Hearing is Believing: The blind writer describes his aurally-based awareness.

“Those of us who are born blind discover, as we grow up, that we can tell a
great deal about our environment. Usually at about seven or eight years
old we begin to put this knowledge into practice. When we tell sighted
people about this skill they usually misunderstand and often think we
possess some remnant of sight. When I was a small child I was guided by
my mother, my aunts, and occasionally my dad, who was less comfortable
with the task. Before long I began to notice that I could tell certain things. I
could tell when I was passing a car, when there was an open space near
me, when I was heading straight for a wall, or when there was a big
obstacle like a truck in my path—and I could tell all these things without
knowing how.” bent