Poll: That old dillema! Blind or Deaf?

[Fishyash]

I guess I value music too much so I picked blind. As a keyboard player, I'm well aware that playing an instrument is more about muscle memory than use of your eyes. I played with this drummer once who was blind, he was amazing.

And yeah I would rather be blind than deaf because I love listening to music... although life would be a little harder, I think I would suffer less for it in the long run.

 

[Yopaz]

So I am not sure if you understood me. In theory I have no problems reading braille. I know what the dots mean, I just have problems being able to feel them. I have tried to learn it for a long time. I blindfold myself and try to read braille, but I don't think my fingers are sensitive enough to make me do it without problems.
Eyesight is important both for my interests and my profession. I would have to learn sign language and while that would be hard the difference is that I would be MORE likely to get hired than I already am, and trust me I wont have any problems getting a job when I am done with my education.
However being deaf is horrible and I wont deny that. It makes it almost impossible to communicate with anyone who isn't dead I can never listen to music and even games and movies lose some of their value. All in all though if I lose my eyesight I will lose almost everything I care about. Most of my hobbies and my aspects of getting a job would disappear with my eyesight. Loss of hearing would increase my chances of getting a job, make me lose one of my main interests and dull some others.

Of course I cant understand you, you havent been doing a very good job of explaining yourself. "Being deaf is no joke, but being blind would mean I would have to learn to do everything I do now in a different way." It doesnt matter if youre blind or deaf, youre gonna be relearning skills. Did you even consider that balance is a skill based on the inner ear? Depending on how you become deaf youll probably have trouble walking.

Blindfolding yourself doesnt exactly simulate actually being blind. Just because you wrap some cloth around your eyes doesnt mean your brain stops dedicating ability towards those muscles. You dont have the NEED to pick up Braille so the learning is slower. You still have use of all 5 senses, so Touch hasnt been finely tuned.

Exactly how would loosing hearing increase your chances of getting hired? Do you plan to work at Walmart or is your field of study flexing your oral orifice to imbibe copious amounts of male reproductive organs?

Knowing sign language could land me a job because there's a need for it, but there's not too many who actually can use it.
Now I guess I should have mentioned this before, but as it is I am working a lot with things that require my eyes and can't be substituted by anything you can hear.
This week I have tested if lead salts could be solved in various solutions. If I couldn't see I could not have done this. I have been making chlorine gas that I could recognize because it was green, which then proceeded to make brownish bromine gas that again created a dark red iodine gas. I have also dissected a hagfish and looked at the important structures.
So in 3 days I have done 3 things that would be impossible if I were blind. Becoming blind would make all my current education useless and I would be unable to work with what I'm passionate about. Do you really think being deaf would be worse in my case?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Difficult on, but blind (just).

Not being able to see beauty - bad.
Not being able to hear beautiful voices, music - worse.

 

[Robert Sanders]

depends on the cause of deafness because if its just damage to the three small bones in the ear i can just get surgery

Don't skirt the question. We are going under the assumption that we would completely lose the forfeited sense permanently; no loop-hole to get it back later.

 

[Jedoro]

Deaf

See, my phone has this awesome thing that lets you talk into it and it'll show the words as text. Normally this is used for composing text messages or searching Google without using both hands, but I could just hold it up so the person I'm talking to can talk into it. I then turn it around to read what they said, and problem solved. I can also still shoot since I retain my eyesight.

 

[Robert Sanders]

Find a place where I can buy the entire Wheel of Time series in braille, find a place where I can buy all my text books in braille, find movies that I can enjoy without seeing anything find a game that can be enjoyed without seeing anything.
Being deaf is no joke, but being blind would mean I would have to learn to do everything I do now in a different way. I know how to read, but reading braille really can't be compared to reading normal letters. I can read it if I see the dots, but not by using my finger. My favourite activities require eyesight though being able to hear enhances them it's not essential.

The blind can order any textbook/book in braille or on tape. And yes you can use your fingers, every blind person does...that's the point of Braille, raised dots.

Do you really think being deaf wouldn't alter anything? How are you going to enjoy movies when you cant hear suspenseful music or the tone of anyone's voice? How can you play sports if you can't hear your coach yell commands, or friends saying they're open? Did you miss when I also noted that Deaf also do not speak well. It doesn't matter if you become deaf from birth or halfway through your life, deaf people cannot form words well at all because hearing is an essential part of speaking.

I'm not trying to say you're wrong. But most people on this thread are seriously underestimating the cons of being deaf, and actin g as if will only be a slight hindrance compared to blindness.

You make good points, but eyes are far better than ears. I can't hear an enemy or predator silently watching me in the distance. I can't hear my way driving through a busy intersection in downtown San Francisco or listen to the subtle shifts of color in the aurora borealis. Each step must be slowly paced and aided by a cane less you trip and fall, and God help you if you end up in a new town and have to feel for land marks. For me, the "eyes" have it.

