I shamelessly stole the title from Mr. Sun's blog because, well, I couldn't come up with anything better. He points to a Nursing school admitting their first blind student:

With support from the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Melissa Resnick of Merrick, New York, will become the first blind nursing student at Nassau Community College (NCC). Admission to NCC's Nursing Department is highly competitive and the Department is widely respected for its academic excellence. The college confirmed her acceptance after initially expressing concerns over her ability to perform the required classroom and clinical work. Ms. Resnick will start her classes on Friday, January 21, 2005.

"Ms. Resnick is an exceptionally well-qualified woman who will be an asset to the nursing program at Nassau Community College," said Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind. "We applaud the college for taking this important step towards full acceptance of blind people into the medical professions. Blind doctors and nurses are bringing new insights into patient care and Melissa will surely inspire other blind youth to follow their dreams into nursing."

As you'd expect the news account of this admittance is quite rah-rah for the blind underdog and is full of feel good sentiments, but what I really wanted to know was how they would accomodate Ms. Resnick into their program? Also, will Ms. Resnick, once graduated, be satisfied with a position that acknowledges her limitations and thus limits her responsibilites or will she then also bring in the big guns, the National Federation of the Blind, and demand to be fully engaged with patients?

If total equality is sought I see this situation as being frought with danger, for Ms. Resnick, her employers and innocent patients. How much do innocent parties have to yield and compromise so as to validate the worth of handicapped people? If I'm a patient in a hospital the last thing I want to do is be concerned with accomodating a blind nurse. I just see trouble ahead on this story.