Tactile Vision: A Personal View

The author, who is congenitally blind, describes two training programs with a Tactile Vision Substitution System (TVSS), including a mobile version of the device. After mastering the working of the System, which occupied most of the first training program, the author was able to identify specific objects (providing he had previously been “shown” them and had them named) and to grasp such visual concepts as two-point perspective and monocular cues of depth. The TVSS could not perform as either a mobility aid or as a reading device.