Ben Underwood: Inspiring Journey of Echo Vision

[Music] Ben Underwood is blind [Music] both eyes were removed when he was three leaving him with no vision at all so how on Earth does Ben do this and this and even this I don't think I've ever come across somebody like that I you know he was quite unique Ben lost his eyes to cancer but unbelievably he's taught himself to see with sound if he choose to go out there and ride that bicycle let him ride the bicycle it's got to be very smart somewhere in there it's a little jeans going on I don't consider myself blind ain't nothing wrong with me [Music] Ben Underwood and his family live in Sacramento the state capital of California [Music] it's an old city with roots in the wild west but Ben and his family live in the new outlying suburbs [Music] Ben uses many common aids for the blind like speaking software for the computer so he can jot down his rap lyrics he's also written a book and does school work on a high-tech Braille writer but what's unusual what's truly unique is what he doesn't use [Music] Ben has no guide dog and never uses a white cane he's not even using his hands instead he sees with sound he makes a sharp click which bounces back off nearby objects [Music] amazingly Ben's ears Pick Up The Echoes and he can precisely locate where things are Ben is the only person in the world who sees using nothing but echolocation well I've been able to tell where walls are and where things on the ground are if I click down then I can hear them easier but if I'm walking I'm just clicking over it it's not going to get it and I can tell where desks are in the classroom and stuff like that I can hear the wall over there the couch over there I can hear the wall behind me I can hear the wall over there and the TV and the computer [Music] okay location is so good that at home is Mom aquanetta Uncle Kerry and brother Isaiah make no allowances for his blindness at all when I was a little kid I didn't really know he was blind I just knew he was my brother label him as blind you see this kid that has a whole different way of thinking it's magic and it's real look I don't think I've ever seen anyone quite as remarkable as Ben nor have I seen anyone quite as remarkable as Ben's mom and I think that's a lot of the secret to Ben's amazing talents whatever he wants to do you know he I tell him he could see aquanetta has refused to allow the loss of Ben's eyes to overshadow their lives Ben was born perfectly healthy with dark eyes like his mum [Music] but when he was two she looked into his eyes and saw something was terribly wrong in his pupil it looked like a marble or you know when you shine a light at night on a cat's eye and you know how that looks like a marble or like a light or fluorescent and that's what it looked like and within three days it turned white laughs Ben's eye was a rapidly growing malignant tumor retinoblastoma it's a rare infant eye cancer that affects only six children per million if left to its own devices it would be lethal it would kill him the disease would spread locally and and he would never be able to survive if Ben wasn't treated it would quickly spread along the optic nerve and into his brain if it's not caught very early often the treatment is to have to actually remove the eye in order to save the body from from having it spread and Ben of course had very aggressive treatment in an attempt to save his sight doctors immediately began intense chemo and radiotherapy [Music] but after 10 months there was still some scattered tumor aquanetta had to make a critical heart-rending decision I had a choice I either could remove his eyes or try to keep on with more chemo and radiation to keep the vision but the thing about it is that if you continue to try and when the cancer if the cancer got down the optic nerve they wouldn't lift so you have to make a choice and my choice was you know to remove his eyes from the first dark moments aquanetta was determined that little Ben wouldn't think of himself as blind when he woke up from the surgery and he said Mom I can't see anymore I can't see anymore and I told him I said baby yes you can see I said you can see with your hands and I put his little hands on my face I said see me and I said you can see me with your nose and I put my hand to his nose and I said you smell me so you can see me with your ears I said you hear me I said baby you can't use your eyes anymore but you still have your hands and your nose and your ears I said baby you can still see [Music] to this day aquanetta describes the world so Ben can experience life to the full Mom where are you stand right now whoa snaps where you standing you just see miles and miles of water yes Ben I mean as far as my eyes can see looking out now I do see some mountains out there and I see clouds but all I can see is water instead of the land is just water and from here it looks like a deep blue looks like a picture ever since the loss of her son's sight Aquanet has known instinctively that she would have to be strong for them one of the things I realized to do is to never let him see me be afraid never let him see me cry before I go in my room and I'll cry and go through what I need to go through and come out here never know never let him know that I was feeling sorry for him because I didn't want him to ever feel sorry for himself just keep giving him confidence courage strength and that's all I've ever done acronetta was stunned when just a year after the operation to remove his eyes her little boy began to see again sound [Music] then Underwood is on his fourth set of prosthetic eyes his mum aquinata still Treasures the ones he had as a little boy I had him in a safe place and I can't find his eyes I lost my baby's eyes oh my God since he lost his own eyes to retinal cancer Ben's had several pairs each increasing in size they ensure his eye sockets grow normally oh these might be the first set his first eyes these are my favorites and then they were the first and they looked so real and so natural it's very important to me that he looks as normal as he possibly can look because I want him to be as normal as he possibly can be Ben's eyes look natural but that'll never help him see just one year after the operation to remove his eyes Ben astonished his mum when he performed what seemed like a miracle his car seat and we're driving down the street he said Mom you see that big building out there but I said I see the big building out there do you see that big building out there you know it just kind of tripped me out I'm like you know I can see this and I know this boy can't see we see an object like a building because light is reflected from the surface into our eyes sound behaves in a similar way little Ben's ears were picking up the Moors of City traffic bouncing back from the big building that he was passing driven along in the car then heard that the side streets sounded different from the buildings he found he could form a picture of them with sound seeing with sound transformed Ben's life his mum let him play in the street because his sound pictures seemed to make him more aware of danger than his sighted friends if I would watch and see what he did and I noticed that you know cars would pass by and as soon as