"Fifty-seven-year-old Josh Miele is a blind scientist, an inventor of adaptive technology and a 2021 MacArthur Foundation 'genius' fellow. In the 1990s, as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) - before the invention of GPS - Miele could be seen around town climbing up street signs and feeling the embossed letters to work out which street he was on when travelling in unfamiliar areas, all to the surprise of bystanders."
"As he did so, he was mortified to hear his mother berating the museum staff for trying to deprive him of the hands-on experience. It was one of many instances of his mother making him "practise breaking the rules, thinking about when they needed to be broken and practising being visible, all of which are essential for me now", says Miele, a polymath whose pursuits have included physics and space-science studies, working on a Mars probe and doctoral work on the psychology of sound perception."
Josh Miele is a 57-year-old blind scientist, adaptive-technology inventor, and 2021 MacArthur Foundation fellow. He navigated unfamiliar streets before GPS by climbing street signs and reading embossed letters, developing tactile problem-solving strategies. His mother encouraged hands-on exploration, rule-breaking, and visibility, which shaped his approach to accessibility. He trained in physics and space science, worked on a Mars probe, and pursued doctoral research on sound perception. He builds a career designing accessible technology and maintains a compact woodworking studio in Berkeley where he carves objects to clear his mind. He lost his sight after an acid attack at age four.
Read at Nature
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