03-29-2009, 07:35 PM
Hi,
WIth loss of vision, access to written texts becomes more difficult. By using audio books, automatic reading systems and Braille, this can be compensated for - partially, at least. You also lose some orientation and mobility, but again there are ways to get around this. To me, the biggest loss here would be the ability to play games, and sports - there's not a lot you can do against this.
If you lose the ability to hear, you might still be able to do most of the above - but your ability for real life social interaction gets severely limited. By learning to read from lips, you can still do one-on-one conversations, and I guess learning ASL would open up a larger community for you to communicate with. However, you will no longer be able to take part in conversations with your family and friends like you did before, and even if they give their best to try to include you, the flow of conversation would be slowed down and disrupted so much that I suspect life will become a lot lonelier than before.
That I enjoy hearing music much more than watching TV or something beautiful in general is another reason why I'd rather lose vision than hearing, but that's probably even more subjective than my thoughts above.;)
-Kylearan
Quote:The things I really fear are loss of vision and loss of my mind.While I fear loss of mind the most as well, I've always wondered why so many people fear loss of vision more than loss of hearing. I realize one cannot really argue about one's fears, but why is vision more important to you than hearing?
WIth loss of vision, access to written texts becomes more difficult. By using audio books, automatic reading systems and Braille, this can be compensated for - partially, at least. You also lose some orientation and mobility, but again there are ways to get around this. To me, the biggest loss here would be the ability to play games, and sports - there's not a lot you can do against this.
If you lose the ability to hear, you might still be able to do most of the above - but your ability for real life social interaction gets severely limited. By learning to read from lips, you can still do one-on-one conversations, and I guess learning ASL would open up a larger community for you to communicate with. However, you will no longer be able to take part in conversations with your family and friends like you did before, and even if they give their best to try to include you, the flow of conversation would be slowed down and disrupted so much that I suspect life will become a lot lonelier than before.
That I enjoy hearing music much more than watching TV or something beautiful in general is another reason why I'd rather lose vision than hearing, but that's probably even more subjective than my thoughts above.;)
-Kylearan
There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better." - John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider