Connecting Dots: A Blind Life by Joshua A. Miele

A memoir that is "several wonderful books wrapped into one" by a scientist who became blind at a young age—how he navigates his experience and channels his genius into decades of cutting edge work in accessibility—packed with humor, adventure, and insights on life and disability. (A.J. Jacobs, author of The Know It All and The Year of Living Constitutionally) At the age of four, Joshua Miele was blinded and badly burned when a delusional neighbor poured sulfuric acid over his head in a crime that shocked New York. It could have ended his life, but, instead, Miele—naturally curious and a born problem solver—not only recovered but thrived, finding increasingly inventive ways to succeed in a world built for the sighted. 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 gueril