 

[Robert Sanders]

Here's a hard one for those who chose deafness. Would you rather lose sight or touch?

 

[Jack Rascal]

The blind can order any textbook/book in braille or on tape. And yes you can use your fingers, every blind person does...that's the point of Braille, raised dots.

It still requires that you learn Braille. Not an easy task if you ask me. If you become blind you have to learn Braille to be able to read, if you become deaf you do not need to learn anything to be able to read. You can walk to any bookstore and buy any book there.

Do you really think being deaf wouldn't alter anything? How are you going to enjoy movies when you cant hear suspenseful music or the tone of anyone's voice? How can you play sports if you can't hear your coach yell commands, or friends saying they're open? Did you miss when I also noted that Deaf also do not speak well. It doesn't matter if you become deaf from birth or halfway through your life, deaf people cannot form words well at all because hearing is an essential part of speaking.

How would you feel about hearing that suspenseful music but not see what's going on? How would you feel if you heard the tone of someones voice, but the the facial features accompanying it? You can easily misinterpret someone if you do not see their face. Also, American football is not the only sport out there and quite a few deaf people speak. It may be rare, but it's not impossible. It's easier if you have become deaf after you have learned to speak.

I'm not trying to say you're wrong. But most people on this thread are seriously underestimating the cons of being deaf, and actin g as if will only be a slight hindrance compared to blindness.

It's personal pros and cons. I don't think people are underestimating anything, they are weighing the options.

I would rather see a film than hear it.
I would rather play video games than hear someone else do it.
I would rather drive myself than be driven by someone else.
I would rather see the world than hear it.

Sight is very precious to me and loosing it would be horrible. If I lost my hearing I would still be able to do everything I do now, pretty much. I wouldn't need help with the most basic of tasks, such as shopping or going for a walk. If I lost my sight I couldn't continue where I work, If I lost my hearing I still could. Fair enough I wouldn't be able to answer the phone but all other tasks I can handle without hearing. Of course I would miss music and talking with my friends, but it is more important to me to see them than hear them.

I am happy that I have both, sight and hearing. But if I had to choose, I'd rather be deaf than blind.

 

[CrystalShadow]

That's obvious.

Look, not to be unfair to the deaf, but humans are predominantly visual.

No music, difficulties communicating with others and so on would suck.

But if you're blind... You'll have a hard time with just about everything.

Also, no computer games. No movies. You can't drive. Can't look at art, or even see a sunset.

Compared to that, the list of things you can no longer do if you're deaf is much smaller.

 

[CrystalShadow]

First off, I wanna make everyone aware of the movie See No Evil, Hear No Evil [link]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098282/[/link]. Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, great watch.
I choose blind but would want a deaf buddy as in the movie.

I would rather be deaf, because you can still read and participate in society when you are deaf. But don't think of it too lightly; Deaf means you will never be able to listen to music again, and never have that much fun at festivals and concert!

What the hell do you think Braille is numb-nuts? Blind people can read too.

I know there is a huge deaf community in the world, but I think being blind would have a much greater effect on my social life than being deaf would.
I wouldn't be able to read anymore (even IF I would learn Braille, still I would only be able to read books that were translated into Braille) And what about this forum or Internet itself! Also, I'm a big movie fan, and I wouldn't want to give that up. (I'm an even bigger music fan, but therein lies the dillema for me personally)

The fact that I was the one who first USED the word braille in this topic makes it's safe to say I know what braille is.

Then why didnt you take that into account in your FIRST post? Instead you just imply the blind are useless. Why do you assume the blind cannot participate in society? I see blind people all the time doing just fine in society.

A friend of my family is deaf. She was a student of archaeology on a dig in South America. She didn't know sign language because she had a very special and expensive computer to communicate for her. The first day or two of working the computer broke and she was stuck in a foreign country with people she didn't know very well, unable to communicate with anyone. For weeks she couldn't do anything but sit in the hotel room.

Blind people get awesome loyal dogs to help them cross streets, deaf people get useless shouts of "watch out" before the truck ultimately runs them over.

Sorry, this is mostly just curiosity, but did this person not have ANY other method of communicating? What did this computer do?

I lost the ability to communicate for a week, so I know what that's like, but I literally couldn't form words of any kind. (I knew what I wanted to say, but the actual words wouldn't form. I could neither say them, nor write them down, or even think of the actual words).

But... I find it hard to imagine any device which could help someone communicate without them at least having some grasp of language.
My first question would be, was she able to write?
(Or was there some additional factor, like a foreign language involved?)

Having to communicate by everyone writing things down would be a nightmare, but if all else fails, it seems like an obvious option.

Anyway, I'm mostly just curious as to what this computer of hers did, and why she had no ability at all to communicate without it...