Visually impaired Hampton-Dumont high school student to compete in robotics competition

By: 
Ethan Stoetzer & Pía Hovenga

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     It can be said that sight is the most relied upon sense in humans. Approximately 80 percent of the human experience is absorbed through the eyes: facial recognition and emotions, environmental awareness and identity are a few processes that are essential to human function. Furthermore, the life of the 21 Century can be called vision-dominant: the use of smartphones as an intricate part of society with texting, email, phone calls, maps, social networking and the Internet.
     While the human body’s other senses of hearing, taste, smell and touch compensate for a loss in sight, it could be said that none could quite compare to the strength of sight.
     For Gabe Urbano however, losing the sense of sight doesn’t mean losing his way.
     Urbano, 17, Hampton, is a junior at Hampton-Dumont High School, and is legally blind. But to the casual observer, the trait could go unnoticed.
     His favorite subjects are math and science, which many could say that not even vision would help them understand the two subjects’ complexities. But to go even further, Urbano will be part of the Visually Impaired Robotics Team, participating in the 2017 Regional Iowa FIRST Robotics Competition, this upcoming March 22-25, at UNI in Cedar Falls.
     Read the full article in the March 1 edition of the Hampton Chronicle.

Hampton Chronicle

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