From fnugg at online.no Fri Jul 15 10:35:17 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:35:17 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] artist, Tai chi, Accessible Media Canada Message-ID: <4E2017E5.6060903@online.no> excerpt Five Things You Should Know Today 1. It's your last day to catch the art of Laura and Yager, the pseudonym of a legally blind Port Richey artist who paints with her guide dog Yager by her side, are on display in the first floor hallway of New Port Richey City Hall. The show started in February. A portion of the proceeds from art sales goes to Southeastern Guide Dogs, where Laura says she got Yager. http://newportrichey.patch.com/articles/five-things-you-should-know-today-135 Tai chi for the blind in Lilydale TAI chi classes for the blind will start in Lilydale and Tecoma next month. The six-week pilot program teaching the ancient Chinese art to the vision-impaired was the brainchild of instructor Jeff Davis (left), who has taught tai chi for almost 20 years. The lessons, which usually involve participants mimicking the movements of an instructor standing in front of the class, will rely on six volunteers and a vocal instructor. http://lilydale-yarra-valley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/tai-chi-for-the-blind-in-lilydale/ excerpt Royal wedding Company paints word pictures of the wedding for the visually impaired Feast your ears on this: A Toronto-based media company will provide a live described-video broadcast of the royal wedding so that blind and low-sighted people across the country can enjoy all the pomp and pageantry of the big day. "An event like the royal wedding is something that we think should be accessible to all Canadians," says David Errington, president of Accessible Media Inc. .... "A colour commentator offers interesting facts and details, and where we are and some history about that place, whereas we're trying to fill in the gaps for somebody who doesn't have the advantage of sight," she says. "It's our job to fill in the crowd's expression when [Kate Middleton] comes out of the carriage, her mother's expression the first time she sees her in her wedding dress, William when he sees her coming down the aisle, the frescoes that are painted on the ceiling of the abbey." The two "describers," Sarah Mennell and Ruth Barrett, were chosen after an audition in which they described footage of the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. The broadcast will be available on The Accessible Channel -- TACtv. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/company-paints-word-pictures-of-the-wedding-for-the-visually-impaired/article1999475/ Described TV - Canada Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) is a not-for-profit multimedia organization operating two broadcast services, VoicePrint and The Accessible Channel -- TACtv, and a companion website (http://www.ami.ca). AMI serves more than five million Canadians who are blind, with low vision, print-restricted, deaf or hearing-impaired, learning disabled, mobility impaired, in need of literacy skills or learning English as a second language, by making print, broadcast and online media accessible. youtube link http://www.youtube.com/accessiblemedia Accessible Media Inc. http://www.ami.ca/default.aspx Ricky Trione Shares His Art Fantastic local artist Ricky Trione took his art on Studio10. Ricky's displays are even more incredible considering the fact that he cannot see. The self-titled "Blind Artist" joined the Studio10 crew to perform some of his art live during the show. You may have seen Ricky's art at the Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival and many local art shows. Click on the video link to see Ricky in action! http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/studio10/happening_here/studio10-ricky-trione-shares-his-art Also, please visit his website: www.rickytrioneart.com article $127 Per Month West Village Renter is Blind Photographer In case you weren't feeling bad about all the obscenities you muttered under your breath when you read about the $127 per month rental in the West Village, this might do it. Turns out the occupant is John Dugdale, a blind photographer who gets around with the assistance of a seeing-eye dog. The wrench in this gentrification-defying tale might be the overhaul of rent laws in Albany, which would expire on June 15th if they're not renewed. There's proposed legislation which would protect people like Dugdale until 2014. He gently opined on his new fame by saying "*I'm trying to make sure that I could stay here and [create my art] by not talking too much*". Can we cut this guy a break? Or does nothing justify such a deal? http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/04/24/127_per_month_west_village_renter_is_blind_photographer.php "My life is in an uproar," said the shutterbug, who is steered by a seeing-eye dog -- and