DailyGood

For the last 27 years, DailyGood newsletters have offered a daily email that inspires you to respond to life with creativity and kindness. To join a community of 149,300 subscribers, subscribe here.

Aug 2, 2006

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said." --Peter Drucker

The Boy Who Sees with Sound

Ben Underwood doesn't seem to know he's blind. There's Ben zooming around on his skateboard outside his home in Sacramento; there he is playing kickball with his buddies. To see him speed down hallways and make sharp turns around corners is to observe a typical teen –- except, that is, for the clicking. Completely blind since the age of 3, after retinal cancer claimed both his eyes, Ben has learned to perceive and locate objects by making a steady stream of sounds with his tongue, then listening for the echoes as they bounce off the surfaces around him.