The use of active echolocation is growing in popularity as a perceptual mobility tool for the blind and visually impaired. As more scientific research is compiled the skepticism around the skill is slowly fading away and making way for accelerated development and implementation of this unique tool.
Echolocation is a fundamentally simple skill that many blind people use daily to navigate and understand their environment on a broad scale. With proper implementation, however it can be used to identify precise distance, sizes, shapes, edges and even the density of surrounding objects. This skill is sometimes misunderstood, but it's far more realistic and much easier than you may think.
The author demystifies the growing practice of active echolocation in a way that anyone can understand, and gives the reader simple exercises, examples, and lessons as a starting point for launching you into a successful practice of active echolocation.
Sound waves – like ripples in a pond – reflect differently off of all objects and surfaces. This makes it possible for the trained ear to distinguish shape, size, distance and material of our surroundings. Musicians will tell you that “reverb” causes each room or surface to have its own unique sound response. With sensitization and applied practice of this skill, it’s possible for people with visual impairments all over the world to become increasingly independent, supplementing their existing forms of orientation and mobility with the intrinsic awareness that echolocation can provide.
Echolocation requires no special equipment nor any special talent. The human body and mind are truly marvels of nature that grant us with capabilities you may never know you had. If you can hear, you can echolocate.
Understanding the simplicity of this skill will allow you to shift your way of thinking to accommodate an expanded awareness of your environment. With this awareness comes independence, confidence, new possibilities and new opportunities.
Genre: EDUCATION / GeneralThis book has been used around the world by blind mobility specialists and parents of blind children. It is the first book of its kind in this growing field of echolocation. It is also available in large print for visually impaired persons.
It has received excellent reviews available here: http://www.humanecholocation.com/category/reviews/
Rating is 3.6 on Amazon, 4.6 on Goodreads.
PASSIVE VERSUS ACTIVE ECHOLOCATION
If you have been blind most of your life and are familiar with some of the basic sensations of echolocation, for instance, you can tell what size room you are in, or you get a strange sensation right before you crash into a wall, you are using what is known as passive echolocation.
Passive echolocation is the sensitization to commonly occurring sound events such as your footsteps, cane tip, the swishing of your clothes, the sound of your voice, or even your own breath. You are sensing changes in how these sounds reflect off objects, and that is what gives you that sensation or intuition. It’s good to use passive echolocation as this will harbor a high level of sensitivity for your ears. However, in order to start using echolocation with another level of clarity, one should implement active echolocation.
Active echolocation is the use of a specific signal sound that is designed and optimized for reflecting off objects. It is a sound that you know and are familiar with and will be able to distinguish the subtleties of how it changes after it interacts with obstacles. Generally, this signal sound is a very short, high-pitched, penetrating sound. For most proficient echolocators, this sound is made by creating a clicking sound with the mouth. The reason the mouth is used is because it is with you wherever you go. The mouth, being part of the head, is also quite close to the ears, which means that sound travelling outward from it, and thus being reflected off of obstacles, will be travelling directly from and directly to the ears.
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French
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Already translated.
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Martina Sacco
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Gloria Cifuentes Dowling
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Author review: Gloria did an excellent job with this translation. It is a very detailed book with many technical terms and some unusual expressions. Thank you! |
