Blind Man, Daniel Kish Uses His Ears To See
Daniel Kish lost sight in both of his eyes at the young age of 13 months, yet he can see his surroundings by clicking his tongue and listening to the sound bounce off different objects. He calls what he does “Human Echolocation,” and he wants to teach it to blind people all over the world using the nonprofit he founded called World Access for the Blind. He spoke about the technique at the recent PopTech conference, saying “I believe that the brain is already at least partly wired to do this.
All that needs to happen is the hardware needs to be awakened. It needs to be activated, and we believe we’ve found ways of doing this.” Not everyone is a fan of what he does though, saying what he does is nothing more than a gimmick. Daniel Engber wrote about Kish and Echolocation on Slate.com saying “Many of Kish’s colleagues believe that echolocation, if it’s taught, should remain a secondary skill for the blind.” he went on to add ”And some disability advocates worry that all the hoopla over sonar makes blind people seem like superhuman freaks, with special powers that more than compensate for their problems.” Daniel disagrees though, saying his nonprofit is ”aiming at making our students daredevils or ‘super-blind’ or anything like that,” he said. “It’s really aimed at opening opportunities and helping students … to lead day-to-day lives.”
Signed, Isidori Mtabo
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