Aimee Mullins on TED Talks and Tony Deblois, autistic savant

A few days ago I came across this video from TED Talks. I subscribe to them on Youtube. This video was added on 11 March. It is about Aimee Mullins talking about her prosthetic legs. She showed her legs to a group of schoolchildren and they were all curious. She wanted them to be that way, she didn't want them to be afraid of asking questions. She wanted them to feel that there was nothing wrong with her. I think this video is enlightening.



Seeing the video made me think of this person:



I find savants to be very interesting. They have trouble performing simple tasks, yet they can do extraordinary things like calculate large sums in their heads or play difficult musical pieces from memory. I had the privilege of meeting up with autistic savant Tony Deblois in 2000 when I worked at a camp for the blind. He is totally blind. He was very difficult to communicate with and spent a lot of time rocking back and forth and waving his arms. He has such a great gift with music, playing the piano like Liberace. I have seen him on the Science Channel. I think it's right to look beyond people's handicaps and see them for the people they are. I had such a great time with the blind campers. I loved their talents. We had a talent show where many of them read poems they composed, songs they wrote, played instruments, and more. They were a lot of fun.