Would you live your life mute & deaf or blind?

[Chronopolize]

I've been thinking about the this for the last week or so, and still have yet to come to a conclusion. Here is a collection of thoughts. There is way too much to cover. Being just in the process of finishing Shizune's arc (my final arc playthrough, my thoughts may be noticeably more directed towards the former. One thing I would add, is that in the game, arguably more attention is devoted towards Shizune's disability and it's role/effect, then Lilly's. http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=5080 is a story that I believe shows this quite a bit (it is a good read, as well). One should consider how both girls got to the state they were in. I'm assuming that they can be taken as a unparallelledly unique parallel to the real world.

Practicality
Navigation: It is clear that vision is most important. Deafness may require you to seriously consider looking across the street before you cross, but having to commit locations to memory (I find that very amazing, how people do that), and the difficulty in dealing with unknown/crowded places or places which involve more than simple walking. There are people who have defied this to the impossible: scaling Everest blind, but as a typical person it is a real problem.
The internet:
As an prolific internet user, having sight is critical. Text can be read using a text reader, but images and various forms of video are more complicated (e.g a VN). Video is an interesting topic. I think most video can be enjoyed with deafness or blindness, and long as there are CC, and there are not large/important stretches without audio ques.
Reading:
There is braille text, but braille has its limitations. It's larger to print, requires special paper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille is an interesting read. But there problem of availability. It's like how it would be like for us English Speakers to view foreign media (like anime etc), if there were no online subbers.
Writing:
I'm not sure. Can you write blind? Typing definitely available.

Social Interaction
Day to Day stuff:
As you might expect, not being able to speak OR hear what someone is saying is a big deal. Shizune had Misha, as an interpretation, but what if this was not the case. One can get by passable without speaking, you can gesture your intention, headnod, wave, point to select, etc. In this area, it would be EXTREMELY helpful to be able to read lips, allowing the person being spoken to be able to respond without limitation or misinterpretation. In either case, using a notepad and a pen, you should be able order something like food, without issue. It would be rather confusing and unexpected for the other people, but that is the case either way.
Being blind, it's much harder to order things, you can't see what's on menus.

Ok by this point I realize I have a pretty shallow understand of the implications of things, so I'll just state what options there are. Feel free to expand or comment on them.

Conversation:
You can read lips (I don't know to what degree that can substitute), that requires line of sight. If you cannot, pen and paper is the only concretely detailed way to communicate, and most people will not wish to write down everything they say, unless they are directly addressing you. This creates a wall that basically prevents uncommitted interaction (which carries over to signing, I suppose).
Being blind, there's the problem of remembering people (It seems like remembering people is an almost universal skill, though remembering names is not) merely through voices.

Personality/Personal Values (What it probably boils down to)
What couldn't you live without? Music? Images? What method of expressing yourself couldn't you give up? How would you want to life your life?

Edit: added a poll, try to think about it before reaching a conclusion, you can change your vote though.

[Validus Razgriz]

If I was in an either/or situation where I had to be either deaf/mute or blind, I would choose to be deaf/mute. Too many of my hobbies would be extremely difficult or impossible to do if I was blind (videogames, shooting firearms/hunting, building models, internet browsing, computer programming), and on top of that I'm a very introverted person to begin with, so it makes the choice between the two an easy one to make for myself.

lillysharpshooting.jpg (73.84 KiB) Viewed 7289 times

[txalolrn9]

Life would be much easier if I was deaf/mute instead of blind

but the more I think about it, I love music way too much

so I would rather be blind and all the difficult it entails rather than lose the infinite beauty of music

[Snow_Storm]

I'm a violinist and I'm musically inclined. I rather go blind.

[geekahedron]

If I were blind since birth, or at least an early age, with some hope of mimicking the aptitude Lilly and other nonfictional people have shown to living well-rounded lives in the absence of sight, I think it would definitely be preferable to a world of silence. I have many hobbies that necessarily make use of all of my various sense, but chief among them is music which I would hate to lose.

