I’ve got an enduring interest in the use of technology to overcome deficiencies of the human form (as regular readers will doubtless already be aware), but I’m equally fascinated by the ways that the same problems can be overcome with what you might describe as the "vanilla hardware configuration" – in other words, working around the problem without any external assistance. The human body and brain are astonishingly adaptable – witness Ben Underwood, a blind teenager who has taught himself to "see" using echolocation.