that car would hit the curve he'd move out of the way I thought wow you know what he hears those cars you know for blocks away so he knows before the other kids know to move because I just recognize that you know he was paying more attention Ben supersense amazed everyone but this was just the beginning when he was seven Ben discovered a new power he began to click for a couple years it was just a habit and then next you know it was making things more distinguished for me I was able to navigate easier and know what things are then learn to bounce his clicks of objects around him giving him an even clearer picture of his surroundings when he was very young I used to always tell him Ben make your sound even when you're running and playing don't forget to make your sound that's his survival technique over the years Ben has developed his clicking into such a fine art that he can skate freely he has the confidence and fluidity of movement through space other blind people can only dream of Ben can see this Gap in the parked cars turn into it and go through without touching the sides then smoothly turn again along the pavement he is entirely self-taught looking at these skills that he's developed with his own mind I mean that's got to be really amazing somewhere in there it's a little genius going on [Music] [Applause] [Music] then supersense has extended his Horizons wicking is setting free to live life to the full there's nothing his friends do that Ben won't attempt and Conquer oh yeah that's the same get beat by blind man in a video game everyone who meets Ben just can't believe their eyes guess what you had for lunch okay Dr James Rubin Ben's eye doctor has treated many blind children but Ben was way outside even his experience one day I came into the exam room and there was a boy feverishly playing his game boy he's looking at me like chipping out like is he really playing this I looked at him and I looked at the chart and I said this can't be the same boy that had lost both his eyes when he was a child it just can't be possible and I said oh yeah yeah he's blind he said well how is he playing the video game from that point on I was just bobroston ah Dr Rubin was so astonished he told the local press soon then with swimming with dolphins were photo featuring People magazine then TV news features launched him onto the Oprah Winfrey show [Applause] like Ben dolphins echolocate with clicks they also have highly evolved hearing the question is have Ben's ears become super sensitive to compensate for the loss of his eyes smooth smooth book Ben is having a hearing test does he have the hearing of a dolphin or bat picking up frequencies above or below the normal human threshold normal hearing is from 25 decibel and above and as you can see Ben has normal Hearing in both his right and his left ear Ben's ears are not super sensitive so how does he get so much information from them can Ben have trained his brain to translate the sound he hears into visual information some of the best listeners in the world are to be found in San Diego in Southern California at the U.S Navy submarine base sonar operators learn their craft now snapping shrimp snapping shrimp sounds like bacon frying in a frying pan [Music] and you have Boeing fish they sound like boing on the surface a submarine has many ways to see where it is Radio radar G s and sight once submerged these are all useless the captain and the crew are blind but they can still hear like Ben a submarine crew sees with sound using Sonar sonar is an acronym that stands for sound navigation and ranging it's basically the the art and the science of using sound to interpret how an object moves and how far the object is away from from you [Music] when an enemy submarine is trying to hide it goes into stealth mode Silent Running making no noise it is invisible to a pursuing sub to locate it the hunting crew must throw out a sound and listen for where the echo comes from [Music] just like Ben when he clicks they are actively searching out an object with a sound but when it bounces off a metallic object it does make a sound like a bell ring so you'll hear the Ping going out in a ping coming back towards you and once you hear that sound you know that there is an object out there that that you need to investigate further sonar operators undergo extensive training to interpret the Echoes to discern distance Direction size and shape remarkably Ben has trained his brain to do the same without the help of a submarine's multi-million dollar technology in water even a small noise can be heard from many miles in air Echoes are much harder to pick up they're so faint it's a miracle Ben can echolocate at all [Music] south of Sacramento between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean is the University of California Santa Barbara [Music] scientists here want to study how Ben sees and navigates with such a faint signal psychologist Dr Nicholas judici has been blind from birth and geographer Dr Jim Marston is partially sighted professor of psychology Jack Loomis is the odd man out he can see their research combines psychology and geography to help develop practical Mobility aids for the visually impaired they've invited many blind people to help them over the years but never anyone who echolocates like Ben one really impressed me was when he walked along that curved path he wasn't always right in the center but he did extraordinarily well and we didn't even tell him to try to stay in the center we just told him to walk we didn't you know that it was a curve right you did exactly perfectly Dr digici wants to find out whether he can locate a tree by clicking is that too high no my clicking is uh is definitely a click of an amateur I haven't ever done echolocation so you can hear my clicks and Ben's clicks they're really quite different defensive it reminded kind of a much less of a small Spectrum click in the human behavior lab the tests begin exactly how clearly can Ben see with echolocation first the team asked him to measure some simple objects can you tell us how big it is without touching it about this high next the researchers investigate whether the faint Echoes are enough to build a clear mental picture one of the things which two objects are the same [Music] with light it's easy but the tests are proving it's not so straightforward to see with sound sure yeah that's great that's a good job can Ben go one step further and identify the next thing he finds what's that pointing to it right yes do you know what it is no I don't know I know I smelled something just like submarine sonar Ben's clicks can detect an object but not see what it is out of context the team press on pushing Ben to the outer limits of his ability the rod is a very small Target to find and it's also curved the curved surface of the rod scatters The Click there is hardly any Echo returning to Ben's ears the audio signal is very weak can Ben see it at all it is little but just just take your best guess as to where you think it is just point at it [Music] that is very very little that we didn't know how big an object you could sense or how small an object we were that's the biggest one we were going to try and then we're going to try some really small ones and this is