whose work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He must take photos with the help of an assistant. It's the lease he can pay *'FLAT' RATE:* Blind photographer John Dugdale (pictured) pays just $127 a month to live in this Greenwich Village building. "My home has been in an uproar for over two, three years, and it seems to be coming to a head again." http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/it_the_lease_he_can_pay_PpQD97d21cEGHTLaLHB1dI excerpt *B'klyn Resident Sparacino Is Retired English Prof* *Blind Performers Highlight Visual Art at Concert* BROOKLYN --- Performers from the Lighthouse International, the well-known organization for the blind and visually impaired, recently took a mainly sighted audience on a musical tour of a very visual subject -- the Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection. The concert, which took place on Friday, April 15, was the 15th annual Lighthouse concert at the Met, and there were several Brooklyn residents who performed. The performers from the Lighthouse music school, said a spokeswoman for the Lighthouse, "had the assistance of a wonderful assistant from the Met who described each piece of art in detail, from an African mask to a postcard. Every year, we collaborate with the Metropolitan Museum at their Grace Rainey Rogers auditorium -- we provide the music." One Brooklyn resident performing at the concert was Dr. Dennis Sparacino, who has worked as a singer in nightclubs and theaters and has taught English literature at the college level. In his third solo performance at the music school's annual concert, he sang the Italian love song, "Parlami D'Amore, Mariu." "I've studied voice for decades," says Sparacino, who is totally blind and has been so since college. "I've also studied instruments --- guitar, saxophone, clarinet." He received his BA from Brooklyn College, then received his PhD in English literature there. He taught at C.W. Post, New York City Community College and Long Island University until he retired. http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=12&id=42930 video Washburn Man Creates Art Without Eyesight A Washburn artist is creating work that will soon be on display in a Twin Cities gallery without the use of his eyes. Derek Lusche has had poor vision all his life. He was born legally blind, then diagnosed with glaucoma. Bu it was a work accident in 2009 that took his vision completely. "I was on a job site and I got hit by a timber frame floor support pretty much right in front of the eyes," Lusche said. Lusche has slowly gained some vision back sice the incident, and although it's still blurry, he is pursuing a career in art. Lusche will be showing his work during an art crawl in St. Paul next weekend. http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S2078406.shtml?cat=10335 From fnugg at online.no Fri Jul 15 12:48:28 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:48:28 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] articles about art from 1940 on Message-ID: <4E20371C.6000801@online.no> Hi, Some articles from the new's archives - seemed to have been scanned in so only a image of the text. Regards, Lisa Article about Vincent J. Vita from the Spokane Daily Chronicle, Feb 26, 1962 Article is scanned - so appears as a picture Crippled Artist to Open First Paintings Exhibit http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7DJYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SfcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6741,6199898&dq=i+did+some+paintings+totally+blind&hl=en MUSEUM EXHIBITS ART BY CHILDREN; Paintings and Sculpture of Normal and Blind Students at Modern Art Gallery 'HAPTIC' TECHNIQUE SEEN Production by Tactile Sense Not Limited to Sculpture in Exhibition Classifications . By EDWARD ALDEN JEWELL (); March 08, 1940, , Section Society, Page 24, Column , words ABSTRACT An interesting though in many respects a pretty puzzling little exhibition opened yesterday at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West Fifty-third Street. It is called "Visual and non-Visual Art Expression." The work, by children who ... http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20711FE3D54117A93CAA91788D85F448485F9 Genius- and bad eyes - made great artists The Vancouver Sun Nov 2, 1962 It wasn't genius alone that led such master painters as Monet and Renoir to their famous fuzzy styles - it was also failing eyesight, a doctor says. Durint 15 years of research, Dr. James Ravin, an ophthamolgist and self-processed frustrated artist from Toledo, Ohio has found that Renoir was nearsighted, Rembrandt was farsighted and Monet had cataracts. