Can you imagine yourself Deaf or Blind or Both?

 Stephyn Duck, 20, a junior psychology major at Wofford College, has spent the past couple of weeks depriving himself of his sight and hearing. It's been frustrating not being able to read books or hear chirping birds.

His goal is to gather data on whether his other senses will improve while he's unable to see and hear, but he's most interested in how he's treated.

What would the social ramifications be?

Well, first of all, KUDOS to him for taking such a challenge. The first thought that comes to my mind is a famous quote by Helen Keller. "Blindness separates us from things, but deafness separates us from people." Think about it. Imagine yourself sitting in the middle of a food court at a mall. Go ahead and close your eyes. You can still hear everything around you. People talking, footsteps, making noises while eating their food, ice cream machine humming, and etc. It'll be difficult for you to find a shoe store without asking for someone to take you there. Blindness limits your freedom to move around. Then on the other hand, open your eyes and put ear plugs into your ears. Now you either barely can or can't hear people talking, footsteps, making noises while eating their food, ice cream machine humming, and etc. Although, it'll be a piece of cake for Deaf people to navigate their way into a shoe store, but it won't be too easy to ask for assistance on your shoes. Deafness limits your freedom to communicate freely. Blind people say, "I can't imagine myself being Deaf." Deaf people say, "I can't imagine myself being Blind." It's an interesting dilemma.

Anyway, we often overlook the 5 senses that make up our lives. It's human nature. We tend to think about either ourselves or tangible objects. "How can I be rich?" "I want a Hannah Montana pants." I want my mother to make me a homemade dinner now." But we don't think about how our tastes determine what makes food so delicious or not. We don't think about how our eyes get us to places and people. We don't think about how our ability to feel helps us to determine if something is hot or cold. We don't think about how our nose is used to detect chemicals such as perfumes or even better, body odor. Haha. Finally, we don't think about how we use our hearing to distinguish sounds.

I'm anxious to find out what he gotta say about this afterwards! Wofford Article.