If you *actually have* a physical disability, what is it?

[Caesius]

Do not vote if you do not have a physical disability. Blank vote instead (click "View Results"). Do not discuss mental disabilities.

I imagine this poll won't see many honest votes, but I can't remember the last time we had dialogue like this, and in any case we haven't had a poll like this yet. It's pretty obvious why, but I think it's ridiculous that we'd have a discussion of what disability we "would" have and not discuss disabilities we actually have.

So if you have a physical disability, how severe is it and how does it affect your life? How did you acquire your disability?


Personally, I'm profoundly deaf in my left ear due to a birth defect, and have even made a thread so I could better understand how "stereo-hearing" people operate. From my questions you can probably extrapolate how this affects my life, but for a specific example of an embarrassing situation (as well as our previous thread on this subject) you can look here. (Both threads referenced are old, so don't gravedig them.)

Also, regarding how I listen to music, I currently use foobar2000 which has a built-in "Downmix to mono" DSP. I use headphones, and before using f2k I would just deal with only being able to hear the right channel, since in most songs it doesn't really matter. After I started using the downmix DSP though, I noticed that some songs were significantly different -- usually for the better, and sometimes for the worse. For the ones that sound worse, I can't rightly judge whether they're supposed to sound like that to stereo-hearing people, minus the depth of panning. I also don't have the slightest clue how important an effect panning is for the quality of a song -- is it as important as vibrato for example? I can't possibly know.

[Shades of Grey]

Umm, im not sure of the exact numbers, but without my glasses I cant see clearly more than a foot in front of my face (nearsightedness). If I recall correctly, I am on the more severe end of nearsightedness.

[Extremist_Line]

Umm, im not sure of the exact numbers, but without my glasses I cant see clearly more than a foot in front of my face (nearsightedness). If I recall correctly, I am on the more severe end of nearsightedness.

Bout' the same here. I think my vision is actually in the negatives, but I'm not sure.

[Shades of Grey]

What does having negative numbers mean? Farsightedness?

[Wren]

I have low vision in my right eye, due to a severe blow to my right side of my head from an attempted home invasion when I was 12 years old, blunt force trauma with a metal bat. Fractured the right side of the skull, causing swelling on my brain. I was in a coma for about 2 months after that. Aside from the low vision, I suffer from migraines on occasion due to this injury and sometimes memory loss.

[Extremist_Line]

What does having negative numbers mean? Farsightedness?

No, I'm nearsighted. It's just really, really nearsighted. A foot is about the max distance something can be from my face before it's readable without glasses. It's slowly but surely degrading over time too. I've gone through three different prescriptions over the course of 6 years, and if I try to look through the oldest pair, I can't see jack.

[Smoku]

I was ran over by a car. bones in my right leg (above the foot, below the knee) are shattered, making a mosaic. They are regenerating 2 years now, with a awfully big steel nail attached with 4 smaller nails to make it hold together.
I don't know if it counts but I probably won't be able to run a lot ever. maybe little jogging won't kill me, but a marathon is doubtful. I've yet to check my limits.
Oh, and I broke the car's front window with my head. I have hard migraines from time to time since then, but not sure what's wrong. in the middle of tests.
Plus a little birth disfigurement, but that's just slightly visible- my left eye hole is a bit narrower, my face isn't normal, but it's not much. when I wear glasses it just looks as if I was wearing them a bit off. I look totally normal tough, no extremes.

[Csihar]

After I started using the downmix DSP though, I noticed that some songs were significantly different -- usually for the better, and sometimes for the worse. For the ones that sound worse, I can't rightly judge whether they're supposed to sound like that to stereo-hearing people, minus the depth of panning. I also don't have the slightest clue how important an effect panning is for the quality of a song -- is it as important as vibrato for example? I can't possibly know.

The problem with downmixing to mono is that sometimes phase cancellation can be an issue, which usually leads to certain sounds ending up lower in the mix than they should be, or having certain frequencies hollowed out. As for whether stereo is important, Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, for example, mixed everything in mono because with stereo the lister can get an incomplete picture if they aren't sitting dead center between the speakers. (The fact that he was also deaf in one ear was a secondary reason.) The Beatles are also said to have preferred mono for all of their album mixes before Abbey Road, including stuff like Sgt. Pepper's and Revolver that had a lot of interesting psychedelic panning in the stereo versions. So basically, YMMV. Not a lot of people do much work in mono like that these days, though.

And now back to your regularly scheduled disability thread.

[SirMax]

Er, I'm also confused by the "low vision" option. I'm very near-sighted, as in I took off my glasses for a second while writing this post and could barely read it, but with my glasses I'm pretty sure I have 20/20 vision or at least good enough vision, and while I can't read anything very far from my face I'm capable of pattern, colour, shape, contrast, etc at a pretty decent distance.

[Notguest]

What is a blank vote?

[Caesius]

What is a blank vote?

Click "View Results," I assume doing so will spoil your vote. I haven't seen polls used on phpBB much though (on IPB the "view results" option is referred to as a blank vote).

[Shades of gray]

Had to vote Other,

Alports Syndrome which affects eyes ears and kidneys.... and probably will make me senile in about 40 years (judging by family history)

Have transplant (My Uncles), so the kidney side of things is dealt with (kidneys failed in '01, got transplant in Dec '08) have a cool V like scar where 2 op scars join, plus the numerous other scars from the machines (Peritoneal Dialysis and Hemo Dialysis) scar count as of today is 47, 9 of which are longer then 5 inches

Hearing is slowly degrading, have hearing aids for both ears (only ever wear one though) left ear is at 30ish % and right at 50ish %

Eyesight is... hard to describe... i need glasses but dont need them, cant read the text on my pc screen from over 3 feet away without squinting, but can see off into the distance (albeit dont ask me to give details, it sorta gets a lil blurry around outlines of things, does that make sense?)

[Escalator]

Partially deaf on one ear because of an eardrum rupture and subsequent infection
shit sucks

[Minister of Gloom]

Due to difficulties during birth, my right hand did not function properly from shoulder down until I was about four. But today it's doing pretty much fine. The many wonders of physiotherapy.

[Nightdragon]

I'm not sure if this counts, but I do have bad eye sight (like 20/200) and astigmatism in my right eye, however it is correctable to 20/20. I wouldn't have been able to join if it wasn't. Also, my hearing isn't really that great, and I have to get hearing tests done every year due to working in high noise environments for hours. Hell, less then a year at my squadron and my hearing is already considerably lower then it was when I first got to boot camp. So technically, no disabilities YET, though I'm sure it may change. Not sure if I should vote for one of these or not.