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The Documentary: Batman and Ethan

Batman and Ethan

15/03/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Batman and Ethan

The 10-year-old blind boy and gifted musician, learning echolocation from Daniel Kish

Follow Ethan, a 10-year-old blind musician as he learns echolocation from Daniel Kish, a method used for navigating around objects using sound.

Ethan was born blind. He is now a 10-year-old boy who collects sounds on his 51 dictaphones, composes music, and performs on stage in concerts. Until now he has been home-schooled, but last year he was offered a place at St Mary's Music School in Scotland - one of the best in the country. The problem is he struggles to get around.

This is where Batman comes in. His real name is Daniel Kish and like Ethan he is blind. He is a master of echolocation. He makes clicking noises - like a bat - to build a picture of the world around him. Neuroscientists have done experiments on him and found that he has managed to activate the visual part of his brain. He has taught people all over the world to "see through sound" and he is so good at it that he goes hiking, cycling and rock-climbing.

"Batman" (Daniel) comes to Scotland to spend 10 days with Ethan, to teach him echolocation and help him prepare for his new school. The BBC's Helena Merriman follows Ethan's progress as he learns from Daniel Kish. Listeners are introduced to the principles of echolocation, they follow Ethan practising at home, on the train and at his new school. They are brought into Ethan's world, through music composed specially by Ethan, and they are with him on his birthday, on long walks in the Scottish hills, right through to his experience at school.

We follow Ethan up to his final day of term to find out how he has done, and see how he copes with his biggest challenge yet - playing an accordion solo with the orchestra at the school concert. 

*This programme was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4*

(Photo: Ethan (left) and (right) Daniel Kish)

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