The debate rages on between blind people who believe we must take the world as it is and adapt to it, versus those who believe that we must force society to develop reasonable accommodations to help level the playing field.
If only we could all be like Longstreet, the blind detective. Armed only with his wits and his fists he solved crimes that baffled his sighted contemporaries.
It seems to me that our memories become very short at times. Tell me how it was to be a blind person before we had accommodations?
We might make this a group investigation. Some of us could research prior to Louis Braille's time. How did blind folks communicate? Where did they live? What work did they do?
Then some of us might want to come forward to Colonial times. While there were certainly exceptions, we want to know about the average blind person, since that is where most of us find ourselves.
We are, whether we like it or not, Interdependent. If we were truly Independent, we would most certainly not need to be accommodated. That's what Independence is all about. Self contained.
But we need one another. Blind and sighted alike. Interdependent people support one another. In short, they accommodate one another's needs.
Let's put the Rugged Individual back in the early American fiction books where he belongs and face the fact that we need each other.
Curious Carl
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