pretty much at the limit the researchers are very surprised if the Echoes really are that tiny Ben's skill is phenomenal the lab tests were tough but real life is about to hit Ben with the biggest challenge yet moving house aquanetta has uprooted the whole family for Ben how he plans a normal independent life for her son and at 14 the time to start learning is now one of the main reasons for moving is so that he can walk to school and to karate so on both sides of us he's got school and he's got karate he's got the grocery store he has access to everything that he basically needs when I'm at work or I'm not around so he can um you know have his independence we got the smallest backyard ever I'm serious I definitely want him to go away to college I want him to leave home like everybody else I want him to be able to take care of himself like everyone else when I get older I want to be an adventure actor writer get in the game designer there's no limit to Ben's ambition but despite his amazing talent he'll have to work hard on improving his Mobility skills to realize his dreams it's not going to be a big deal for me to hang out and to do what I got to do and be on my own you know although I am blind ain't gonna be no big deal at all where's my black shoes you said you put him in the car [Music] to a 14 year old everything is possible but life as an independent blind adult may not be as easy as he thinks Ben has a lot to learn what's that oh much more than he realizes you know we can handicap those kids by overprotecting because of our love or our fear our fear that they may get hurt today Ben's family a moving house to give him even more independence from his new home he'll be able to walk to school by himself School hasn't always been a happy experience for Ben three years ago advice to send him to a residential School for the Blind she was told it would be good for Ben to mix with other blind kids for one year before high school [Music] as soon as he arrived he knew it was a big mistake [Music] or like me or did what I did or you know and that all blind kids were like Ben I didn't like the Brian school because it's like a school full of handicapped kids I don't belong here ain't nothing wrong with me he went to the school and realized or found out that um they're not like him many of the students it turned out had multiple disabilities with so many vulnerable students around staff were naturally protective but Ben wanted to run around and play games just as he did at home so he wanted you know take his ball to school so they can do some things and they told him no Ben you can't bring that here somebody may get hurt it was so boring I was literally trying to shut in the outside life of playing playing games in the outside world because they're basically just in a little box that they've got full I watch every second every moment some staff had concerns about Ben's Reliance on echolocation alone and encouraged him to use a white cane everybody else use a little stick and so when they was walking you know they'd be like and whatever time I'll be walking I just walk Ben felt the white cane represented everything he hated about being seen as blind now he's at the local high school Ben likes to blend in as much as he can people don't really realize I'm blind when they first seen me because you know I I look normal when I act normal I'm like a normal kid but if they don't know I'm blind and then they find out they begin to act like I need help all the time and stuff like that like I don't really need it but we tell them like get off me dang I don't need your help let's move okay the house move means Ben and aquanetta must map a new route to the high school so there's a bench right here being can you hear the band it needs to listen carefully yes I hear the message on Monday morning he'll be going on his own yes I hear whatever that is that's another [ __ ] so then you know you're in your right path keep him out of danger Aquanet has found a pedestrian path away from traffic Ben would prefer a shorter route through the streets but it crosses a major road how can we go the other way that's longer no it's not yes it is no it's not yes it is yes it is okay I need you to pay attention to where you where we at I know where we are even aquanetta's safer route can't avoid cars entirely in the mornings Ben does not realize that traffic everybody's going to work to work crossing any road is potentially dangerous U.S law says traffic must stop for a person holding a white cane Ben refuses to use one I said but what you can do you can take your cane just take it with you you don't have to hold it and open it when you get there and I said Ben all the cars will stop he said Mom where did that come from the can is a handicapped device you'd like to consider yourself handicapped no I do not consider myself as a cat at all it's Monday and Ben must walk to school alone for the first time aquanata shown in the root but he wasn't paying attention Ben's confident body language is gone this morning he looks tentative and unsure he looks lost out where it is Ben has given up and goes back to the house come on come on Ben I'ma drop you off let's go I gotta go to work and what you gonna do just stop that's just what that's what it is excuse my French be 14 years old and he has an attitude but goes off to work leaving Uncle Kerry to help Ben walk to school man you can do anything you set your mind to okay well I set up my mind to that so leave me alone about all that okay nobody's bothering me about it but you got it's got to be done regardless had to hitch a ride with his uncle by refusing to use a cane and label himself as blind it seems Ben has made himself more dependent on others not less more blind than he might otherwise be [Music] a kid as a kid but see he think he knows too much we're thinking I've been here for a long time and I've got a lot to learn it's got to go through a lot now he's got to get prepared for college [Music] knows that if Ben is to reach his full potential she needs expert help for him someone who understands his world there's perhaps only one person Ben might listen to we have fence we have bushes Dan Kish is a unique Mobility instructor like Ben he lost his eyes to cancer as a baby he also discovered clicking as a child unlike Ben he's perfected a Mobility system that combines echolocation through the cane he has Ben's No Limits philosophy too taking students hiking and mountain biking the blind leading the blind is a campaigning vision natter is dropping Ben into his worst nightmare waiting at Dan kish's house is a room full of with canes very nice to meet you too so Mr Case what do you do you keep your canes as a souvenir I don't know oh my gosh it's a roll full of blind guys you guys mind if I ask were you born blind no I became blind the age of 14. at the age of 14 yeah yeah basically over four months went from like 20 20 Vision to nothing you know because I do have that kind of is making the effort to get to know Dan and his team but Ben's decided to opt out and so um I try to help students develop the ability to be able to pretty much tackle any situation I want him to experience the world the best that he can and to see the best that he can and whatever it takes