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=y_llAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bIwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1024,446986&dq=i+did+some+paintings+totally+blind&hl=en The Bulletin Nov 3, 1982 Some old masters had eye woes http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zpVTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LYcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6692,2632973&hl=en The Modesto Bee Nov 3, 1982 Bad eyes helped great art http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dbpJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-BwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=914,1094943&hl=en ASK THE GLOBE Nov 2, 1982 Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Boston, Mass. Blind artist relies on an inner vision and an ability to express his emotions The Miami News Feb 2, 1978 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iJYzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7esFAAAAIBAJ&pg=627,1100720&dq=i+did+some+paintings+totally+blind&hl=en Beauty in the Dark The Evening Independen Feb 2, 1978 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7uMLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kFgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4576,306049&hl=en The Day http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2QwiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k3MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1304,771423&hl=end In Blindness, a Bold New Artistic Vision http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/health/17voic.html Puerto Rican Center Teaches the Blind to Draw; Dictation and Dots in Braille Used as Sketching Guides President Johnson Is 'Seen' by 26-Year-Old Student September 13, 1964, ABSTRACT A blind Puerto Rican has "seen" President Johnson, and now some day he hopes to "see" his mother, father, brother and sisters and his blind wife. Inspired Curator Creates Unique Museum for the Blind The Hartford Courant (1923-1984) - Hartford, Conn. Jun 15, 1967 start page 39 *Abstract* Has it ever occured to you what art objects feel like? http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/934399432.html?dids=934399432:934399432&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jun+15%2C+1967&author=&pub=Hartford+Courant&desc=Inspired+Curator+Creates+Unique+Museum+for+the+Blind&pqatl=google ABOUT LONG ISLAND Published: July 17, 1983 THE nursery-school table is covered with sheets of paper covered with brilliant color. The 3-year-olds dip sponges in the pans of paint and fervently dab on more. ''Do you want blue, Karla?'' asks Ellyn Gadue. ''Yes, blue, blue,'' says Karla Gilbride, with the decisive air of a tiny, blond Picasso. Blue is an abstract concept to Karlla: She cannot see her painting, or Miss Gadue, the day camp counselor, or the five other children, three of whom cannot see her. The two others are legally blind, seeing dimly or in patches. http://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/17/nyregion/about-long-island.html?pagewanted=all Woman's View Williamson Daily New Nov 12, 1959 ONce each week in this city, a dozen men and women gather for an art class wihch at first glace could be any adult education cours in andy town. They talk art - its history, its techniques, its maters. They work art sculpting in clay, etching, molding ceramics, painting in oils or water colors. But nature has set this class apart. All members are visually handicapped: some are toatlly blind, some have only partial sight. ... The non-sectarian New York Guild for the Jewish Blind sponsors the unique art class as one of its more than 70 workshops and.... http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=a7tdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_10NAAAAIBAJ&pg=972,3214737&dq=i+did+some+paintings+totally+blind&hl=en From fnugg at online.no Fri Jul 15 13:24:52 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:24:52 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] artist, Sacks, comic book artist, Make documentary, photographer Message-ID: <4E203FA4.8050100@online.no> Blind artist paints Gus Poyet's portrait Seagulls boss Gus Poyet was seeing double thanks to the talents of blind artist Matt Rhodes. Mr Rhodes has virtually no sight after being blinded in a car accident. Ovingdean-based charity for blind servicemen St Dustan's, has been helping him to paint-- something he never did before losing his vision. Mr Rhodes, 36, of Telscombe Cliffs, presented Mr Poyet with this portrait on Tuesday. A Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club spokesman said: "Gus absolutely loved the picture. "Matt is really talented and Gus was blown away when he saw it. http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9139231.Blind_artist_paints_Gus_Poyet_s_portrait/ Last Night's TV - Perfume, BBC4; Imagine, BBC1 Last night's return of *Imagine* was utterly fascinating. Alan Yentob was talking to Oliver Sacks, who opened up for the first time about his "face blindness". He's had it since childhood, and it leaves him wholly unable to recognise even the most