Northern Utah was my first mix of work and play, rather education and play. The University of Utah at Logan is the country's epicenter for making websites accessible for the blind and the visually impaired.

So it was that I immersed in a crash course on the tools and techniques that allow the blind to socialize on Facebook, to buy stuff online, to do their banking, to look things up, to open their minds in so many new ways, but with the computer screen black.

We started with screen readers, software programs that convert screen text into sounds the blind can hear. Then we learned about busloads of laws, standards, and design tips to produce websites that present tables, images, and Java-powered dancing balloons such that the screen readers can make sense of them.

Besides learning new things, I learned something about my old way of looking at things, a view that I need to charge in with my problem-solving ideas and fix the world. Roy showed me how to look at this misconception with new eyes. Roy is blind.

The exercise began with the robotic voice of a screen reader. To give you an idea of how those sound, here's Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. I was sure I could do better. I've heard audiobooks presented by great orators, and my imagination roared off to grand enterprises churning out website content read by the likes of Mark Twain.

"That sounds like a great idea," said Roy, "for you, but not for us."

Roy explained how the blind are not listening for artistic wonder, but to get through their day. The voice of the screen reader was designed to be understood if it is sped up as the listener grows his perception. Long after Marc Twain's voice would blur into an angry chipmunk, the blind can still make out a screen reader's robot. Here's Lincoln zipping along, and yes, with practice, I can make it out.

That's when I realized that without having walked an inch in Roy's shoes, I had thought I could sort out his world. Instead, I learned how a screen reader, no longer constrained by our mouth parts, optimizes to the most efficient way to send information to Roy's ear, not to mine. And since Roy's ear had been tuned over the years into a masterly instrument, he could crank his hearing further than I ever imagined.

Mr. Fixit learned that day to cool his jets and listen.