A superb presentation by Dr. Proulx on vision, what the blind can teach us about sight and seeing with sound.

His core message of inclusivity is refreshing and is not something I had thought of before in that way. One of the key advantages of using the vOICe is that you can begin to utilize existing visual clues in your environment. No special infrastructure required. Take museum accessibility. Yes, I am happy to touch things but with the vOICe, I have the ability to see them. You could extend the same to road signs and other land marks or too anything else.

Inclusivity can also give the blind more independence. There is no need for you to rely on someone elses description in buying clothes as just one example.

In terms of biology, the most fascinating portion of the presentation was the bit where Dr. Proulx describes how congenitally blind and sighted people represent objects differently. He mentioned rows and columns when describing how sighted people organize information with respect to objects in their environment. I could not help but think of matrices. How many of you slept in statistics class?