BlameItOnMemphis

Do you think you will have children knowing you could pass this on?

Of course it is, but disablities differ in how folks who have them learn to circumnavigate life with it.

A deaf person, back in Helen Kellers day, suffered a profound disablity, severely isolating and debilitating.

Over time, the deaf have learned lip reading, sign language and other ways to communicate with the hearing world.

In our modern world they can even hear, learn speech, and speak normally. Now, they are not profoundly disabled, they are just another difference in the wide spectrum of humans and their skills. They've been given tools to advance in the hearing world to where their deafness doesn't hinder them in extreme ways.

It's wonderful and mind boggling the difference science had made in many lives. Not just deafness, but think how horrid it was for folks with failing vision before eyeglasses and eye surgeries and lasix? Or before electric wheelchairs and other mobility devices? Or pacemakers, artificial limbs, giving voice to those without one via a computer (Stephen Hawking).

Different. With all of our work to have rights for the disabled, to make them more an integrated part of our world instead of hidden away in institutions and back bedrooms, we've come to see how much we've missed by not having the disabled out in our world and contributing. Such a shame, who knows how much we've missed.

But now, disability is just a difference, not profoundly isolating and rendering each sufferer from being as much a part of society as they wish.

I hope we keep moving forward in all directions.

Have you not heard of Synanon? The SF based rehab from the 70's that had entire businesses built around the free labor provided by residents.

Deafness used to really hold people back. It hasn't for a long time now. Look at you! Deafness is just a difference, not a disablity.