to see I'm not going to test you I'm not going to I will stretch you okay just because uh I think that you're you're ready for some pretty advanced stuff when I hike for example I'm I'm using a cane in one hand and I'm using a hiking stick in the other which is actually something are you laughing okay anyway oh yeah as teenagers Hector Brian and Juan were all trained by Dan now it's Ben's turn it's their job to make it fun oh here we are today taking a little echo location we are today about to echolocate car tree just to let you know over the next two days Dan and his team will be offering the benefit of their experience to Ben Dan will show Ben Howie stays out of danger in traffic negotiates unfamiliar places even a Rocky Mountain Trail first Dan must have praise just how advanced Ben really is bushes and stuff it's what you think it's a wall a tree I like the way you focus then a lot of times when I'm working with a student I'll say look at this and they'll say look at what and you tend to be more like oh that no it's very impressive here is that in terms of strictly the use of echolocation he's he's probably one of the finest if not the finest that I've ever come across Ben is the best self-taught echolocator in the world everything he's ever been told about that is true and that's a problem I'm a pro at this Dad I'm gonna be impossible for me to be one of your students man anyone who says I have nothing to learn has severely limited themselves in terms of opportunities for doing more and being more and becoming more Dan meets Ben's challenge head on he takes him straight out of his comfort zone onto a busy main road I'll let you know now I don't play with cars so I ain't walking in the middle of this street the gulf between Ben's lack of confidence with cars and Dan's faith in his white cane nearly gets done when over [Music] go ahead oh good good grief oh my gosh goodness gracious y'all [Music] Dan has experience of traveling quickly and safely all over the world alone just the sort of Independence he wants to teach Ben he is a wannabe good traveler he is literally functioning at about or less of what I would say is capacity um would be or should be Dan chose this street because it is particularly challenging for blind Travelers if you are blind real danger is only a footstep away I knew I was going to hit that I knew it I knew it but it happens to be ever no one is surprised this sort of thing happens a lot Dan's first class echolocation skills fail him even the cane cannot save him and some encounters are potentially fatal to a blind person without a cane this is a death trap a click cannot bounce back from a hole so to Ben who rely solely on echolocation it's invisible Dan wants to show Ben that echolocation has a fatal flaw Ben cannot see the danger I don't know um something you can step over like a oh it could be like a curved train track okay something you just sort of step over it okay I would say that the best locator in the world would have no better than a 10 chance of detecting this if they didn't know it was already here take a look oh Jesus what's down there exactly I mean you only have to be killed once oh it's just a hoe it's just a hole Ben seems unwilling to accept Dan's lesson that echolocation alone won't protect him from this potential death trap when they move on to the next task their relationship hits Rock Bottom when Ben gets lost how do we get out of here well this is not a lesson to me Dan wants Ben to build a mental map of the park Ben needs to know exactly where he is in a strange place it's a daily challenge for a blind person traveling on their own it takes strategic thought and self-discipline but that's no fun and Ben is skiving [Music] after the game Dan asks Ben to walk back to the park entrance Ben sets off in completely the wrong direction [Music] you want to head back yeah the lights yeah yeah oh no kidding distracted by the basketball he's forgotten the mental map he was supposed to be building and he's lost Ben is far less self-sufficient than he could be well I'm following the sound of the cars over there so okay what do you think is over there I don't know I hear music and cars oh Jesus this is getting seriously annoying [Music] Ben has now left the park lost and creeping around in the road he's playing a dangerous game he's hiding from Dan in stealth mode refusing to click and give away his position Dan is hunting for him this is a real game of Blind Man's buff with cars I like him Hocker it's getting dark not that Dan or Ben care but they've been out here too long Dan finds Ben and uses his mental map to take him straight back to the start where Ben's mum is waiting accustomed to winning admiration for his amazing echolocation Ben hates to fail Dan understands more than anyone my heart aches for where he is trying to kind of fit himself into a world which sends a lot of mixed messages about your blindness and about how you fit in or don't fit in what does the cane mean and and you know so I I struggled with all of those things and my heart aches for where he is a fun training exercise has turned into a battle of Wheels Dan still plans a hike in the mountains tomorrow and he'll need his two trusty sticks it's one last chance for Ben to free himself from his hatred of the white cane he liked the drink a lot of juice [Music] [Applause] Ben's limited experience of blind people tells him that they are sedentary and isolated this trip has blown that prejudice apart when I met Dan kissing his friends I thought there was going to be guys boring set around act like blind people and whatnot but yeah I was cruelly mistaken so here's the joke Ben yeah there's a line of tomatoes you know the big one is in the front the little baby ones in the back shout out so the big one goes to the little one in the back and jumps on and says ketchup [Music] what are we walking through a cannon a little mini McCain is essential here for safety close to these Cliffs and rocks then he's taking his first steps towards accepting that the cane might make him more independent what we have seen is glimpses of of Ben spontaneously coming to use a cane as a tool and nothing more nor less and start to detach some of that emotional baggage from its use and from having one and from how it labels you and so forth because it's all true [Music] leave him with the hook I mean it was like okay man I see you got that stick with you now huh all kind of holes in this wood and you know he's laughing oh yeah I'm gonna take this that would have the cane doing this my cat keep falling in holes so I honestly believe in knowing my heart that Ben you know when that time comes he'll do what he needs to do I'd like to think there's been another seed planted here even if Ben besides never to take a hike in his life again there may be something that germinates from this experience I didn't put my foot dead in some wine right there right there oh I'm gonna sit on top of this big old rock too it's that's what it's there for I think it has your name on it it says [Music] Natalie pink comes on a heart-wrenching journey to find the lost orphan Tonight We join her on her quest to discover Marella story brand new at 10. up next home and away

