How does it feel to live in the dark?

The exhibition "Dialogue in the Dark" in Israel is aimed at seeing people who understand better the blind. On it you will not see a single exhibit, but in an hour and a half you will understand in which world people live who do not see.

Special excursion

Before the show people are given canes and instructed how to use them. Then everything happens in complete darkness. Each room is an imitation of different conditions for sight-seeing people: a hilly forest, a boat crossing, a walk along a busy street, a shopping trip to the store, a visit to a bar ... But there is no light at all. A guide in this tour is a blind person who is completely accustomed to such conditions.

The reaction of the sighted to the dark is ambiguous. Someone falls into a panic, someone laughs, most are disoriented so much that they begin to confuse the left and right sides. Sometimes fainting occurs.

Mutual understanding between people

A sighted person can not understand how it is to live and not see anything. At the same time in the world, according to the VOZ, 38 million people are completely deprived of sight and 110 million more have significant violations of it. And seeing sometimes it is impossible to understand these people and take them as full-fledged fellow citizens.

At the same time, the blind have learned to adapt well in society. They easily perform not only simple household tasks, but also become specialists in some industries.

The guide of this excursion, Mair Matityagu, notes that at his work people easily trust him, stepping into dark rooms. He would like to achieve the same level of mutual understanding in ordinary life. But at the sight of such a lack of a person begin to be treated as an inferior.

Fortunately, after 90 minutes in the world of the blind, the sighted people essentially change their attitude towards those who do not see anything.

Features of life without light

The human brain is built in such a way that it can compensate for certain deficiencies in the body. Yes, the blind can not use the eyes, but they have other well-developed senses.

First of all, this is a rumor. Not one experiment has shown that it is the blind that perceive and perceive music better. Similarly, people with absolute hearing (the ability to hear and accurately distinguish the height of a single sound) is much larger among people who do not see anything.

This is due to the fact that neurons that the sighted are responsible for processing data coming from the eyes, the blind can not perform the function assigned to them. Therefore, they "re-profiled" and begin to strengthen other feelings.

The same circuit works with tactile sensations. That's why many blind people are much quicker to learn how to read Braille.

Oddly enough, even people who see the smell are much quicker and clearer than people who see what is happening around them. So it turns out that the blind world is much more interesting and diverse than those who are used to trusting their eyes.

Technique to help the blind

It would seem, how, without seeing, you can use smartphones or computers, the main information on which is fed through visual perception? In fact, sighted people never thought that most modern gadgets already have built-in functions for blind people.

Someone like Siri or similar services of voice navigation seem to be funny toys. In fact, these are excellent helpers for those who do not see which button to click or which contact to call.

In addition to already embedded software products, many developers offer their options for facilitating the life of blind people. At the same time, a significant part of them are blind or partially seeing people who act as intermediaries between two worlds.

Such programs are built in such a way that the same smartphone is always with the screen off, but it reacts to different gestures, pressing force and voice commands. Blind can not only dial the necessary contact to make a call, but also write a text message, listen to its voice version and even find the information on the Internet. The same programs with the help of the camera can describe what is around the person, what money he holds in his hands and what color a bouquet he was given by his relatives.

All this suggests that blind people can be full members of modern society. You do not need to treat them as sick or disabled. The only thing they need is an understanding that their world is a bit different from where the sun is constantly shining.