Almost every product that you interact with has been designed to have a particular look, but also a particular sound. Think of the pop of a Pringles can or the snap of a Snapple cap. When companies need to design the sound of their products, they turn to a sensory consultant, like Hoby Wedler.
Wedler lives in Petaluma and has been blind since birth.
"I've not had vision ever, but I've used my other four senses a lot to just sort of engage and understand the world around me," Wedler says. "I have a sonic memory and I memorize sounds and how things sound when I'm around them."
He invited Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett from the podcast, The World According to Sound, to his house for a sonic demonstration of the kinds of sounds that he spends hours thinking about.
If you’ve got a chance, when you hit that play button above, you should really listen to this story with headphones.
This story is part of a series by Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett of the podcast The World According to Sound. They’re teaming up with the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco to help us reimagine California in the rich ways blind people experience it every day. The project has additional support from California Humanities.