[Music] Ben Underwood is blind [Music] both eyes were removed when he was three leaving him with no vision at all so how on Earth does Ben do this and this and even this I don't think I've ever come across somebody like that I you know he was quite unique Ben lost his eyes to cancer but unbelievably he's taught himself to see with sound if he choose to go out there and ride that bicycle let him ride the bicycle it's got to be very smart somewhere in there it's a little jeans going on I don't consider myself blind ain't nothing wrong with me [Music] Ben Underwood and his family live in Sacramento the state capital of California [Music] it's an old city with roots in the wild west but Ben and his family live in the new outlying suburbs [Music] Ben uses many common aids for the blind like speaking software for the computer so he can jot down his rap lyrics he's also written a book and does school work on a high-tech Braille writer but what's unusual what's truly unique is what he doesn't use [Music] Ben has no guide dog and never uses a white cane he's not even using his hands instead he sees with sound he makes a sharp click which bounces back off nearby objects [Music] amazingly Ben's ears Pick Up The Echoes and he can precisely locate where things are Ben is the only person in the world who sees using nothing but echolocation well I've been able to tell where walls are and where things on the ground are if I click down then I can hear them easier but if I'm walking I'm just clicking over it it's not going to get it and I can tell where desks are in the classroom and stuff like that I can hear the wall over there the couch over there I can hear the wall behind me I can hear the wall over there and the TV and the computer [Music] okay location is so good that at home is Mom aquanetta Uncle Kerry and brother Isaiah make no allowances for his blindness at all when I was a little kid I didn't really know he was blind I just knew he was my brother label him as blind you see this kid that has a whole different way of thinking it's magic and it's real look I don't think I've ever seen anyone quite as remarkable as Ben nor have I seen anyone quite as remarkable as Ben's mom and I think that's a lot of the secret to Ben's amazing talents whatever he wants to do you know he I tell him he could see aquanetta has refused to allow the loss of Ben's eyes to overshadow their lives Ben was born perfectly healthy with dark eyes like his mum [Music] but when he was two she looked into his eyes and saw something was terribly wrong in his pupil it looked like a marble or you know when you shine a light at night on a cat's eye and you know how that looks like a marble or like a light or fluorescent and that's what it looked like and within three days it turned white laughs Ben's eye was a rapidly growing malignant tumor retinoblastoma it's a rare infant eye cancer that affects only six children per million if left to its own devices it would be lethal it would kill him the disease would spread locally and and he would never be able to survive if Ben wasn't treated it would quickly spread along the optic nerve and into his brain if it's not caught very early often the treatment is to have to actually remove the eye in order to save the body from from having it spread and Ben of course had very aggressive treatment in an attempt to save his sight doctors immediately began intense chemo and radiotherapy [Music] but after 10 months there was still some scattered tumor aquanetta had to make a critical heart-rending decision I had a choice I either could remove his eyes or try to keep on with more chemo and radiation to keep the vision but the thing about it is that if you continue to try and when the cancer if the cancer got down the optic nerve they wouldn't lift so you have to make a choice and my choice was you know to remove his eyes from the first dark moments aquanetta was determined that little Ben wouldn't think of himself as blind when he woke up from the surgery and he said Mom I can't see anymore I can't see anymore and I told him I said baby yes you can see I said you can see with your hands and I put his little hands on my face I said see me and I said you can see me with your nose and I put my hand to his nose and I said you smell me so you can see me with your ears I said you hear me I said baby you can't use your eyes anymore but you still have your hands and your nose and your ears I said baby you can still see [Music] to this day aquanetta describes the world so Ben can experience life to the full Mom where are you stand right now whoa snaps where you standing you just see miles and miles of water yes Ben I mean as far as my eyes can see looking out now I do see some mountains out there and I see clouds but all I can see is water instead of the land is just water and from here it looks like a deep blue looks like a picture ever since the loss of her son's sight Aquanet has known instinctively that she would have to be strong for them one of the things I realized to do is to never let him see me be afraid never let him see me cry before I go in my room and I'll cry and go through what I need to go through and come out here never know never let him know that I was feeling sorry for him because I didn't want him to ever feel sorry for himself just keep giving him confidence courage strength and that's all I've ever done acronetta was stunned when just a year after the operation to remove his eyes her little boy began to see again sound [Music] then Underwood is on his fourth set of prosthetic eyes his mum aquinata still Treasures the ones he had as a little boy I had him in a safe place and I can't find his eyes I lost my baby's eyes oh my God since he lost his own eyes to retinal cancer Ben's had several pairs each increasing in size they ensure his eye sockets grow normally oh these might be the first set his first eyes these are my favorites and then they were the first and they looked so real and so natural it's very important to me that he looks as normal as he possibly can look because I want him to be as normal as he possibly can be Ben's eyes look natural but that'll never help him see just one year after the operation to remove his eyes Ben astonished his mum when he performed what seemed like a miracle his car seat and we're driving down the street he said Mom you see that big building out there but I said I see the big building out there do you see that big building out there you know it just kind of tripped me out I'm like you know I can see this and I know this boy can't see we see an object like a building because light is reflected from the surface into our eyes sound behaves in a similar way little Ben's ears were picking up the Moors of City traffic bouncing back from the big building that he was passing driven along in the car then heard that the side streets sounded different from the buildings he found he could form a picture of them with sound seeing with sound transformed Ben's life his mum let him play in the street because his sound pictures seemed to make him more aware of danger than his sighted friends if I would watch and see what he did and I noticed that you know cars would pass by and as soon as that car would hit the curve he'd move out of the way I thought wow you know what he hears