2007-06-18 17:14:19

Hello All!
You don't have to answer this if you find it personal, though if you are opened to it I'd be really interested in your opinion.
If technology progressed to the point where they could fully restore your sight, to the point you could drive a car, would those of you who are totally blind try your best to get the operation or would you decline it.
Personally, I think I'd jump on it, even if an 80 percent death risk factor was involved. Not that I wouldn't do just fine living life as a blind person, but I think if I had the chance to see I'd jump on it right away, and fight for it until I got it!

Please let me hear from you!

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2007-06-18 20:48:03

As someone who previously had sight I honestly don't know until or unless it happened. I managed to take losing my sight in my stride because it was something that happened to me, but I don't know that I could stand to make that type of decision and put myself through it voluntarily even if it meant recovering my sight.

I know this probably isn't the sort of answer you expected, but part of the reason you asked was to be surprised right? tongue

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2007-06-19 15:39:58

Yeah.
I know 2 other people who lost there vision during life. I personally was born blind which I would have preferred over losing it later anyday. Being the person that I am I can't imagine how I would have reacted to it, or weather I would have even been able to cary on with life. There for, I want to congratulate you on getting through it!

Also, for those of you who haven't seen before, would you want to if you could? would you be cureous to know what it's like?

Thanks.

Official server host for vgstorm.com and developer of the Manamon 2 netplay server.
PSA: sending unsolicited PMs or emails to people you don't know asking them to buy you stuff is disrespectful. You'll just be ignored, so don't waste your time.

2007-06-19 21:12:49

Hi, I have no idea if I'd jump on such an operation. If there was a risk involved, probably not, I don't mind being blind enough to take any major risks to get my sight. I was born blind. But think about it. We'd have to larn how to raed, learn colors, and everything, it'd be like we have to learn how to see. I'm sure it'd be a lot of work.

Regards,
Mike
Co-Founder, RS Games
www.rsgames.org

2007-06-19 23:54:09

I think it'd be well worth it though. There'd probably still be some things we'd choose to do with our eyes closed, but surely it would be a hole new, and great experience.

Official server host for vgstorm.com and developer of the Manamon 2 netplay server.
PSA: sending unsolicited PMs or emails to people you don't know asking them to buy you stuff is disrespectful. You'll just be ignored, so don't waste your time.

2007-06-22 16:35:06

hey Trajectory,
Its Connor and i think that this is a very good question to be asking.
As far as my opinion, I probably would not do it if there was a risk involved.  I was born blind and I can see light and so its not to bad i think.  I am used to being blind and if I could see who knows.  What if I didn't like it.  Then what?  Also, like what was already stated that we would have to learn everything like print and colors.  that sounds like a lot of work.

Connor

2007-06-23 16:28:45

if there was a risc involved, i highly doubt i would try it. i really wish i could see for just one day to get the feel of it lol. of course, yah, we would do things with our eyes closed. like audio gaming. i think i'll play all my good familiar games like quak, perhaps with my eyes closed, if i were to see again. i was blind since birth and don't see light either.

2007-06-26 23:49:29

What was it like, hmm. Tricky to explain, and not sure I can. A lot of things were certainly easier to do, but then I grew up doing things visually so that might be part of it. It was nice just being able to pick something up and be able to read it, or see landmarks at a distance as opposed to finding them with cane. Things took less learning, though you stood out less. Sometimes that is a bad thing because you get to know more people like this, especially people with guide dogs but to a lesser degree us cane users too. People remember you more because you are something out of the ordinary.

Do not take this the wrong way, it is a positive thing. It means they will be more forthcoming with assistance where you need it, and will be more likely to call you by name and generally more sociable. Like I could walk into a bank and they would call to me from behind the desks by first name instead of simply serving me and me walking out the door with barely anything more than the essential stuff said, which is what happened when I was sighted.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2007-06-27 15:58:39

Hmmm, how odd, I'm just having a break from writing a preliminary bit of my Phd on almost exactly this subject (though as regards disability in general, rather than blindness in particular).

Firstly, it doesn't exactly seem helpful to this question to bring a risk of death into things. a lot of people are afraid of dying, some extremely afraid, to the point that whatever reward was balanced against a risk of death, they'd always take the alternative, even when what's beeing offered is extremely worth having. so, I don't think it's particularly fair to ask whether people would want site at a risk of death (I know this wasn't your original question trajectory, but it does seem to have crept in). I personally would deffinately go for having normal 20 20 vision, probably up to a moderate risk of death, but then again I'm not all that afraid of dying anyway.

but to rephrase the question, would i take an operation to have normal vision? well yes I would. to explain why, I'll paraphrase something from my Phd.

there are quite a few things, such as seeing colours, appreciating painting or hugely artistic film sequences or driving a car, that are simply unavailable to us. I'm not saying these are good things, or things which you necessarily have to have to be happy, just that their things we can't experience.

there are other things, like reading print, or mobility that take quite a bit more effort than they would for a sited person. Some of these are social type things (it would make my life a lot easier if companies wrote cooking instructions on things in braille, for example), but some of them are physiologicalle, like beeing able to know what colours are like if you've been born without the ability to see them.

So basically, it comes down to a question of freedom of choice, and for the reason of extra freedom of choice I'd deffinately go for an operation to have full site.

About me personally, I lost the majority of my vision when i was 7, and have a small amount left. But there are stil loads of things (like reading print), that I would love to do and can't.

Cx2, I understand the point about attention, but I must admit that not all the attention I've got from being a blind person has been good, ----- though it's true a lot has. But as this post is threatening to explode I'd better stop. Perhaps the attention thing deserves it's own topic?

