disability

I was born with eyesight issues in the 1960s, and having poor vision made me more reliant on my hearing. Over time, my hearing became more discerning, allowing me to recognize the sounds of different cars—a skill my sister didn’t believe I had, though she never stayed long enough for me to prove it. This ability to distinguish sounds better than those with normal sight wasn’t a superpower, just a natural adaptation when one sense isn’t as strong as another. I’m sure the opposite is true as well—someone hard of hearing might develop more acute vision, able to notice details faster or more precisely than those with both senses fully intact.

There is a lot of discrimination against people with disabilities, but the irony is that employers are missing out on these enhanced abilities developed to compensate for the loss or weakness of a sense. In the end, no one is perfect, and more than two-thirds of people with visual impairments in Britain are unemployed. I’m not sure about other countries, but this seems like a waste of talent to me. The state of Britain is losing out, as these abilities could be valuable for generating wealth and providing disabled individuals with a means to earn a living. I guess the biggest disablity in this situation is ignorance.