How a paralyzed activist wrote a master’s thesis with half a million blinks—and rewired his world

For disability activist Jang Ik-sun, hope isn't just a feeling — it’s the eye-tracking software he has mastered to draft policy proposals, the half-million blinks that earned him a master’s degree, and the gaming system he engineered to keep playing despite being almost completely paralyzed GWANGJU --- Jang Ik-sun wrote his master’s thesis one blink at a time. About half a million times, to be exact. For most people, blinking is an unconscious act — something they do effortlessly 20,000 times a