Different

Follow me in this brief thought experiment.
Level 1: the random event - Suppose for a moment that an individual is born with a slight mutation or genetic variant that has the effect of altering one of their so-called "normal" abilities: hearing, sight, walking, digestion, thinking, take your pick. They would be labeled, even officially, as "differently abled".
Level 2: the statistics - Now assume that there is on average a certain number of these individuals, say a fraction of a percentage point of the entire population (for example: 0.00003%).
Level 3: the black swan - Now imagine a catastrophe of natural or anthropogenic origin: a mega asteroid, aliens, a global thermonuclear war, a virus leaked from a lab. You decide, you can be banal and mainstream or creative and conspiratorial, as long as the outcome of the thought experiment does not change: the human species is wiped out, not just from the earth but from the entire universe.
Level 4: the resurrection, or almost - Not so fast, señor! The "normal" part of the species - and only that part - goes extinct. Only so to speak, of course, given that it represented more than 99% of the world's population. Instead, the very individuals carrying the mutation/variant from level 1 survive. They will mate among themselves and their offspring will inherit their gene pool. Including the mutation/variant responsible for their "diversity", as well as their survival. The other version of the ability, the "normal" one, will be just a distant memory. Maybe the idea for a sci-fi franchise.
Level 5: the myth - These new humanoids, in their own way Nietzschean "Übermensch", will be able to tell their children that they are the descendants of an ancient species of "differently abled" beings: our species.

This post was machine-translated from Italian.