Connecting Dots
A Blind Life
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
In this extraordinary memoir, a scientist who became blind at a young age shares how he navigates the world around him, and how his contributions led to cutting‑edge work in accessibility—packed with humor, adventure, and insights on life and disability.
At the age of four, Joshua Miele was blinded and badly burned when a neighbor poured sulfuric acid over his head. It could have ended his life, but instead, Miele—naturally curious, and a born problem solver—not only recovered, but thrived. Throughout his life, Miele has found increasingly inventive ways to succeed in a world built for the sighted, and to help others to do the same. At first reluctant to even think of himself as blind, he eventually embraced his blindness and became a committed advocate for disability and accessibility. Along the way, he grappled with drugs and addiction, played bass in a rock band, worked for NASA, became a guerilla activist, and married the love of his life and had two children. He chronicles the evolution of a number of revolutionary accessible technologies and his role in shaping them, including screen readers, tactile maps, and audio description.
Connecting Dots delivers a captivating first-person perspective on blindness and disability as incisive as it is entertaining, and ultimately triumphant. Joshua Miele's story is one of one ordinary blind life with an indelible impact.
Customer Reviews
Telling it Like it is!
A dear friend recommended this to me today. I myself am totally blind and while not a science professional by training and while not someone who lost my site due to a most unspeakable crime, as a life long blind person at age 52, so much of this story is the story I always wanted to tell. I would agree that so much about what is intended to be accessible when designed by the sited comes up short and I would encourage anyone who does or wants to help make the lives of the blind and disabled to read this writing cover to cover. It will help you better understand just how far we have to go. The day we truly get to a world that is built upon truly universal design practices that benefit all will be the day we can stop focusing on accommodations. But take a walk down the street of your favorite home town shopping center or university campus, note all the items that have visual clues with no corresponding Braille signage. Note the many homes on your street and the churches that don’t have accessible entries for those using mobility aids and the crosswalks that do exactly as Josh described in this book. Note the fact that ADA does not require Braille signs on exterior doors when in locations with numerous public access buildings and the complete reliance on visual only clues in complex setups like airports, sports arenas and stadiums, just for starters. As a blind person, I identify totally with this story and I am sure my friends and loved ones will too. If an organization says it meets accessibility standards in its building design or technological systems, ask for real evidence and question those assumptions. After all, a Catholic center I loved in college when notified that it’s new student center restroom doors just said restroom, not men or women in Braille in 1998, those signs have remained unchanged today.