Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
What happened
As millions of people watch the April 8 total solar eclipse, blind and visually impaired people will feel and listen to it with special tools.
The commentary
Paperback-sized LightSound devices measure and translate the sky's brightness into music, with "a flute sound for intense light, a clarinet sound that lowers in pitch as the light fades, and a slow, percussive clicking during the darkness of totality," said The New York Times. Cadence tablets have "rows of dots that pop up and down," The Associated Press said. During the eclipse, people can "feel the moon slowly move over the sun," said Wunji Lau at Cadence maker Tactile Engineering.
Who said what
"The sky belongs to everyone," Wanda Díaz-Merced, an astronomer who is blind and developed LightSound with Harvard astronomer Allyson Bieryla, said to the AP. "I want students to be able to hear the eclipse, to hear the stars."
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What next?
The U.S. mainland won't experience another total eclipse until 2044, but LightSound handhelds will be available to use or build during eclipses around the world.
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