Anything's Possible

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First a town for the deaf (...possibly next a town for AS?)

Http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... the_deaf_1

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Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as Mortal Kombat.
In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others his age. Except for one thing, he's blind.

Http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101, ... tw=rss.TOP

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Stories like these just make me feel like Anything's Possible. It's like, if I have a dream, with a little hard work and patience, I really can make it happen. What are your feelings and comments on either of these stories?

Sure we just need someone with alot of money to buy alot of land out in the middle of nowhere and build alot of homes there and just sell them to aspies, repeat as neccessary. Pretty easy actually we just need to find someone with the money and desire. We could also try to buy a town already in existance but that would be much harder trying to get an entire town to sell there homes. But anyway personally I would prefer a respected college for aspies first.

Land is cheap in KY.

I read the one about the deaf town

I think it's an absolutely horrendous idea;

there used to be 'villages' for people with learning disabilities so that 'they' could all live together and be happy and the rest of us wouldn't have to worry about overcoming our prejudices and fears and we wouldn't have to create a truly inclusive and harmonious society that everyone could contribute to regardless of their personal situations and abilities

Very, very good point, Monastic.

rumio,
Those are all valid points you've made but it sounds like it is the deaf themselves that wish to live separately. It sounds as if they are tired of being a minority, always on the outside of everything from being part of civic meetings to not even being able to have a conversation with the mailman.

The thing I wonder is the same questions we have brought up here on WP about living in a different town/world/island. Would the whole town consist of just deaf people or would friends and family members (such as hearing children) be allowed to live in this town? If they are allowed then how would this effect and impact the lives of these children hardly ever speaking out loud verbally to others?

I'm curious to see what type of problems they will have and what benefits they will reap with such an experimental town. I think the autistic community should pay special attention to this town to see if this is really the type of lifestyle they really want to try ourselves. I'm sure it can work and I'm sure the way it works will be quite interesting to study, too. The Amish seem to thrive quite well in a segregated society and so this is not an entirely new idea, I just don't think it has been done by people with physical differences as of yet, at least not by people that have chosen this type of segregation or separate society.



As for the story of the blind gamer, that really throws me. I love video games but I'm just not sure how he does it. I'm going to try playing a few games with my back turned away and see how far I can get.

Endersdragon, not a problem. I'll just get Stephen Spielberg on the phone - being that we both have alot in common (neurologically) I feel like we're family. I'm sure he'll throw in a few million dollars to get us started and maybe even make a documentary of the whole thing (joking)

Cindy, I've heard that, too. Tennessee has cheap land I've also heard.





larsenjw92286, thank you I really do think I can do anything....now if I can get my motivation in motion

We're moving from PA to KY next summer.

I do view this as completely different from institutionalization, for the reason that it is people who view themselves as a cultural minority wanting to live in a place where people share their language and culture, basically. That's a very different model than forced segregation, and there will be hearing people in the town. It's no different from a town founded by French-speaking people or something.

I would not want to move to such a community precisely because of my experiences with forced segregation, but I'm not going to pretend that it's the same thing.

I wonder what would happen in future generations of the town for those kids who are not born deaf... Isn't that going to segregate them? Not sure. In future generations, I think more and more hearing people will be born there once again evening out the populations and the town will either end up being very tolerant of differences or it will end up looking like a regular town, with deaf people living the way they had before.

Well, not everyone in the town is going to be deaf in the first place. And many hearing children of deaf parents are considered a part of the culturally-Deaf community. Not sure why that would change.

Given human nature, being in a minority will always make a difference. In this case, it is just switched.

The thing is, a lot of it is cultural and linguistic. It's not defined purely by the presence or absence of hearing. A deaf person who cannot sign is generally not considered part of that culture, and a hearing person who can sign (particularly one for whom sign language is their native language) is. They view their minority status not as because they don't hear, but because they speak a different language, one that hearing children of deaf parents can and do learn just as easily as they would learn a spoken language. So what you're saying only makes sense from the standpoint of viewing it medically rather than culturally, and the people building that sort of town are not likely to see their culture as medically defined.

That's a very interesting idea, Sophist.
What would happen in an aspie community if there are NT children?

You're welcome, Monastic.

"Build a community for the Aspies"

Define aspie.

Those who are not NT? Ghost AS?

these are valid questions, some may not accept those who have a mild degree of AS or autusim.


THe deaf comminity cannot even define definativly who is deaf; according to some, I am a traitor to deaf culture because I am orally speaking and live entirely in the hearing world. Others say I am not even deaf b/c I hear with my cochlear implant. YEt others would agree that despite all that I am indeed fully deaf. These are not trivial questions, and similar questions would be asked of a aspie community.

Just look at the furor that the deaf community is wrapping itself in over CI, and those who recieve them. I would hate to see that here.