Helen Keller brought Deaf-blind to the world. What would you rather be, Deaf or Blind?

Helen Keller brought to the world the wonder of one person's perspective of being deaf-blind. One person asked Helen Keller, "What would you rather be, deaf or blind?" Helen Keller responded that she would rather be blind because if she could hear, she could have conversations with the people around her. She would then feel connected to her world. Helen expressed her isolation with not being able to hear.

Helen Keller was a child in the Victorian Era. An exciting time of new inventions, new way of life, catalog ordering and people starting to become more mobile. The late 1800's and early 1900's. What a time. It was a time unlike today, back then the industrial age was just getting its massive momentum. Life was changing fast. They didn't have the graphics of today, texting and TV. The telephone was just about to be invented and wasn't being used by the general people yet. Driving an automobile was a very new concept, not everyone had a car. Perhaps Helen Keller's perspective would be different today. Who knows.

Many culturally deaf individuals are proud being deaf and wouldn't change being deaf for anything. They have deaf pride. They have their deaf community and do not feel isolated from the world. They have adapted. Besides, today they have captioned TV, TTYs for the telephone, texting, the internet, sign language, speech recognition programs and much, much more. Back in the Victorian age, being deaf would be very isolating.

Having asked others about this topic, I learned different perspectives on this topic. For a deaf-blind person, giving them a choice of one disability, is like gaining one. What a concept that I actually gain something back. But in reality, I don't get to choose. I still have to deal with having both a vision and hearing loss. I still have and face the world with the challenges of the combined disability, which is unique from just having a heairng loss and just having a vision loss. They are combined, creating a different situation. It isn't a hearing loss plus a vision loss, it is more like a hearing loss times a vision loss. To me, deaf-blindness is not deaf and blind, but a whole new disability due to the complexity of the loss. If you add up the percentage of my loss, it is one whole disability plus 40%. That's almost a disability and a half. If I got to choose one over the other, I would be gaining 40% of my awareness of my world around me.

If we could choose between being deaf or being blind, lifestyle and how we live our lives will dictate which we would rather have. Playing volley ball with a team on the beach, driving down Pacific Coast Highway and being mesmorized by the sights of the ocean, the sunset and the boats, you can do being deaf. On the contrary, playing a musical instrument, listening to the radio, hearing a gentle flow of water in a creek, listening to the birds sing in the morning or at dusk are things you can do being blind. Granted, variations of these situations, you can be blind and play altered volley ball and some deaf can play instruments through vibrations, but these are unique cases. Many more blind are involved with HAM radio than deaf. Yes, there are deaf who are involved with HAM radio, but it is limited. Many blind individuals have gravitated to HAM radio as a hobby. .

I see that many of those with a hearing loss use Helen Keller's statement to make it seem that being deaf is worse than being blind, but they have never experienced a vision loss. So this is an assumption. Is being blind really easier? I had a few experiences with a hearing loss group that was extremely isolating. I felt because they could see much better, they heard better. They can see the facial expressions across the room when someone talked or read lips. For me, I had to read the live captioning, except it was hard for me to read the live captioning due to my spotty and limited vision. My eyes couldn't keep up fast enough with their conversations and I didn't have the back up of reading their faces. One of their discussions was coping with a hearing loss, missing out on conversations with other people. But when I talked about my vision loss in this respect, they looked at me as if we were talking about a different disability. They were completely clueless how my vision helps me HEAR! They took for granted how much their eyes fill in what they cannot hear.

When a person has both a vision and a hearing loss, trying to communicate within your environment, you cannot split deaf-blind. They are a unit disability. I see deaf-blindness as a disability all its own. If deaf-blind is a different disability from being hard-of-hearing, tehn being in that meeting with other folks who were hard-of-hearing only, then yes, I was talking a foriegn language to them, because being deaf-blind is different from only being hard-of-hearing. When it comes to isolation and communication, and the challenges you face, you cannot seperate deaf-blind. Having a vision loss is also isolating and you are faced with communication hurdles and barriers as well as a hearing loss. Put it together to make deaf-blind, you have a whole new set of issues that a hard-of-hearing person or a blind person doesn't experience. Deaf-blind is a unique disability that has issues with isolation and communication.

Hearing loss, vision loss and deaf-blind are literally three different disabilities. Unfortunately, the deaf-blind do not have many avenues for support other than deaf groups or blind groups. We struggle trying to fit into those groups for one reason or another. We can't see ASL that well, or can't hear the blind during their conversations in a group. For me, it was difficult to see the live captions. So these groups are only accessible to those who are for that particular disability. They claim they are "open" but that has not been my experience. Their inability to understand that having a vision loss really significantly makes communicaiton more challenging ws interesting. That they would have discussions how frustrated they would be with hearing people, just as much how I felt frustrated with them. They think hearing people need to be more open and understanding, but what about them? let's turn the tables to another disability, and they didn't understand themsevles.

The hearing loss world is complex. There are different groups within hearing loss. The later deafened group where the person became deaf later in life. There is the /hard-of-hearing group, where they have partial hearing. Then there is the culturally deaf (deaf community) group. The culturally deaf have their culture based around sign language.Then there are deaf individuals who never learned sign, but were born deaf. They a re not invovled with the deaf culture.

The deaf community is rich and they do not feel isolated from their world. Today there is captioned TV, text messaging, video phone and deaf cultured events that keep many deaf active in a rich social life. Unlike the later deafened adults, the culturally deaf feel very accepted and satisfied with their culture. They have a strong network of community. I started to learn sign and be apart of a deaf community when I was ten years old. Those who are later deafened have adjustments and challenges to make. They had a hearing life, communicating to the world by way of speech, and now it was taken away from them. They seem to not adjust as well and feel more isolated. Some adapt very well, others have their challenges.

To want to be deaf or want to be blind over the other is a preference. One isn't truly worse than the other, that is subjective and it is about the needs of each individual. I enjoy driving. I enjoy viewing and seeing our gorgeous National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges. I enjoy watching people's facial expressions, I love observing behavior in animals, I love watching a sunset. These are rich things in my life that I feel they are slipping away as my vision becomes worse. But today, I can still see natural beauty and can still at least drive in the day time. For that, I can say I'm blessed. I would prefer my vision over my hearing. But again, I don't have a choice, I have to deal with what I have and cherish what I have while I have it.

Read about others opinion what they would rather have, their vision or their hearing and they will give you their answer unique from someone else. This is becauuse it is a personal and individudal thing. It is subjective and a preference. It doesn't mean one is worse than the other, it is what it means to the person and how they live their lives. What makes their life rich. Some people are auditory learners and some are visual learners. You can't say one learning style is better than the other. It isn't, each person is an individual, and use what is best for them. So there is no answer what is worse or better to live with, it is just opinion and the person's individual choice what they would prefer.