those cars you know for blocks away so he knows before the other kids know to move because I just recognize that you know he was paying more attention Ben supersense amazed everyone but this was just the beginning when he was seven Ben discovered a new power he began to click for a couple years it was just a habit and then next you know it was making things more distinguished for me I was able to navigate easier and know what things are then learn to bounce his clicks of objects around him giving him an even clearer picture of his surroundings when he was very young I used to always tell him Ben make your sound even when you're running and playing don't forget to make your sound that's his survival technique over the years Ben has developed his clicking into such a fine art that he can skate freely he has the confidence and fluidity of movement through space other blind people can only dream of Ben can see this Gap in the parked cars turn into it and go through without touching the sides then smoothly turn again along the pavement he is entirely self-taught looking at these skills that he's developed with his own mind I mean that's got to be really amazing somewhere in there it's a little genius going on [Music] [Applause] [Music] then supersense has extended his Horizons wicking is setting free to live life to the full there's nothing his friends do that Ben won't attempt and Conquer oh yeah that's the same get beat by blind man in a video game everyone who meets Ben just can't believe their eyes guess what you had for lunch okay Dr James Rubin Ben's eye doctor has treated many blind children but Ben was way outside even his experience one day I came into the exam room and there was a boy feverishly playing his game boy he's looking at me like chipping out like is he really playing this I looked at him and I looked at the chart and I said this can't be the same boy that had lost both his eyes when he was a child it just can't be possible and I said oh yeah yeah he's blind he said well how is he playing the video game from that point on I was just bobroston ah Dr Rubin was so astonished he told the local press soon then with swimming with dolphins were photo featuring People magazine then TV news features launched him onto the Oprah Winfrey show [Applause] like Ben dolphins echolocate with clicks they also have highly evolved hearing the question is have Ben's ears become super sensitive to compensate for the loss of his eyes smooth smooth book Ben is having a hearing test does he have the hearing of a dolphin or bat picking up frequencies above or below the normal human threshold normal hearing is from 25 decibel and above and as you can see Ben has normal Hearing in both his right and his left ear Ben's ears are not super sensitive so how does he get so much information from them can Ben have trained his brain to translate the sound he hears into visual information some of the best listeners in the world are to be found in San Diego in Southern California at the U.S Navy submarine base sonar operators learn their craft now snapping shrimp snapping shrimp sounds like bacon frying in a frying pan [Music] and you have Boeing fish they sound like boing on the surface a submarine has many ways to see where it is Radio radar G s and sight once submerged these are all useless the captain and the crew are blind but they can still hear like Ben a submarine crew sees with sound using Sonar sonar is an acronym that stands for sound navigation and ranging it's basically the the art and the science of using sound to interpret how an object moves and how far the object is away from from you [Music] when an enemy submarine is trying to hide it goes into stealth mode Silent Running making no noise it is invisible to a pursuing sub to locate it the hunting crew must throw out a sound and listen for where the echo comes from [Music] just like Ben when he clicks they are actively searching out an object with a sound but when it bounces off a metallic object it does make a sound like a bell ring so you'll hear the Ping going out in a ping coming back towards you and once you hear that sound you know that there is an object out there that that you need to investigate further sonar operators undergo extensive training to interpret the Echoes to discern distance Direction size and shape remarkably Ben has trained his brain to do the same without the help of a submarine's multi-million dollar technology in water even a small noise can be heard from many miles in air Echoes are much harder to pick up they're so faint it's a miracle Ben can echolocate at all [Music] south of Sacramento between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean is the University of California Santa Barbara [Music] scientists here want to study how Ben sees and navigates with such a faint signal psychologist Dr Nicholas judici has been blind from birth and geographer Dr Jim Marston is partially sighted professor of psychology Jack Loomis is the odd man out he can see their research combines psychology and geography to help develop practical Mobility aids for the visually impaired they've invited many blind people to help them over the years but never anyone who echolocates like Ben one really impressed me was when he walked along that curved path he wasn't always right in the center but he did extraordinarily well and we didn't even tell him to try to stay in the center we just told him to walk we didn't you know that it was a curve right you did exactly perfectly Dr digici wants to find out whether he can locate a tree by clicking is that too high no my clicking is uh is definitely a click of an amateur I haven't ever done echolocation so you can hear my clicks and Ben's clicks they're really quite different defensive it reminded kind of a much less of a small Spectrum click in the human behavior lab the tests begin exactly how clearly can Ben see with echolocation first the team asked him to measure some simple objects can you tell us how big it is without touching it about this high next the researchers investigate whether the faint Echoes are enough to build a clear mental picture one of the things which two objects are the same [Music] with light it's easy but the tests are proving it's not so straightforward to see with sound sure yeah that's great that's a good job can Ben go one step further and identify the next thing he finds what's that pointing to it right yes do you know what it is no I don't know I know I smelled something just like submarine sonar Ben's clicks can detect an object but not see what it is out of context the team press on pushing Ben to the outer limits of his ability the rod is a very small Target to find and it's also curved the curved surface of the rod scatters The Click there is hardly any Echo returning to Ben's ears the audio signal is very weak can Ben see it at all it is little but just just take your best guess as to where you think it is just point at it [Music] that is very very little that we didn't know how big an object you could sense or how small an object we were that's the biggest one we were going to try and then we're going to try some really small ones and this is pretty much at the limit the researchers are very surprised if the Echoes really are that