Bats need an image consultant because horror movies and popular legends have not done them justice.
These mammals not only meet a very important role in nature: as pollinators, seed dispersers and insect pest controllers, but they are currently teaching blind children to orient themselves with the echo of the sounds they produce.
The Scottish NGO 'Visibility', dedicated to blind people, teaches children to mentally build detailed images of your environment by the method of clicking with the tongue and interpreting the resulting echo.
There seems to be more and more evidence that blind people are able to train the sense of hearing (which is more acute than in other people) to interpret the reflected sound. They can thus create mental images of the surrounding objects, including distance, size and density.
This method is called "eco-location”And it was applied for the first time in the United States where some blind people have learned to distinguish whether they have people, trees, buildings or a car parked by the echo bell they produce.
Scottish children are taught to click with their tongues and use this technique even in very noisy urban areas such as a street or subway.
Dan Kish, a 41-year-old blind man from California, was the pioneer of that technique. He directs the charity 'World Access for the Blind' and has introduced it in Europe. This man has such mastery of his technique that he can ride a bicycle on public roads and even distinguish between different types of fruit trees only with the click of his tongue.
Well, we are very happy with this great advance for blind people and everything that increases their quality of life. Hopefully they keep getting good results and the system also arrived in Spain.
