Different People

It’s very difficult to compare someone with a severe disability to myself, as I am unable to imagine life without two of my five senses. I first learned to write in a classroom, by hearing words spoken aloud. In the beginning I wrote very poorly, only being able to correct my mistakes by seeing the words on the page. Even today I wouldn't be able to correct the majority of errors without my sight.

Keller never had the luxuries that we have. Although she praised her typewriter, claiming she wouldn't be able to attend college without it. Hearing admiration for a typewriter in the twenty first century is almost ironic; by contrast just about everything I write is on my personal computer. Writing this now, by hand, makes me truly grateful for my word processor, as my eyes would currently be seeing the enormous amount of red and green underlining that would be on this page.

Any research currently being done can now be completed with just a few clicks, rather than the slow process of locating the right book in a library and then running your fingers over the small bumps on a page. It’s hard for me to imagine the difficulty of doing research without a computer, eyesight, or hearing. Living in the 1800’s and being limited to only reading books published in braille, would be a handicap in itself.  Having no other option than too physically feel every word would have probably made their meaning so much more important to her. I see the written language as just a secondary way of communication, rather than the only way to connect with the outside world.