Sight and sound

Just sometimes a radio programme comes along that really changes the way you hear — and interpret — the everyday sounds around you.

Just sometimes a radio programme comes along that really changes the way you hear — and interpret — the everyday sounds around you. With perfect timing, on New Year’s Day, Joe Acheson’s programme for the BBC World Service began the year with a startling, pin-drop-sharp lesson on how to listen. Sound of Snow and Ice took us to Finland in midwinter, to the Jyväskylä School for the Visually Impaired. The temperature in my study seemed to plummet as an extraordinary rasping noise echoed through the room, the sound of boots crunching on deep, deep snow. At Jyväskylä, sounds are crucial, for the school uses them to teach the children who have been born blind or with low vision how to see the world through what they can hear.