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“This is something blind people have said (but really shouldn't have to), over and over, to the sighted world around us: we're still people. We don't see, or see very well, but aside from that, we're just like you. The failure to appreciate this basic fact, that someone's difference does nothing to alter their humanity, is the wellspring of all discrimination, alienation, and oppression. It ought to be obvious, but if you're not disabled, it's stubbornly easy to forget. It's as though, with regard to blind people, the sighted lack any sense of object permanence, the understanding a baby develops when her father hides his face behind his hands: she knows he hasn't really gone any-where. He's still there.” — Andrew Leland
This is something blind people have said (but really shouldn't have to), over and over, to the sighted world around us: we're still people. We don't see, or see very well, but aside from that, we're just like you. The failure to appreciate this basic fact, that someone's difference does nothing to alter their humanity, is the wellspring of all discrimination, alienation, and oppression. It ought to be obvious, but if you're not disabled, it's stubbornly easy to forget. It's as though, with regard to blind people, the sighted lack any sense of object permanence, the understanding a baby develops when her father hides his face behind his hands: she knows he hasn't really gone any-where. He's still there.