and it has been a wealth of very useful information, and opened my eyes to a lot more. I'm currently working on readings and a response journal. I'm in the beginning of it, so I have a ways to go, but I came across this quote that Helen Keller said:
"I am just as deaf as I am blind. The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important, than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus - the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in the intellectual company of man. ...If I could live again I should do much more than I have for the deaf. I have found deafness to be a much greater handicap than blindness." - From a letter to Dr. J. Kerr Love, March 31, 1910, reprinted in the souvenir program commemorating Helen Keller's visit to Queensland Adult Deaf and Dumb Mission in 1948, Ackerman, 1990, pp. 191-192.
This totally floors me! Granted, I am deaf, and don't know any different how life could be. But this is coming from someone who has both disabilities. I wonder how many others feel the same way that has deafblindness. I would love your thoughts if you have any.
I cannot even imagine what it's like to be blind, especially because I have had to depend on my vision so much, despite what bryan may think about my visual abilities :) So to imagine that deafness is worse than blindness is a completely foreign thought to me, and something I cannot comprehend. I did grow up oral, and did struggle with language, and did feel isolated in a lot of social situations, and I still do feel isolated in some social situations today. But I have learned to adapt to those things, and it helps to have a husband who is willing to cue, or siblings who are willing to cue. My family also knows how to cue, and so I'm not as clueless as I was about conversations within the home anymore, and if I am, it's because of my own choice for not paying attention or reminding someone to cue if I didn't hear something.
Life without vision, I just cannot even comprehend that. This quote just really did shock me, and made me stop and think....can one really be worse than the other?
What do you think? I promise I won't judge or criticize what you think, even if you have no experience with either disabilities. I'm just curious as to what others reactions are to this quote.
Edited to add: Another quote for you to think about from an individual who is deafblind.
"I can only talk with one person at a time, and only if that person is within my reach. If I am in a crowded room, and no one is within three feet of me, I might as well be in a closet. It is very easy for me to misunderstand, so communication is often very slow." Robbins, 1983, pg. 3.
