How to Be Blind

July 13, 2023 2:21 PM

Andrew Leland is a writer, audio producer, editor, and teacher who explores his transition from sightedness to blindness. He has a book coming out this month and recently published an article drawn from it, How to Be Blind. He has also written about reading technologies for the blind.
posted by narcissus_and_ambrosia (6 comments total)

Very interesting! thanks!
posted by praemunire at 3:07 PM on July 13, 2023

This piece is SO GOOD! It reminds me of a book I obsessed over in middle school or so about a kid going gradually blind and getting lessons. I still think I use those lessons in my daily life now, the boringest of which is tipping a fingertip into a glass if it's under a faucet and filling fast; shut it off when it hits your finger. Leland's much newer training about just listening to the sound makes much more sense.

Thank you for posting it. I'm gonna get that book.
posted by lauranesson at 8:12 PM on July 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

A good friend of mine has a glass eye and about 6 months ago his (non-glass-eye) retina became detached and he went through a long recovery after surgery. He was already “legally blind” but he now actually can’t see. I’ve been with him as he relies more and more on Alexa and Siri, as he can’t text much anymore, as he figures out how to do his job as a hotel concierge, as, hey, now he doesn’t have to wear his glasses any more. When we meet up for dinner I get to hold him by the elbow and narrate the sidewalk to him, “hey, curb cut here, yellow plastic dots, move a little to the left there’s some poop there, the streetcar’s coming in 4 minutes.”

I really like this article, thanks.
posted by bendy at 11:20 PM on July 13, 2023

I definitely want to read this but would prefer to read it on paper. But even as a longtime subscriber, I can never tell if a web article is/was in the magazine.
posted by neuron at 9:18 AM on July 14, 2023

Thank you for this post! Going to get the book, and am appreciative
posted by Bottlecap at 4:24 PM on July 17, 2023

> But even as a longtime subscriber, I can never tell if a web article is/was in the magazine

I don't think it was -- I just flipped through a few issues from this month and didn't see it.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:34 PM on July 19, 2023