If something were to happen tomorrow, though, where I had to make this choice, I would have to choose the other way, simply because learning to live with blindness at my age would be infinitely more difficult than losing my hearing. It's still a tough call, but of course it should be.

[myshoesarebrown]

My vision has been terrible since I was a child, and has always been getting worse. Within a few years, I'll more than likely at least be Kenji-level blind. Some years ago my optometrist told me I might have glaucoma, or might develop it, or something along those lines, don't remember too well. I don't know how he could know. I think he used some air pressure machine -- it's been a while since I've gone, so I don't remember too well. Should probably go back soon, my current glasses don't really help at all...

I have a feeling that I may have to deal with some kind of blindness in the future anyway, so I'll go ahead and pick blind. Wouldn't want to pick deaf/mute, then have my vision go away anyway. I've also played music for 7 years now, and it'd be nice to still be able to... you know, do it.

[guest2]

I don't think people really get a choice when it comes to this kind of thing...

[myshoesarebrown]

I don't think people really get a choice when it comes to this kind of thing...

I'm pretty sure Hisao chose to have a heart attack. He just hated Iwanako so much, it was the only way to get out of there.

[newnar]

I don't think people really get a choice when it comes to this kind of thing...

I'm pretty sure Hisao chose to have a heart attack. He just hated Iwanako so much, it was the only way to get out of there.

This is just so much win, I can't even hold them in.

[guest2]

I don't think people really get a choice when it comes to this kind of thing...

I'm pretty sure Hisao chose to have a heart attack. He just hated Iwanako so much, it was the only way to get out of there.

This is just so much win, I can't even hold them in.

For shame, Doc. That was the perfect Rin-rhyme opportunity.

[Tezzeret]

I think i'd much rather be mute and deaf. I have far too many pastimes that require sight though giving up music would be heart breaking.

[capncrooked]

For the amount that I love music, I think I'd like sight more. Having a color of something described to you would pale in comparison to being able to see it, in addition to there being some things out there that defy the imagination in their beauty.

I'd happily keep the ability to see, and not hear or talk, as at least I'd have the possibility of getting cochlear implants or something to marginally improve the hearing disability.

This question got me thinking of a few videos I'd seen on youtube. There's a particularly touching one of a girl with Usher Syndrome (http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/usher-syndrome), which has made her deaf, but with a added issue of giving her retinitis pigmentosa as well, which is gradually taking her sight. Her video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ9EWaqbrB8. Those of you who don't know ASL should tun on captions, or you can read her story below the video.

[newnar]

I'm pretty sure Hisao chose to have a heart attack. He just hated Iwanako so much, it was the only way to get out of there.

This is just so much win, I can't even hold them in.

For shame, Doc. That was the perfect Rin-rhyme opportunity.

awww....
Sorry for treating your Rin so cold, but I'll only fall for my Hanako.


Ba dum ts...

[NoOne3]

I don't think people really get a choice when it comes to this kind of thing...

My thought exactly.
Very bubble-bath-foam topic indeed.

If it was "HOW would you live..." there might be some ground for discussion. As it is now, there is none:
Would I? I would. I would not be given any other choice, and there are far worse things than becoming blind/deaf.
Would my life change? Yes, drastically.

I don't think people really get a choice when it comes to this kind of thing...

I'm pretty sure Hisao chose to have a heart attack. He just hated Iwanako so much, it was the only way to get out of there.

Oooh, that's why we've never seen her face.

Edit: Plus, it sets Lily ending in a new perspective - do, what I want, or I'll HHHHNNNNNGGGG!

[Mahorfeus]

New contest: whoever draws/finds/gives Iwanako the most heart attack-inducing face wins.

Seriously though... I'd rather go with muteness than anything, but once deafness is thrown into the package, the whole thing gets muddled up. Kind of messed up talking about it that way, but so it goes. However, in that respect, my sight is probably the sense that I hold most precious to me, asides from taste (a lack thereof probably wouldn't be very "Yamaku-worthy"...). The very idea of blindness terrifies me; my eyesight is already ridiculously terrible, so having it deprived completely would just screw me over completely.