Inez De Florio-Hansen

Inez De Florio, born blind, tells us the moving, fascinating, and true story of her recovery from blindness at the age of 48 and how she coped with learning to see. Eyesight seems to be completely effortless for us, but for persons blind since birth these processes of adaptation are overwhelmingly demanding. For that reason, more than half of the patients commit suicide within the first years after successful surgery. De Florio, whose late recovery from blindness did not stop her from making a brilliant academic career as a professor in didactics, foreign languages, and intercultural communication, not only reveals astounding insights into the world of the visually impaired and their interactions with sighted people. Based on newest scientific findings, she also offers an illuminating report on how to learn to see and how to appreciate visual perception without over-emphasizing the importance of eyesight.

Prof. Dr. Inez De Florio taught foreign languages and intercultural communication in the department of Humanities of Kassel University, Germany.

In recent years, De Florio has engaged in qualitative and quantitative empirical research about questions of educational psychology focusing on the role of digitization, AI, and robotics in teaching and learning.

“In her science-oriented book Prof. Dr. Inez De Florio provides first-hand insight into the enormous efforts that are necessary when someone starts learning to see at an advanced age after successful surgery. Her personal experience gives her the opportunity to evaluate the importance of sight in comparison to the other senses based on newer scientific studies and biographical narratives. She demonstrates that touch, the first sense humans acquire, but also hearing, smell, and taste are not sufficiently evaluated, and calls on the readers to attach more importance to them.”—Dr. habil. Bernd Klewitz