5 ms·
A good friend of mine had an amazing experience showing what blind people are capable of. He overheard a middle aged man who had obviously been blind for a long
by mixmax 13y ago
A good friend of mine had an amazing experience showing what blind people are capable of. He overheard a middle aged man who had obviously been blind for a long time schooling a young girl who had recently gone blind on how to get around. They were standing on one side of the road in a quiet neighborhood, and the man was teaching the girl how to assess the distance across the road. The way he did this was absolutely incredible: tap the cane on the curb, and you can hear the echo from the curb and buildings across the road. With experience you can hear how far it is.
- micampe 13y agoAwesome related article that made the rounds a while ago http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/the-blind-man-who-taught-himself-to-see-20120504 http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/the-blind-man-who-taught...
- jgrahamc 13y agoRight after college I volunteered at a social centre in the UK for blind and partially sighted people. One elderly completely blind man used to like to play darts. He was pretty good at it after a little initial steering and feedback.
- gadders 13y agoHe could have cleaned up on The Golden Shot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Shot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Shot
- driverdan 13y agoIt's a skill most people can learn. With enough practice you can judge distances based on sound. When I was young my parents had a smooth railing with posts that stuck up above it. I used to slide my head on my arms along it with my eyes closed. I could hear when the post would get close and stop. I don't know the maximum distance humans can detect by sound but it's pretty easy for short distances.
- toki5 13y agoThere is (or was, at least) a group of blind mountain bikers who used echolocation to estimate obstacles in their path. I was floored when I read the article[1] about them; that ability always sounded like a superpower to me. [1]: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sensory-superpowers/200907/mountain-biking-the-blind http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sensory-superpowers/2009...
- atesti 13y agoThat would be the movie/comic book hero "Daredevil"
- RyanMcGreal 13y agoA few years ago, Paul McCartney performed at the White House. Toward the end of "Hey Jude", where there were a lot of people up on stage singing the "Na na na na..." part, McCartney accidentally knocked over a mic stand while crossing the stage back to his piano. Stevie Wonder, who was standing nearby, shot his hand out and caught the falling mic stand. Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3OC_mKo2Fk#t=341s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3OC_mKo2Fk#t=341s
- maggit 13y agoLink to relevant place in video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3OC_mKo2Fk&t=341s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3OC_mKo2Fk&t=341s (Somewhere along the way the & in the parent's URL turned into #)
- RyanMcGreal 13y agoFYI it still works as a named anchor.
- maggit 13y agoFor interest, I have now tested Chrome, Safari and Firefox on my machine (OSX), and of those the named anchor only works in Firefox. Strange.
- darylfritz 13y agoThe named anchor works for me in Chrome 27, but I appreciate learning the query string parameter method too.
- RyanMcGreal 13y agoInteresting. I tested it in Firefox v.21 and Chrome v.27 (on Windows) and it works in both.
- yareally 13y agoFor what it's worth, it also works on Opera 12 for PC.
- imjk 13y agoThere are some blind people who use echolocation to remarkable degrees. Take for example this boy who's able to rollerblade in the streets, bypassing moving vehicles using echolocation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1QaCeosUmw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1QaCeosUmw.