Would you rather have no hearing or no legs?
- Thread starter Gaith
- Start date
I'm already wheelchair bound, so my legs are no good anyway. I would DEFinitely miss music, though, and sometimes I wish there was someone to read to me; my eyes are failing, too, so it's hard to read.
I would choose keeping my hearing for as long as is possible.
I would choose keeping my hearing for as long as is possible.
Within the parameters of the hypothetical, wheelchairs and even prostheses are completely acceptable so long as there's no brain-controlling-robotic-legs aspect. So you could have "legs" grafted to your lower torso, but you wouldn't be able to control them.
How available are audio books? Is it mainly bestsellers or are they out there for a wider variety of things? I'm not asking to be stupid--I honestly don't know.
They're out there, but they're very expensive; at least for me; I'm living on Social Security. I have 2 audio books, but, for some reason, my CD player isn't working, and I no longer have a cassette player...sigh, can't win fer losin'
What about the text-to-speech feature on the free Kindle for PC? I know that computerised voices aren't that pleasant but I think one could get use to them.
Since she says she's living on social security and money is tight to the point audio books are inexpensive I'm going out on a limb and guessing a Kindle isn't within her monetary grasp either.
The Kindle for PC is a free app. You can also download free books for it.
I had a classmate who used to have a cochlear implant. She got it when she was a young girl. She was an avid athlete who was big on soccer. Her doctor told her and her folks that she'd be able to play sports with one (it was a 1980s CI where the surgery would leave a tender area just behind the ear).
Following the surgery, they were told that she couldn't play soccer again.
Hmm...maybe your library would have some available to check out someday when you get a new CD player? And what's not at your local branch might be available through interlibrary loan.
(Depends on what you do, CD players aren't awful in price if you don't go for a higher-end model or insist on a brand name. You might be able to save up over time for one...and there are used ones available too.
)
Not for me -- I'd much rather be deaf than blind. Sight plays a much bigger part in my awareness of the world than sound.
Try looking into this, Ghost:
http://www.brailleinstitute.org/library
The player is provided at no cost to you, and there's a pretty extensive list of books and periodicals from which to choose, on either audiocassette or digital cartridge. You check them out and return them just the same as you would from any library, only you request them online or over the phone, they're delivered by mail and the return postage is prepaid. It looks like it's now also possible to download some titles directly.
Have any of you thought about the deaf/blind? They have buttons to let people out there know they are deaf/blind. The Deaf often don't realize how noisy we can be (with doors, our footsteps, and stacking dishes), but I've noticed how some Deaf/Blind don't realize that some of their habits would come off as odd or annoying to the sighted and the hearing, especially with waving the stick more and much harder (noisy and often hitting people hard), drumming tables (in a manner most of us wouldn't do) and laughter outbursts. I always wondered about how they percieve stuff around themselves.No TV. No Radio. No Internet surfing except with super powerful magnification aids, no eavesdropping (you know, we in the signing community can do it from much further and through glass).
The truth is...they are most likey doing just fine, especially those who have been like that all of their lives. They can be educated with advanced degrees. There is always an irony here at the university, when the Deaf complain about the hearing people, when they do the same things to what they call "Deaf Plus", especially those who have low vision or legally blind.
The truth is...they are most likey doing just fine, especially those who have been like that all of their lives. They can be educated with advanced degrees. There is always an irony here at the university, when the Deaf complain about the hearing people, when they do the same things to what they call "Deaf Plus", especially those who have low vision or legally blind.
I saw that somewhere, but was afraid to believe it. I'm not very computer literate, and all I could think of was...what if I try to download something like this and my computer didn't work any more?
I am absolutely terrified of downloading anything.
Also, I didn't know it would read TO you...doesn't my computer need something extra to make a voice come out of it?
I live in a small town. Our library is so small, they don't have stuff like that.
I never heard of that...it's sort of like Netflix, then? And this is free?
At the children's centre where I used to work a deaf/blind girl attended some of our sessions with her enabler. She has two CIs (but her hearing is still quite poor) and she can only see items or people if they're very close to her face. She can recognise some voices but relies more on her sense of touch to recognise people, so she would often reach out to touch other children. This spooked a lot of the other children, especially as she couldn't always hear if those children voiced their displeasure. What drove me up the wall is the number of parents who didn't bother explaining to their children why this little girl kept reaching out for them (these parents would just tell their children to move away from her), so staff members or the girl's enabler would tell the children instead. How difficult is it to tell your child, "C wants to touch you because she can't see with her eyes, so she sees with her hands instead"? Of course, a lot of these were the same parents who left bags and other items lying around haphazardly despite continued requests to leave the floor space as clear as possible for the deaf/blind girl's safety.