tiny Ben's skill is phenomenal the lab tests were tough but real life is about to hit Ben with the biggest challenge yet moving house aquanetta has uprooted the whole family for Ben how he plans a normal independent life for her son and at 14 the time to start learning is now one of the main reasons for moving is so that he can walk to school and to karate so on both sides of us he's got school and he's got karate he's got the grocery store he has access to everything that he basically needs when I'm at work or I'm not around so he can um you know have his independence we got the smallest backyard ever I'm serious I definitely want him to go away to college I want him to leave home like everybody else I want him to be able to take care of himself like everyone else when I get older I want to be an adventure actor writer get in the game designer there's no limit to Ben's ambition but despite his amazing talent he'll have to work hard on improving his Mobility skills to realize his dreams it's not going to be a big deal for me to hang out and to do what I got to do and be on my own you know although I am blind ain't gonna be no big deal at all where's my black shoes you said you put him in the car [Music] to a 14 year old everything is possible but life as an independent blind adult may not be as easy as he thinks Ben has a lot to learn what's that oh much more than he realizes you know we can handicap those kids by overprotecting because of our love or our fear our fear that they may get hurt today Ben's family a moving house to give him even more independence from his new home he'll be able to walk to school by himself School hasn't always been a happy experience for Ben three years ago advice to send him to a residential School for the Blind she was told it would be good for Ben to mix with other blind kids for one year before high school [Music] as soon as he arrived he knew it was a big mistake [Music] or like me or did what I did or you know and that all blind kids were like Ben I didn't like the Brian school because it's like a school full of handicapped kids I don't belong here ain't nothing wrong with me he went to the school and realized or found out that um they're not like him many of the students it turned out had multiple disabilities with so many vulnerable students around staff were naturally protective but Ben wanted to run around and play games just as he did at home so he wanted you know take his ball to school so they can do some things and they told him no Ben you can't bring that here somebody may get hurt it was so boring I was literally trying to shut in the outside life of playing playing games in the outside world because they're basically just in a little box that they've got full I watch every second every moment some staff had concerns about Ben's Reliance on echolocation alone and encouraged him to use a white cane everybody else use a little stick and so when they was walking you know they'd be like and whatever time I'll be walking I just walk Ben felt the white cane represented everything he hated about being seen as blind now he's at the local high school Ben likes to blend in as much as he can people don't really realize I'm blind when they first seen me because you know I I look normal when I act normal I'm like a normal kid but if they don't know I'm blind and then they find out they begin to act like I need help all the time and stuff like that like I don't really need it but we tell them like get off me dang I don't need your help let's move okay the house move means Ben and aquanetta must map a new route to the high school so there's a bench right here being can you hear the band it needs to listen carefully yes I hear the message on Monday morning he'll be going on his own yes I hear whatever that is that's another [ __ ] so then you know you're in your right path keep him out of danger Aquanet has found a pedestrian path away from traffic Ben would prefer a shorter route through the streets but it crosses a major road how can we go the other way that's longer no it's not yes it is no it's not yes it is yes it is okay I need you to pay attention to where you where we at I know where we are even aquanetta's safer route can't avoid cars entirely in the mornings Ben does not realize that traffic everybody's going to work to work crossing any road is potentially dangerous U.S law says traffic must stop for a person holding a white cane Ben refuses to use one I said but what you can do you can take your cane just take it with you you don't have to hold it and open it when you get there and I said Ben all the cars will stop he said Mom where did that come from the can is a handicapped device you'd like to consider yourself handicapped no I do not consider myself as a cat at all it's Monday and Ben must walk to school alone for the first time aquanata shown in the root but he wasn't paying attention Ben's confident body language is gone this morning he looks tentative and unsure he looks lost out where it is Ben has given up and goes back to the house come on come on Ben I'ma drop you off let's go I gotta go to work and what you gonna do just stop that's just what that's what it is excuse my French be 14 years old and he has an attitude but goes off to work leaving Uncle Kerry to help Ben walk to school man you can do anything you set your mind to okay well I set up my mind to that so leave me alone about all that okay nobody's bothering me about it but you got it's got to be done regardless had to hitch a ride with his uncle by refusing to use a cane and label himself as blind it seems Ben has made himself more dependent on others not less more blind than he might otherwise be [Music] a kid as a kid but see he think he knows too much we're thinking I've been here for a long time and I've got a lot to learn it's got to go through a lot now he's got to get prepared for college [Music] knows that if Ben is to reach his full potential she needs expert help for him someone who understands his world there's perhaps only one person Ben might listen to we have fence we have bushes Dan Kish is a unique Mobility instructor like Ben he lost his eyes to cancer as a baby he also discovered clicking as a child unlike Ben he's perfected a Mobility system that combines echolocation through the cane he has Ben's No Limits philosophy too taking students hiking and mountain biking the blind leading the blind is a campaigning vision natter is dropping Ben into his worst nightmare waiting at Dan kish's house is a room full of with canes very nice to meet you too so Mr Case what do you do you keep your canes as a souvenir I don't know oh my gosh it's a roll full of blind guys you guys mind if I ask were you born blind no I became blind the age of 14. at the age of 14 yeah yeah basically over four months went from like 20 20 Vision to nothing you know because I do have that kind of is making the effort to get to know Dan and his team but Ben's decided to opt out and so um I try to help students develop the ability to be able to pretty much tackle any situation I want him to experience the world the best that he can and to see the best that he can and whatever it takes to see I'm not going to test you I'm not going to I will stretch you okay just because