As we know, people who are blind or visually impaired often compensate for their poor eyesight with their hearing. When vision is lost, hearing often rises to another level, helping with spatial perception. Echolocation can improve the quality of life for a number of blind people. Daniel Kish was born in 1966 in Montebello, California.
He recalls his childhood as a difficult stage in his life. His father drank heavily and his mother abandoned him when little Daniel was 6 years old. When the child was one year old, he was diagnosed with a terrible diagnosis. Retinal cancer. It’s also called retinoblastoma. His eyes were removed. Since then, he’s been walking around with prostheses instead of eyes. He couldn’t see anything.
He could not and cannot enjoy the sun, the snow, the sea, a woman’s beauty the way a seeing person can. But he was able to develop the kind of superpowers for which he became known as the “Bat-Man. He learned to use echolocation to see and navigate through space.
What the average person can’t hear, Daniel can hear and even feel. As you know, there is no absolute silence in the world. He can hear, for example, the rustling of leaves. Sea waves and water noise will be heard differently by him than by an ordinary person. And he will be able to hear a conversation of a person 10 meters away without any problems. And he can also play the piano, fix car engines, cook, dance, walk in the woods, and ride a bicycle.
Daniel runs a non-profit organization called World Access for the Blind. There, he helps other blind people learn how to navigate the world. Kish was instrumental in developing one of the first echolocation courses for blind people. He learned to see without his eyes and is passing on his experience to others with the same problem as he has. And by doing so, Daniel lets these people know that in their case, life does not end.
As Daniel Kish’s experience suggests, nothing is impossible. If he was able to develop these abilities in himself, so can anyone else if they want to.