HEllo Ardith,   
      
   On Wed 2011-Nov-02 23:46, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
   RW>  You'll always hear or read us stressing the term   
   RW>  "alternative" because utilization of "substitute"   
   RW>  connotes inferiority, not quite as good as.   
      
   AH>           Makes sense to me.  I did the same without thinking about   
   AH> it....  :-)    
      
   YEp, a lot of what we perceive is through the language we   
   use to describe it .   
      
      
   RW>  when we teach folks adjusting to blindness these   
   RW>  techniques we teach them with the student under   
   RW>  sleepshades, so that he/she learns them as a totally   
   RW>  blind person, and understands at the gut level that   
   RW>  the residual vision remaining is not the reason they   
   RW>  are successful using them.   
      
   AH>           Yes... sighted folk often shut their eyes when they are   
   AH> concentrating on input from other sources, which your students must   
   AH> also do.  And they may be pleasantly surprised at how much they can   
   AH> hear after a bit of instruction.  Our young friend & her mother were   
   AH> so thrilled when they noticed their voices would sound different if   
   AH> they held a cushion close to their mouths that they couldn't resist   
   AH> showing us what they'd learned.  To us as musicians it may seem   
   AH> obvious. But we weren't born knowing these things... we just paid   
   AH> our dues earlier.  ;-)    
      
   Indeed, musicians do have an advantage there .  YOu know   
   it's funny, but I've told more than one person that if the   
   miraculous were to occur tomorrow and I'd find myself with   
   full 20/20 vision I probably would be so confused and   
   disoriented I couldn't cope for quite a time, as my brain   
   wouldn't know what to do with the input it was now   
   receiving.  I'd either have to learn to ignore it and go on   
   doing many things as I was accustomed to, or just go crazy   
   until I learned to adapt, very slowly.  Adding sensory input could potentially   
   be as debilitating as taking it away.   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)