Awesome Blind

In this award-winning and moving documentary, six blind people from around the world were given a camera and asked to take photos. The film explores perception, resilience, and creativity, challenging assumptions about blindness and redefining what it means to truly “see.” Directed by Olmo Parenti, Marco Zannoni, and Giacomo Ostini. (Thanks, Rob!)

Having a visual impairment can affect life in ways you might not think about. For instance, telling the difference between paper currencies can be challenging since U.S. bills are indistinguishable to the touch. Blind on the Move shows off a simple but ingenious device that can imprint braille onto bills based on denomination.

The Eone Switch is a wristwatch that doesn’t require vision to check the time. It uses two rotating ball bearings to indicate the current hour and minute, enabling those with visual impairments to tell the time with touch. This new model features interchangeable tactile faceplates and includes two in the package.

People with visual impairments could soon join in the fun and frustration of solving a Rubik’s Cube. Puzzle fanatic Bondarenkoyt peeled off the stickers of a standard cube, then created textured squares that could be felt with fingertips. To prove that it’s usable, he solved it blindfolded. Now someone should put this into production.

LEGO is testing a set of special bricks with studs that form Braille symbols. The kit will consist of 250 pieces, which consist of the alphabet, numbers, math symbols and more. LEGO will make it available to select institutions for free by 2020.

For the visually impaired, braille is used to read printed documents. However, the raised dots don’t exactly translate to those with full sight. Kosuke Takahashi came up with this concept for English and Japanese typefaces which are readable both with your fingers and your eyes.

For his latest challenge, blind film critic and YouTube celeb Tommy Edison did his best to assemble a couple of small objects using LEGO bricks. He really did a pretty good job given the fact that he couldn’t see a thing, and has never seen a house or a car.

Blind Film Critic Tommy Edison enlisted the help of fellow YouTubers to describe colors to him using words that they associate with them. At times it seemed like the task was harder for the sighted people than for Tommy.

Blind film critic and entertainer Tommy Edison met up with master gunfighter Cisko to learn how to cowboy fast-draw a gun while still hitting a target. Watch the video to see if Tommy can pull off a 1-second shot himself.

Blind film critic Tommy Edison explores an interesting question – whether the concept of vision is something that even makes sense to people who have never had eyesight. It’s amazing how much stuff us sighted people take for granted.

“If it tasted like steak, I’d get it.” Blind Film Critic Tommy Edison puts his senses to the test as he tastes several different Jelly Belly jelly beans and attempts to guess their colors. We’re guessing that it would be just as hard to guess the flavors if we were simply blindfolded.

Blind Film Critic Tommy Edison explains what he finds attractive in a woman, without the benefit of sight. Maybe if we all connected with our partners on this level, there wouldn’t be so many failed relationships.

Blind since infancy, 15 year-old Kuha’o has only been playing piano for 3 years but can already learn songs after hearing them once. Check out his interpretation of Freestylers’ Cracks at 5:45.