https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-blind-deaf-man-seei/209779868/

Blind, deaf man “seeing” city with his fingertips 

Visits Vieux Carre, Finds Landmarks “Interesting“

By Ellen Middlebrook

Thirty-one-year-old Tad Chapman of Redfield, South Dakota, is taking in the sights and sounds of New Orleans with his fingertips. 

The fact that he has been blind and deaf since he was four years old has not hindered him in “seeing” the Vieux Carre, churches, libraries, and museums of the city which he finds “very interesting“.

By day, he visits historical spots with his parents, Dr. and Mrs. W. S. Chapman and by night he records all his experiences in a diary that comprises a running story of his life.

 Finds City Interesting

“New Orleans is a very interesting city,“ he said in a clearly enunciated monotone. “I enjoyed my visit to the Southern Regional Laboratory because it is a place where people are trying new experiments for the future. It was fun and a privilege.”

Tad converses easily with anyone by placing his thumb on the lips and he is the first deaf and blind person in the United States, his parents said, to learn to communicate with people through their normal speech instead of a system of spelling words with a code. 

“When he goes on a sightseeing tour he touches everything and ask questions about them“, said Mrs. J. B. Davies, 3888 Colbert, who accompanied the family on their rounds Monday. “When we visited the Cabildo, we were wondering what the date of the Battle of New Orleans was until Mrs. Chapman asked Tad and he told us.”

 Remembers Everything

“Oh yes, he remembers everything,” said Mrs. Chapman as she exhibited his diary, it was full of descriptions, names, numbers, and statistics. 

He demonstrated how he writes his notes first on his braille machine, then types them on his typewriter. He keeps busy every minute of the day – either by typing, reading, weaving attractive woolen rugs, or playing the piano. 

“The sound of music goes up my arms and sings to me more beautifully than I can sing,” he explained. His mother added that when he is at home, he plays the piano about two hours each day because it “relaxes him and he enjoys it.”

Tad lost his sight and hearing when he had cerebral meningitis at the age of four. When he recuperated, he had forgotten how to talk and his parents first communicated with him by making signs with his hands. 

 A year later, he was enrolled in the Sioux Falls South Dakota School for the Deaf, and because his father insisted, his teachers bypassed finger-spelling, and from the start taught him to understand their speech. 

Learns Words Quickly 

“I believed that if Helen Keller had learned to speak at the age of 13 that a child could learn to speak too, “Dr. Chapman explained. “It had never been tried before, but within six months Tad learned to understand some words when spoken to him and he would repeat them until he learned to do it correctly.”

Tad finished the eighth grade in Sioux Falls and graduated from high school at the Perkins Institution in Waterton, Massachusetts in 1938. He took two years of Latin and French and after graduation traveled throughout South Africa on a lecture tour to stimulate interest in the work for the deaf and blind. 

His mother, who hovers over him affectionately, constantly interpreting the events of the day, said that he started taking piano lessons when he was eight years old. 

 Taught to Play Piano

His little sister played the piano, and he begged to be taught, but his teacher, Miss Inis B. Hall, now director of a school for the blind and deaf in California, did not think his schedule could include music lessons. 

 “Then one day, Tad asked Miss Hall if it was wicked for a little blind and deaf boys to learn to play the piano, so she softened and started giving him lessons. 

Because Tad likes to travel, he and his parents are touring the country in a trailer.