Tommy Edison, the wonderful blind film critic, who once showed us how he used an iPhone, has a new video describing something nearly impossible for blind people to understand: colour.
What’s great is that even though Edison doesn’t understand the concept of colour, colours still have meaning to him. Watch him describe what red, blue, orange, black and white. It’s awesome to see colour from such a completely different perspective. [YouTube via Laughing Squid]
"How can sky and ice be the same thing?"
I'd try and explain to him that ice is see-through or transparent, but then realise that's still something he couldn't grasp.
It's interesting hearing the raw emotional impact that various colours have.
First time ever hearing of this guy but his laughter is so genuine, it makes me happy just to listen to someone that happy.
I know how this guy feels. I have Synaesthesia, and explaining that is a very similar frustration that this guy has.
On the plus side, you could probably explain to him exactly what green sounds like... I kid, I kid. ;-)
Just spent the last hour or more watching most of his videos. What an amazing guy.
"way to go orange!"
Poor fella, good on him, seems like a good guy.
very interesting, one of the things i found out a long time ago that blew my mind, is that blind people don't see black - as most people think or assume they do. They simply don't see anything and that right there is hard for someone with vision to grasp. The vision of Nothing
It sometimes depends on the source of the blindness, too. He's been blind from birth, so it's not like his brain can say "what are my eyes telling me? Nothing!", it's that the sense just isn't there, in the same way you don't have an extra sense for electric charge or something.
If people have damage to the eye or the nerve, then their brain is probably still looking for input, just what it gets back makes no sense.