Khuzami was a member of the prosecution team in the trial that sentenced Omar Ahmad Ali Abdel Rahman (The Blind Sheikh) to life in prison.

FORBES: Names You Need To Know In 2011: Robert Khuzami

Now he's Washington state's first blind lawmaker in decades, and his life story is in many ways reflected in the policies he's now championing.

NPR: For Blind Lawmaker, Biography Reflects In Policy

In 1968, author-lecturer Helen Keller, who earned a college degree despite being blind and deaf most of her life, died in Westport, Connecticut.

CNN: Saturday,

Argus II is intended to provide electrical stimulation of the retina to induce visual perception in blind individuals with retinitis pigmentosa and has the capacity to offer life-changing visual capabilities to those currently unable to see anything except, at best, extremely bright lights.

ENGADGET: FDA clears Argus II 'bionic eye' for sale in the US (video)

There have been many advances in technology over the last 50 years making the life of a blind person today very different.

BBC: In Touch marks 50th anniversary

As Charlie tells independent producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister, learning the story of just how his father became blind helped him grow closer to the old man, who spent much of his life absorbed in philosophical writings.

NPR: Charlie Rizzo: Walking with My Father

The ultimate goal is to empower blind consumers to create their own low-cost and potentially life-saving tools -- particularly in developing countries, which account for an estimated 90 percent of the world's blind population.

ENGADGET: Braille-It Labeler brings low-cost printing, 'sightless construction' to the blind

This was, with a further sad irony, the only period in which Daumier, having toiled all his life to make a meagre living and now almost blind, managed to fulfil the conventional role of the fine artist far removed from the moral hurly-burly and commercial exigencies of the city.

ECONOMIST: Honor�� Daumier