WHITFIELD: In this week's "Human Factor" Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to an 89-year-old blind woman whose poor vision hasn't stopped her from traveling the world.</s>GUPTA: This is what the world looks like through Arlene Gordon's eyes, 100 percent darkness 100 percent of the time.</s>ARLENE GORDON, 89-YEAR-OLD BLIND WORLD TRAVELER: It started in my 30s, 40s, the vision became so bad that I decided to gamble. I said, you know, it is worse this way. I am neither here nor there.</s>GUPTA: Gordon scheduled herself for an operation she was told could potentially make her vision even worse.</s>GORDON: For six weeks I had the west best vision I ever had in my life. It was fantastic. I was like a baby walking around and looking at everything.</s>GUPTA: Just as she had been warned, a few weeks later Gordon's remaining vision vanished, rendering her completely blind. Soon she learned to navigate her new world.</s>GORDON: As you tap, you're deliberately clearing a path in front of you.</s>GUPTA: The streets of New York city were never enough. Gordon refused to let her blindness stand in the way of her passion for travel -- Cuba, South Africa, countless cities in Europe, collecting souvenirs at every stop along the way. And this is fascinating. Hand her a souvenirs and by feel alone she can tell you exactly what it is and where she got it.</s>GORDON: Oh, it is a Buddha, and that is from India.</s>GUPTA: Travel, she says, gave her a life as any in the movies.</s>GORDON: When we were in Venice and the windows opened up and I remembered seeing the movie with Katherine Hepburn where she is looking out over the piazza. There are so many things you can experience other than visually. As a matter of fact, one friend said to me I never saw as much as I did when I traveled with you.</s>GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, we'll have much more of the newsroom after this.
Blind Woman Becomes World Traveler