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by SunghoYahng 809 days ago
If blind people can do things primarily with their sense of hearing, then I believe I can learn to do the same with practice. This would allow me to work with both my visual and auditory senses. Alternatively, I could switch between working with my sight and hearing during different sessions, giving each sense a break. It sounds like a wonderful productivity hack. What do you think of this idea? I wonder if there are any blind training services for non-blind people.
2 comments

> I wonder if there are any blind training services for non-blind people.

Blind people generally get mobility (i.e., navigating with a cane) and technology accessibility (i.e., using your phone and computer with screenreaders) training through social programs that are for blind people, but the individual teachers often offer private tutoring beyond the scope of those programs. Presumably some of those instructors are also willing to teach sighted people. If you call around, I bet you'll find one.

I had the same thought and learned how to comprehend TTS at very high speeds (~5x plus or minus a bit depending on how alert or tired I am.) I recommend it, it allows me to "read" for longer/more than my normal fatigue limit would permit.
Thanks for sharing your case. But what do you do with the parts you miss while listening to TTS? Do you just read fiction or light reading that you don't mind missing?
My headphones have a button which I mapped to seek backwards 10 seconds. Sometimes I still can't make something out (often because TTS is butchering the pronunciation) and have to read it visually. I read both fiction and nonfiction like this. Books, news and technical articles, etc. I turn it off when I run into things like tables of numbers since that just turns into a wall of noise for me.