More Flowers that deserve to Blossom
I serendipitously bumped into a multiple sclerosis survivor who is involved with the Cerebral Palsy foundation of India. Out of curiosity I checked out Wikipedia which says:
It was really surprising that I had never thought about disorders like Cerebral Palsy etc as a completely separate class of problems relating to motor control. This in-spite of the fact that I am a cognitive science freak and have a bro who is a JRF in neuroscience!!!
A person with a motor control problem is a seriously powerful resource for the nation. They have perfectly functioning brains with limited output ability. With some focused training they are likely to easily outperform perfectly normal peers merely because they are likely to be more passionate about what they do.
Stephen Hawking's story who had ALS comes to mind.
Just imagine a profession like radiology. The job involves looking at an image using ur imagination and training and arriving at a diagnosis which comes after some deep contemplation. Lot of processing and very little but valuable output. Of course just like any other population we can find people of various IQs suffering from any condition.
I am sure that there would be innumerable well paying jobs that people with motor neural problems could do. I am pretty sure collective brainstorming can improve their options. I suspect that the guys having motor neuron problems themselves have the collective IQ to multiply their opportunities if they can think like a swarm. I feel something must be done about this!!!
I was shocked about my own ignorance in this area and realized there exists a huge communication gap.
Of course a job is just one aspect of quality of life. But definitely a significant aspect.
Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive,[1] non-contagious conditions that cause physical disability in human development.
Cerebral refers to the cerebrum, which is the affected area of the brain (although the disorder most likely involves connections between the cortex and other parts of the brain such as the cerebellum), and palsy refers to disorder of movement. CP is caused by damage to the motor control centers of the young developing brain and can occur during pregnancy (about 75 percent), during childbirth (about 5 percent) or after birth (about 15 percent) up to about age three.[2][3]
It is a non-progressive disorder, meaning the brain damage does not worsen, but secondary orthopedic difficulties are common. There is no known cure for CP. Medical intervention is limited to the treatment and prevention of complications arising from CP's effects.
It was really surprising that I had never thought about disorders like Cerebral Palsy etc as a completely separate class of problems relating to motor control. This in-spite of the fact that I am a cognitive science freak and have a bro who is a JRF in neuroscience!!!
A person with a motor control problem is a seriously powerful resource for the nation. They have perfectly functioning brains with limited output ability. With some focused training they are likely to easily outperform perfectly normal peers merely because they are likely to be more passionate about what they do.
Stephen Hawking's story who had ALS comes to mind.
Just imagine a profession like radiology. The job involves looking at an image using ur imagination and training and arriving at a diagnosis which comes after some deep contemplation. Lot of processing and very little but valuable output. Of course just like any other population we can find people of various IQs suffering from any condition.
I am sure that there would be innumerable well paying jobs that people with motor neural problems could do. I am pretty sure collective brainstorming can improve their options. I suspect that the guys having motor neuron problems themselves have the collective IQ to multiply their opportunities if they can think like a swarm. I feel something must be done about this!!!
I was shocked about my own ignorance in this area and realized there exists a huge communication gap.
Of course a job is just one aspect of quality of life. But definitely a significant aspect.
posted by Unknown @ 2:43 AM
1 Comments:
At 6:47 PM,
Unknown said…
Realities are bitter. According to Rajiv Rajan, co-ordinator of the disability legislation unit at Vidya Sagar (former Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu), himself disabled by cerebral palsy: "The civil service, which is a dream career for many young people in our country, has proved to be a nightmare for disabled people. In several instances, in spite of clearing the preliminaries, the main examinations and the interview rounds of the civil services exams entirely on merit, disabled people have been rejected or effectively demoted on grounds of their disability. They did not avail of any of the concessions or assistance available to them. The idea of any law or policy or reservation is to empower marginalised people, to push them forward. However, here the so-called 'reservation' is actually pushing people downwards! These people declared their disability only to be truthful! Now they are being discriminated against because some babus in the DoPT feel that people with disabilities cannot, rather should not, be allowed to become IAS officers."
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