No way. Why take a paycut -and- be blind for a year?
I agree with the part of the secure future, but I just don’t know if I could go without seeing my kids if it was by choice. Obviously any of us could be blinded tomorrow by some freak accident, but actually laying eyes on my kids is such an important part of every day to me that I struggle to imagine that I would even make it a week before quitting.
I would miss my music, sure, but lots of times I think I could live with it. I was just at the allergist’s on Tuesday and a child was SCREAMING. I mean, not just a “waa waa” type of thing, but full-bore at the top of its lungs. Dad was looking ashamed and Grandma was sort of kind of trying to hush it.
Noise pollution is everywhere. Damn motorcycles and their loud engines. people who insist on sitting on opposite sides of the bus and talking at full volume to each other. Trucks driving down the street.
As I said, I’d miss my music, but I could do it for a year, easily…for that kind of money. I mean just deaf, not Helen Keller-esque.
I agree this would be very, very hard, but I am also intrigued by the OTHER changes and growth in my child that I might notice more if unable to see. Would I become much more sensitive to every nuance and change in her voice, for example? That could be really neat.
NO. One week was bad enought.
When I was a kid I had an eye injury that required them to cover both my eyes and put me to bed for ten days.
Mmm, good point. When I was a kid I had lazy eye corrective surgery that covered my eyes for a few days, too, and then I had limited, sensitive vision for another week.
Do not want to do it again.
Comments on Anaamika’s list:
That means no reading. - Audiobooks
No driving. - True.
No swimming, at least not alone. - Why not? Turn on a boombox at one end of the pool for directional orientation, and I’d be fine in any normal pool.
No biking. - True.
No playing video games. - True, but no biggie.
No watching movies or TV. - Ditto, for me at least.
No admiring sexy guys. - And no admiring sexy girls for me, but I’d just pay more attention to their voices.
No putting nailpolish on, unless someone else does it, and then I can’t enjoy it. - Gotta admit, I can live without this one without any suffering. 
No putting mehndi (henna) tattoos on. - Ditto.
No making jewelry - I do beading at least 3-4x a week. - Double dittos.
No admiring artfully arranged food before I eat it. - Never been all that big on presentation.
No sunrises or sunsets. - I’d miss that.
No Internet. - Text to voice. It would be slower, but I’d live.
No window shopping. - No biggie.
No youtube videos. - I access them almost entirely for music as it is, so I’d get most of what I wanted there.
NO SUNSHINE. - as long as I can feel it, I’m good.
And music. I’d have an excuse to have music on as much as I wanted it. My wife and kid would get tired of listening to my favorite music, from Handel to The Shins, but I wouldn’t.
Half a mil isn’t anywhere near enough to retire on, but it’s enough to pay for a year’s sabbatical for my wife and me (in addition to just enjoying her company, and needing someone to be my eyes on an intermittent basis, there’s one very enjoyable activity that has no vision requirement), do some serious splurging on home improvements, and add a decent cushion to the retirement fund.
I’d do it.
Just goes to show how different we all are. While my kid is the heart and soul of my life, seeing him isn’t nearly as important to me as just being with him, and doing things with him. I love the sound of his voice, and I love listening to the way he uses words, and the pleasant surprise when he uses far more sophisticated phrasing and sentence structure than you were aware that he could do.
Easily? I honestly doubt it.
“Just deaf”? sigh
Deafness is an “invisible” disability. Blind people usually have a cane or a dog, which “announces” the disability. Deafness…there’s no sign or hat or T-shirt.
When people figure out I can’t hear normally, the usual response is for them to treat me as if I were incredibly STUPID. When that happens the first thousand times or so, it’s very painful. After that, it’s exasperating.
Put earplugs in your ears and try it for a week. Then come back and tell me how “easy” it was.
~VOW
I’d do it in a heart beat. Where do I sign up?
No way. That would fuck my career right up, costing me many multiples of a lousy half million bucks over the course of my life.
No, seeing is too important to me. I won’t say it’s an absolute no but it would have to be a lot higher than $500,000 before I’d even consider it.
Yeah, I would do it. I was blind for a while before, and no one paid me for it. In fact, I had to pay to get my sight back.
Not just yes, but hell yes.
My earning potential ain’t nowhere near twenty grand a month. Since I’m a teacher I’d want to start right when summer vacation begins, and that way I wouldn’t have to worry about risking my job if I couldn’t hack the full 12 months. I think I could, though. I’ve got a pretty good family/friend support structure, and that kind of scratch would easily smooth over the worst difficulties.
I’d definitely blog (maybe podcast) the experience, and then (if the blog is successful) parlay that into a Kickstarter campaign to write and self-publish a book.