Blind gamer Terry Garrett plays it by ear
The next time you’re bitching about the difficulty of your latest videogame acquisition, let me simultaneously humble and inspire you with the reminder that 23-year old college student Terry Garrett, who lost his sight at the age of 10, can navigate Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus with near-perfect precision by sound alone. Garret uses “sound landmarks,” like the whisper of voices, the pounding of a hammer or the shuffle of footsteps, along with quick save, to play through games I never beat even with cheat codes.
He’s currently working his way through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and through a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Colorado, with plans to become the first blind astronaut.
-kristen spencer
