The Blind Can See

The other day, I was asked to put on a record on the radio for a blind student on campus. He has his own radio show, however can't operate the equipment in the studio. He makes his own CD's, and every week someone plays them for him. Being the good and responsible music director that I am, I agreed, expecting the typical Union mix; 20 or so tracks of Dave Mathews and Fallout Boy. I put the cd on to find that it was one track that was about 61 minutes long. I didn't think much of it, and was on my way out of the studio when I heard, to my surprise, a delightful and fresh hip hop beat fill the room. Soon, a voice on the cd rose over the beat, stating something about 89.7 WRUC. Clearly, this was not pulled from a previously recorded hip hop album. I stuck around for 15 minutes, to find original music that sounded 100% professional, complete with voice-overs, scratching and smooth transitions. For a full 61 minutes. I was astonished.
In our exploration of sound, those with sight cannot begin to approach the level of understanding that the blind possess. Refocusing all the neurological energy that we use on sight into sound must produce a zen-like understanding of the medium. We see blindness as a handicap...however, is it more a specialization than a handicap? Am I the handicapped one when it comes to sound?