Audible ball is a slam-dunk for the blind

Students wire basketball and backboard for sound

By Robert Roy Britt

Senior writer

Updated: 8:48 p.m. ET May 27, 2005

A new high-tech system puts sound in a bouncing ball and brings hoop dreams to the blind.

The setup was devised by three Johns Hopkins University engineering undergraduates. Two of them — Alissa Burkholder and Ashanna Randall — are starters on the women's basketball team. Steve Garber, a mechanical engineering major, rounded out the design team.

A sound emitter is strategically placed in the backboard, too.

"There are people all over the country who are waiting for something like this," said Mike Bullis, business services development manager for Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, a group that aids the visually impaired and sponsored the research project. "There are blind athletes who want an audible ball. And there are school-age children who can benefit from the hand coordination that comes from playing ball. Right now, blind kids can play with a ball, but only if someone is there to find it if it rolls away."

Bullis should know. He's blind. He said he can catch passes and sink buckets two out of three times with the adapted system. While those might not have been three-pointers, such a shooting percentage from any spot on the floor would be the envy of many sighted hoopsters.