Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Some folks over at Johns Hopkins University have developed audible basketballs and nets to allow blind people to play basketball.

Three Johns Hopkins engineering undergraduates -- two of them starters on the women's basketball team -- have designed and built a system that uses sound emitters in the ball and on the backboard to enable blind people to play basketball.

"There are people all over the country who are waiting for something like this," said Mike Bullis, business services development manager for Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, a group that aids the visually impaired and sponsored the research project. "There are blind athletes who want an audible ball. And there are school- age children who can benefit from the hand coordination that comes from playing ball. Right now, blind kids can play with a ball, but only if someone is there to find it if it rolls away."

Now, clearly, a completely non-sighted person would find it pretty difficult to play a normal game of basketball even with this sort of equipment, but that's really not the point.

Instead, we need to realize that, for a blind person, the opportunities for physical activities are dramatically limited compared to a sighted person. Anything that allows them more options is a good thing in my book. Sure, they might have trouble actually playing a full game on a team, but considering how often people just "shoot hoops" rather than playing a full game, this sounds like it could still be fun, especially when you consider that the alternative is no basketball at all.

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