Daniel Kish (born 1966 in

Montebello, California Montebello (Italian language, Italian for "Beautiful Mountain") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located just east of East Los Angeles, California, East Los Angeles and southwest of San Gabriel Valley. It is an indepen ...

) is an American expert in

human echolocation Human echolocation is the ability of humans to detect objects in their environment by sensing echoes from those objects, by actively creating sounds: for example, by tapping their canes, lightly stomping their foot, clapping their hands, snapping ...

and the President of

World Access for the Blind World Access for the Blind (WAFTB) is an international non-profit, non-governmental and educational organisation based in California, United States. The organisation was started to strengthen the physical, mental and personal development of peopl ...

(WAFTB), a California-registered nonprofit organization founded by Kish in 2000 to facilitate "the self-directed achievement of people with all forms of blindness" and increase public awareness about their strengths and capabilities. Kish and his organization have taught a form of echolocation to at least 500 blind children around the world. Kish, who had to have his eyes removed before he was 13 months old because of

eye cancer An eye neoplasm is a tumor of the eye. A rare type of tumor, eye neoplasms can affect all parts of the eye, and can either be benign or malignant (cancerous), in which case it is known as eye cancer. Eye cancers can be primary (starts within the e ...

, is the first totally blind person to be a legally Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS) and to hold a National Blindness Professional Certification (NOMC). He also holds master's degrees in

developmental psychology Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development ...

and

special education Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual di ...

from University of California Riverside. Kish's work has inspired a number of scientific studies related to human echolocation. In a 2009 study at the

University of Alcalá The University of Alcalá () is a public university located in Alcalá de Henares, a city 35 km (22 miles) northeast of Madrid in Spain and also the third-largest city of the region. It was founded in 1293 as a ''Studium Generale'' for t ...

Madrid, Spain Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, ten sighted subjects were taught basic navigation skills within a few days. The study aimed to analyze various sounds which can be used to echolocate and evaluate which were most effective. In another study, MRI brain scans were taken of Kish and another echolocation expert to identify the parts of the brain involved in echolocation, with readings suggesting "that brain structures that process visual information in sighted people process echo information in blind echolocation experts." Kish was named an

Ashoka Fellow Ashoka (formerly branded Ashoka: Innovators for the Public) is an American-based nonprofit organization that promotes social entrepreneurship by connecting and supporting individual social entrepreneurs. Ashoka invests in over 3,800 social entre ...

in 2017. Fellows are leading social entrepreneurs recognized for their innovative solutions to social problems and potential to change patterns across society.

Bibliography

* * Kish, Daniel, and Hook, Jo (2016)
Echolocation and FlashSonar
American Printing House for the Blind. p. 508.

References

External links

* *
Poptech demonstration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kish, Daniel 1966 births Living people American educators American blind people People from Montebello, California American social entrepreneurs Blind educators