Connecting Dots: A Blind Life

By Joshua A. Miele

Book Overview

In this extraordinary memoir, a scientist who became blind at a young age shares how he navigates the world around him, and how his contributions led to cutting-edge work in accessibility--packed with humor, adventure, and insights on life and disability.

At the age of four, Joshua Miele was blinded and badly burned when a neighbor poured sulfuric acid over his head. It could have ended his life, but instead, Miele--naturally curious, and a born problem solver--not only recovered, but thrived. Throughout his life, Miele has found increasingly inventive ways to succeed in a world built for the sighted, and to help others to do the same. At first reluctant to even think of himself as blind, he eventually embraced his blindness and became a committed advocate for disability and accessibility. Along the way, he grappled with drugs and addiction, played bass in a rock band, worked for NASA, became a guerilla activist, and married the love of his life and had two children. He chronicles the evolution of a number of revolutionary accessible technologies and his role in shaping them, including screen readers, tactile maps, and audio description.

Connecting Dots delivers a captivating first-person perspective on blindness and disability as incisive as it is entertaining, and ultimately triumphant. Joshua Miele's story is one of one ordinary blind life with an indelible impact.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030683278X
• ISBN13: 9780306832789
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"