uh I think that you're you're ready for some pretty advanced stuff when I hike for example I'm I'm using a cane in one hand and I'm using a hiking stick in the other which is actually something are you laughing okay anyway oh yeah as teenagers Hector Brian and Juan were all trained by Dan now it's Ben's turn it's their job to make it fun oh here we are today taking a little echo location we are today about to echolocate car tree just to let you know over the next two days Dan and his team will be offering the benefit of their experience to Ben Dan will show Ben Howie stays out of danger in traffic negotiates unfamiliar places even a Rocky Mountain Trail first Dan must have praise just how advanced Ben really is bushes and stuff it's what you think it's a wall a tree I like the way you focus then a lot of times when I'm working with a student I'll say look at this and they'll say look at what and you tend to be more like oh that no it's very impressive here is that in terms of strictly the use of echolocation he's he's probably one of the finest if not the finest that I've ever come across Ben is the best self-taught echolocator in the world everything he's ever been told about that is true and that's a problem I'm a pro at this Dad I'm gonna be impossible for me to be one of your students man anyone who says I have nothing to learn has severely limited themselves in terms of opportunities for doing more and being more and becoming more Dan meets Ben's challenge head on he takes him straight out of his comfort zone onto a busy main road I'll let you know now I don't play with cars so I ain't walking in the middle of this street the gulf between Ben's lack of confidence with cars and Dan's faith in his white cane nearly gets done when over [Music] go ahead oh good good grief oh my gosh goodness gracious y'all [Music] Dan has experience of traveling quickly and safely all over the world alone just the sort of Independence he wants to teach Ben he is a wannabe good traveler he is literally functioning at about or less of what I would say is capacity um would be or should be Dan chose this street because it is particularly challenging for blind Travelers if you are blind real danger is only a footstep away I knew I was going to hit that I knew it I knew it but it happens to be ever no one is surprised this sort of thing happens a lot Dan's first class echolocation skills fail him even the cane cannot save him and some encounters are potentially fatal to a blind person without a cane this is a death trap a click cannot bounce back from a hole so to Ben who rely solely on echolocation it's invisible Dan wants to show Ben that echolocation has a fatal flaw Ben cannot see the danger I don't know um something you can step over like a oh it could be like a curved train track okay something you just sort of step over it okay I would say that the best locator in the world would have no better than a 10 chance of detecting this if they didn't know it was already here take a look oh Jesus what's down there exactly I mean you only have to be killed once oh it's just a hoe it's just a hole Ben seems unwilling to accept Dan's lesson that echolocation alone won't protect him from this potential death trap when they move on to the next task their relationship hits Rock Bottom when Ben gets lost how do we get out of here well this is not a lesson to me Dan wants Ben to build a mental map of the park Ben needs to know exactly where he is in a strange place it's a daily challenge for a blind person traveling on their own it takes strategic thought and self-discipline but that's no fun and Ben is skiving [Music] after the game Dan asks Ben to walk back to the park entrance Ben sets off in completely the wrong direction [Music] you want to head back yeah the lights yeah yeah oh no kidding distracted by the basketball he's forgotten the mental map he was supposed to be building and he's lost Ben is far less self-sufficient than he could be well I'm following the sound of the cars over there so okay what do you think is over there I don't know I hear music and cars oh Jesus this is getting seriously annoying [Music] Ben has now left the park lost and creeping around in the road he's playing a dangerous game he's hiding from Dan in stealth mode refusing to click and give away his position Dan is hunting for him this is a real game of Blind Man's buff with cars I like him Hocker it's getting dark not that Dan or Ben care but they've been out here too long Dan finds Ben and uses his mental map to take him straight back to the start where Ben's mum is waiting accustomed to winning admiration for his amazing echolocation Ben hates to fail Dan understands more than anyone my heart aches for where he is trying to kind of fit himself into a world which sends a lot of mixed messages about your blindness and about how you fit in or don't fit in what does the cane mean and and you know so I I struggled with all of those things and my heart aches for where he is a fun training exercise has turned into a battle of Wheels Dan still plans a hike in the mountains tomorrow and he'll need his two trusty sticks it's one last chance for Ben to free himself from his hatred of the white cane he liked the drink a lot of juice [Music] [Applause] Ben's limited experience of blind people tells him that they are sedentary and isolated this trip has blown that prejudice apart when I met Dan kissing his friends I thought there was going to be guys boring set around act like blind people and whatnot but yeah I was cruelly mistaken so here's the joke Ben yeah there's a line of tomatoes you know the big one is in the front the little baby ones in the back shout out so the big one goes to the little one in the back and jumps on and says ketchup [Music] what are we walking through a cannon a little mini McCain is essential here for safety close to these Cliffs and rocks then he's taking his first steps towards accepting that the cane might make him more independent what we have seen is glimpses of of Ben spontaneously coming to use a cane as a tool and nothing more nor less and start to detach some of that emotional baggage from its use and from having one and from how it labels you and so forth because it's all true [Music] leave him with the hook I mean it was like okay man I see you got that stick with you now huh all kind of holes in this wood and you know he's laughing oh yeah I'm gonna take this that would have the cane doing this my cat keep falling in holes so I honestly believe in knowing my heart that Ben you know when that time comes he'll do what he needs to do I'd like to think there's been another seed planted here even if Ben besides never to take a hike in his life again there may be something that germinates from this experience I didn't put my foot dead in some wine right there right there oh I'm gonna sit on top of this big old rock too it's that's what it's there for I think it has your name on it it says [Music] Natalie pink comes on a heart-wrenching journey to find the lost orphan Tonight We join her on her quest to discover Marella story brand new at 10. up next home and away

Transcript for:Ben Underwood: Inspiring Journey of Echo Vision

Transcript for:
Ben Underwood: Inspiring Journey of Echo Vision