A New Approach developed by the blind
A Canadian, Daniel Kish, who was born blind, felt that his mobility – using a long white stick – was too limiting. He set about finding out how to improve on it and has now developed a mission to facilitate the self-directed achievement of blind people everywhere.
A key component is echo-location, which involves blind people making noises to bounce off objects nearer and further away; they can be trained to become much more aware of the sounds around them, to become more confident and to move more freely. Graduates use bicycles to travel around.
A full explanation of World Access for the Blind’s ‘Perception Based’ approach can be read at www.worldaccessfortheblind.org/node/120
