| My question to you is - what if deafness was eradicated? Sign-language as a living language might suffer. But would you consider this a net positive? An analogy might be if blindness and sight problems became eradicated - and braille suffered a decline. I would consider this a net positive for human quality of life. I don't see the analogy between Hebrew/Jewish identity, and braille/sign language and blindness/deafness. To me, the first is a cultural/religious identity - whilst the latter is an adaption to communicate as best as one can, with a more limited toolset. Of course, I see that it's not that black and white - there is a thriving deaf community, and they do have their own "language" (as in, more than just sign language itself), cultural norms etc. However, I do really hope for one day where we might eradicate all of disabilities - deafness, blindness, mobility impairments etc. |