Echolocation Studio

How Would I Refer To A User Of Echolocation? What Are They Called?

In my project here, users of echolocation are typically referred from an active first-person perspective. They would be described throughout the project interchangeably as the “echolocator”, “user” or “listener”, people explicitly described and an active-learner would be referred to as “Student”.

Why Haven't I Or Others Considered Teaching/Learning Echolocation Before?

 There is no major representation of the skillset or the community of echolocators in wider society circles. Not only does this mean people aren't exposed to users growing up, but it also means teachers of the next generation in the wider society aren't teaching explicitly or implicitly that being able to learn this is even possible. No one who has learnt it, hasn't regretted learning it as young as they were. It's never too late to choose to learn or to teach others.

 However, what's necessary to begin learning can be a very intuitive first step if in the right environment, and many people over time including myself, have begun to teach ourselves before we knew what to call it. A teacher can facilitate the right environments and the flow of information for quick learning and comprehension for a student.

Who Can Learn Something From Echolocation?

Echolocation is a skill. One made of sub skills that can be used and applied in many different and new situations you face through your life. Echolocation has been a tool used by countless blind and vision impaired people to give them a palette of auditory information about their environment that sighted people typically use their eyesight to gain information (in some ways it is superior with its ability of 360 degree hearing and ability to learn to listen around corners, things eyesight cannot do).

 I am also hoping to present this curriculum to be used as a therapeutic tool for autistic people to use to help them manage and regulate their sound sensitivities. These people are more than capable of learning echolocation without issue if adapted for their neurodivergence.

 Echolocation teaching provides the learner with new information about their environment in a format you may not have intuitively taught yourself beforehand, there are many out there who have already learnt who have no kind of disability or diagnosis. But they do learn out of curiosity’s sake, having an interesting party trick skill, to learn new tools and vocabulary to better describe their own experiences around sounds and echoes to themselves and to others, etc etc. There are countless reasons for someone wanting to learn and gain something out of the experience, and this is why so many kinds of diverse people with their own reasons out there are more than capable of learning.

Many People Think Autistic People Who Have Sound Sensitives, Can't Focus Or Pay Attention To Singular Sounds Without Help? How Do You Plan To Teach Those Kinds Of People To Do The Opposite And Focus?

Ableist phrases like “cannot keep focus, cannot pay attention etc” used to be common deficit-based descriptions used to describe autistic traits. However from my own experience, this can easily be a misinterpretation. It is true in terms of my autism, I grew up finding all sounds challenging, not just loud ones; equally pulling my attention away from what's implicitly or explicitly expected to focus on. And it is hard to know what to focus on but for myself and those i've taught with sound sensitivities, the reason for the sensitivity is more about “not having skills to know ahead of schedule what to focus on” this a similar reason as to concept of how autistic people thrive with routine, when they are aware of what's to come and what to do to plan for it. 

What Is The History Or Background Of Echolocation And Its Current Community?

Echolocation has been traditionally used primarily by the blind and vision impaired community. They began documenting its use in the medical community and conducting academic research in the 20th century. That community at the present day is led by celebrity-level experts like Daniel Kish and his FlashSonar echolocation techniques. I am no expert like Daniel who has taught countless learners and teachers from across the world. Him and his published book on the subject has an immense amount of historical knowledge and lived experiences of those who have now learnt, it is a person and book worth investigating if you're curious about this.

What Resources Are Available If I Wish To Explore Echolocation Elsewhere?

Daniel Kish and his non-profit at https://visioneers.org/ is one of the leading experts and teachers in the field of echolocation and shares a lot of information online while also publishing the only dedicated book on the topic currently. Researchers like Lore Thaler at Durham University https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/lore-thaler/  have published many academic papers on the topic as well and are publicly accessible. 

If you have other questions about this project or want to get involved, please don't hesitate to contact me.