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-06-28 09:47:13 (edited by dark empathy 2007-06-28 09:48:03)

Well as I said andy, my reasoning as regards site isn't about whether or not your happy with life or things, simply what freedom of choice you have. Look at gaming. yes, audio games are fun, but with normal site there would be a much wider choice of games available, ----- like perhaps several hundred times wider. this isn't to say audio games aren't worth playing, or that you can't have just as good a time playing them as someone playing a mainstream game, only that there is a faaaaaaar smaller variety of games, (and variety of things to do in many of those games as well).

The attention thing is interesting, but methinks it needs it's own topic, sinse it's obviously a pretty major thing.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-07-15 10:20:27

hi,
i myself lost my sight at age 10, i'm 20 now and still not entirely sure how it happened lol.
i was on holiday in france and i bumped my head, the doctors think that kindof damaged my optic nerve which caused my sight to degenerate over a hmmm, say a week?
anyway i had an opperation to try and save what little sight i had at that point and i come out black blind, i could see nothing.
i can't say how long it was like this for exactly, but not long after this drastic life change i noticed my bedroom light was on, it was incredible, my sight started coming back in small portions.
over the past ten years i have been gaining a little all the time, my family was really helppful, training me to see colours, and even creating small letters on pieces of paper, the font getting smaller and smaller the better my sight got.
now, i have quite good vision, i can't read anything or see facial features, to describe it i can see everything it's just all blurred.
kindof like looking through frosted glass. (kindof lol)
i've managed to cope quite well with the change, i use a cane as i am slightly alergic to dog fur, and i don't really want to have to clean up after a labradoor rofl.
i love my cane actually, it got me a lot of leeway in my college, crowded coridoors, and me with a cane, my fellow students would jump out of the way rather than getting bruised ankles, lololol!
i coped that well with my blindness that one of my highschool teachers nominated me for a child of courage award 2000, and i actually got through.
mainly because i didn't let being blind bother me, i addapted and.
i am not entirely sure whether or not i would take the opperation, i think i would but i'd have to consider it.
p.s i have actually driven before when i was 15.
i was doing a work placement for galloways a blind society near to me and they took me and other members to a large empty car park, hired a few driving instructors, and give us each a turn in a 2 door corsa.
it was great, i actually took a turn at 50 mph because the instructor didn't tell me to slow down, lolol.
but if there was an opperation out there what you'd have to consider if you had previously had sght is, nothing would be exactly as you remember it, or how you pictured things.
you would look different and things would look very strange to you if like me you've got used to going around seeing things in your mind rather than with your eyes.
well, i hope you liked my essay lolol rofl!
best reg
arch

Pay my respects to grace and virtue,
Send my condolences to good,
Hear my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could.

2007-07-30 17:27:07

Hello all! As some of you probably know from my various posts, I'm a totally blind person. To answer the question of discussion, I wouldn't take the opperation. Yeah it would be kinda nice to see, but I've done good as a blind person for seventeen years now. Yes I was blind since birth, (3 months premature). You've gotta think about those high gas prices, which eliminates driving!

James

2007-08-01 11:54:44

Hmmmmm I'm slightly confused! why is it automatically assumed that having site means you will drive? a lot of my friends can see, and cannot, or do not choose to drive. this is a matter of choice though, rather than necessity.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-08-01 12:26:10

I didn't mean that all sighted people drive. I only meant that they have the option to drive if the want. We as blind people do not have that option.

James

2007-08-01 19:08:03

It also depends where you are. Up here in the north it is probably a lot more common to drive because it gets around one hour bus trips with a 20 minute car trip.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2007-08-01 22:08:14

Okay James, I see what you mean.

appologies for being contentious Cx2, but where precisely north do you mean? Most of my friends who I was thinking of who are sited and do not drive are from durham uni. Durham is probably one of the worst citties in which to own a car due to a huge lack of parking spaces and toll roads in the city center.

saying that though, most of my friends from Newcastle, which is only ten minutes on the train from Durham do in fact drive, owing to the size of the city. so as with everything else, I suppose it depends upon where in north England you happen to be.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-08-01 23:40:05

North Lincolnshire in a town not a city. The area previously known as South Humberside if that helps any. Perhaps it has more to do with not being in a city than where exactly I am, since we have a few supermarkets post office banks and chemists... then nothing really. The only mens clothes shop is a fusty old place, and I'm not sure if it is even in business, so you would be hard pressed to even get a shirt or pair of trousers here plus I don't think there are that many job opportunities here so that automatically means you would need to travel out of town to work.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2007-08-02 18:44:24

hi,
In the US I guess it doesn't matter where you go and not drive because now, there are cities everywhere.
I am not worried about driving because my step mom says that she will take me to an open parking lot just to see what its like

Connor

2007-08-03 00:31:36 (edited by cx2 2007-08-03 00:31:57)

There are cities everywhere here too, it is just irritating for some people to have an hour long bus trip when they can drive in 20 minutes.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2007-08-03 14:51:14

Ah, I see the problem Cx2. My mum has a similar buss related issue with getting to work, despite living in the center of Nottingham. she says what's particularly irritating is that on the occasions when someone's car breaks down everyone sees it as the end of the world, ----- appart from my mum (who for the record is also visually impared).

Cj, defining citties is a weerd business. compared to somewhere like London, Newcastle or Manchester, Durham is really tiny (it's possible to walk right the way across it in about 40 minutes), however because it has a 12th century cathedral, a university, and some sort of historical importance it's held to be a city, and not a town, ------ even though it's technically only about town sized.

Given my performance on any racing game bar rail racer, I don't think me trying out driving would be very healthy, ----- or good for the car. but have fun Cj.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)