On why the blind leading the blind is a good idea

Summary form only given. The paper reports on a project which addresses the problems faced by blind people in negotiating novel spaces. Various technologically sophisticated schemes have been proposed to help the blind in such circumstances. These range from the use of GPS satellites combined with hand-held microcomputers so that the blind user can get an accurate fix on his or her location, to the use of fixed local radio beacons in an intelligent environment which can guide a blind person in a locally sensitive fashion. While there has been some limited success with these systems, they have yet to solve many difficult operational problems. Working from a perspective that is in accordance with CT principles, the author developed a radically different system through which the existing competence of blind people in interpreting acoustic spatial cues can be enhanced and exploited by enabling them to communicate with one another about their auditory experience of the environment. The solution proposed relies on the technique of binaural recording with the addition of certain important additional elements. It enables one blind person who knows a place to effectively "draw an acoustic map" of it in line with their auditory experience. This map is of use to another blind person before he or she encounters that place for the first time. The idea of a map is exploited by reference to its functional rather than physical characteristics, a move which nevertheless acknowledges that the importance of a map lies in its physical characteristics in relation to shared sensory experiences.