Is it great to be blind?

Answer 1

Being blind means that you lack one of the major senses that most people use to experience and interact with the world around them. Lacking that sense puts you at a relative disadvantage in the world compared to those who do have that sense. Therefore it cannot be "great" to be blind. If it were, people would seek to become blind.

Because the human population is larger than it used to be, there are more people who are blind now than there used to be and in some places they are numerous enough to form communities providing mutual support. In addition, a variety of forms of aid have been developed, electrical, mechanical, and biological, to make it easier for blind people to function within the larger sighted society. Members of blind communities have become more self-sufficient than in the past and to see themselves as capable of accomplishing whatever they want.

As a result, as with the deaf communities, a feeling of communal and self-pride can be expressed by statements asserting equality of the blind with others in terms of their capabilities or the intrinsic value of their subculture. This can sometimes lead to assertions that being blind is good or even great, but that is more an expression of pride, self-worth, or the value assigned to the subculture that has developed within the blind community.