Blind teens connect with dolphins in Florida program

From the Miami Herald:

Terron Ponder squealed with laughter as he reached out and touched a dolphin -- a new and exciting experience for anyone, but especially for him.

The 16-year-old was among 20 visually impaired teens and young adults who were treated to a session at Miami Seaquarium's Dolphin Encounter July 29.

``The skin feels like a floatie'' -- a pool toy, Terron said, eagerly feeling the mammal's wet skin for the first time.

Other youths chimed in with their opinions of the sensation: More like rubber or wet hotdogs -- or even jelly, they opined, giggling and touching.

``They can `see' through their hands,'' Virginia Jacko, president and CEO of Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, said of Terron and her other young charges. ``This is an experience that doesn't require eyesight.''

The 14- to 20 year-olds, all legally blind and many with additional special needs, came to Dolphin Harbor as part of Miami Lighthouse's transition program, which is geared toward young adults in the process of switching from high school to the workplace, or a center for higher education.

The program aims to help the students gain a sense of empowerment, as well as independent skills necessary to have a mainstream job and function alone.

``I like to say that a blind person can do anything a sighted person can do, they just have to learn how to do it in a different way,'' Jacko said. ``This is one of those special opportunities.''

While sighted people would be able to see the advancing dolphins' Hollywood smiles from a mile away, these teens heard the mammals' clicks and whistles grow louder and felt the lapping water's changing vibrations to identify the dolphins' imminent approach.

The visually impaired teens also were able to observe certain details that most sighted people fail to pick up on.

As mammals, dolphins have hair when they are young that they shed by adulthood. When mobility helper Stephanie Davis guided Frankie Young's hands over Jupiter the dolphin's elongated rostrum, Frankie noticed indentations in Jupiter's snout where the whiskers used to be.

``It feels like he has pimples,'' said Frankie, 16. ``Maybe he's a teenager.''

Andrew Hertz, executive vice president and general manager of Miami Seaquarium, said that the dolphins and participants had some similarities: The visually impaired use heightened senses to make up for their lack of sight. And although dolphins have 20-20 vision, they use sound to ``see'' their surroundings.

With innate sonar, dolphins can sense what is around them by using bouncing echoes.

As the teens in the transition program predominantly come from financially disadvantaged families, Jacko said she was grateful that the youths and 10 helpers were able to participate -- for the third time -- in a Seaquarium feature that usually costs $139 per person.

``This is the opportunity of a lifetime,'' she said.