Echolocation Expert Trains Students
Two of our year 11 students took part in a training day at Birmingham City University in March, given by Daniel Kish, a world leading expert on human echolocation.
Daniel, from California, who is blind himself, discovered echolocation by accident as a child and was raised to believe he could do anything. He quickly taught himself to ‘see’ the world by using clicking sounds with his mouth, similar to animal echolocation used by bats and dolphins. With this method he can ride a bike in unfamiliar surroundings, navigate in the wilderness and even play ball.
He said: “Research has shown that, without teaching, around ten per cent of blind people develop the skills of echolocation to an advanced degree while around 50 per cent develop some rudimentary degree. That may be something like knowing they are in a corridor or enclosed space. But with teaching, echolocation can be developed and refined much further.”
Daniel introduced the skill to NCW students and staff explaining how they could use echolocation to improve their mobility skills and navigate there way around unfamiliar environments. Sarah Williams, Head of Mobility at NCW said,
“We had a wonderful day and the students who took part found the skills Daniel taught them extremely useful. We’re going to take these methods back to the college and incorporate them into their mobility lessons.”
