
How the Blind See the Stars - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/how-the-blind-see-the-stars
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pluma
Slightly off-topic but at first I was going to complain that someone who can
see some light and shadow isn't "really" blind. But this is actually a good
reminder that impairments aren't always binary. He was blind for all intents
and purposes, even if he can see some brightness contrasts some of the time.

This is especially important to remember when dealing with accessibility: even
if it may not be possible to offer 100% of the experience to everyone, making
things a bit more accessible can still be a huge win already.

Not to mention that some forms of disability can be situational. There is
little practical difference whether you can for example only use one hand
because you only have one arm, because one of your arms is broken and
bandaged, or because you're carrying your groceries.

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frobware
I'm blind (at night). I would dearly love to the stars. In fact, this is
pretty close to my #1 on my bucket list.

~~~
solarengineer
I'm humbled. There are those of us who can see well, and don't ever look up
(though even if we do, the sky is already lit up with the city lights).

I wish for you that your wish be granted.

~~~
pavlov
Beautifully put. Watching stars is underrated.

The historical significance of looking up and seeing light patterns slowly
move across the dark sky is enormous: it was where the first human
civilizations made their first discoveries.

The night sky is the origin of mankind's first concepts of time, cosmology and
theology (Egyptians associated the afterlife with the night sky). The very
earliest known long-form writings such as the Pyramid Texts [1] are
fundamentally rooted in astronomical observations.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Texts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Texts)

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amelius
> His surgically enlarged iris allows the telescope to focus images directly
> onto his retina, sensitive to ultraviolet and infrared frequencies that
> normal lenses would filter out.

If a telescope can do that, then perhaps there are other devices that can do
the same for images of different origin (?)

~~~
amelius
This makes me wonder, what is the percentage of blind people with a
functioning retina?