familiar of faces. To test him, Yentob held up pictures of famous figures to see who he'd get. Those he could name were all educated guesses: the Queen, because she looked "imperious and old", Barack Obama, giving a speech. It doesn't always work: Oprah, "young black and famous" is inferred to be Michelle Obama. A stab at Elvis is equally unsuccessful. Thanks to Sacks's own neurological expertise, he can talk about his condition with remarkable authority. Amazingly, he can't even recognise himself, so mirrors and windows can be confusing. One incident saw him patting down his hair when faced with a similarly bearded man on the other side of the window. But his wasn't the only experience we heard about. Working on his book The Mind's Eye, Sacks had come across all sorts of cases -- people who have come to him, he says, as a kind of "last resort". There was artist Chuck Close, also face-blind, who has made a career out of painting ultra-real, giant portraits. Not being able to recall images has left him looking at people not as fixed subjects but as "a continuum" -- every time they move, they're a new sight. And there was Danny, a deaf former restaurateur, whose vision is slowly diminishing until, one day, he will become completely blind. And Sue, who lacked three-dimensional vision her entire life until a few simple visual exercises saw her slowly regain it. My favourite story, though, was that of Howard Engel, author of the Benny Cooperman crime novels. Awaking one day to find himself faced with a newspaper written in a foreign alphabet, he assumed he was the subject of a practical joke. Until, that is, he looked around and realised he couldn't read a thing. A stroke has left him able to write, but not to read, at least not conventionally. Since the incident, he's managed to devise a whole new kind of reading, imperceptibly tracing the shapes of the letters with his tongue on his teeth so he can understand them. His latest work, Memory Book, has been his most successful ever. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-tv--perfume-bbc4-imagine-bbc1-2303955.html Comic book artist Gene Colan ... Evanier said that Colan was "a charming, self-effacing gentleman who was genuinely moved when fans tried to tell him how good he was and how much joy his work had given them." In recent years, Colan had glaucoma, and was nearly blind in one eye and limited vision in the other, but continued to work.... http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/07/14/3088548/the-eulogizer-comic-book-artist-gene-colan /Make/: Outsider Art and the Blessed Compulsion The power of the documentary as a medium comes from the telling of the timely, yet untold story. In /Make/, directors Scott Ogden and Malcolm Hearn tell four distinctive stories of earnest lives lived on the margins of American society. The structure of the film is tidy and straightforward: a quadruple profile comprised of four cycles containing four scenes each, which detail each artist respectively. Viewers of the documentary proper who might be anticipating the excavation of the artists' aesthetic considerations and the artworks' relevance within the greater art world are likely to be disappointed (the greatest insights into the art itself can be found in the DVD's Special Features). It is obvious that while the mental states of the artists undoubtedly contribute to the art itself, it is the process of making art that enables the makers to transcend their own physical and psychological limitations. Judith Scott is deaf and has Down's syndrome. Ike Morgan has schizophrenia. Hawkins Bolden is blind. Royal Robertson has paranoid schizophrenia. And yet their limitations do not define them as artists, but rather serve only as the prisms through which the creators' inherent talents shine. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-j-kushner/make-documentary_b_894619.html Make site http://www.makedocumentary.com/ Light and shadow He was diagnosed with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) last April. It's a rare mitochondrial (inherited from the mother's side) degenerative disease that leads to a loss of vision. In his case, the loss happened drastically. Legally blind, the young photographer can't see details or small objects like he used to. He can still see peripherally, but a greyish blob clouds his central vision. Yet he has persevered as a photographer. In fact, Ross says his lack of focus on detail has helped him to better compose his shots. "It's a bit trickier to see details, I just have to look much closer now," he says, as though it's as simple as a crane of the neck. Sometimes it is. And sometimes it isn't. He installed magnifying software on his computer and uses a monocular (like a mini-telescope) to read street signs or see a bird across the lake --- both make a big difference. http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/562768--light-and-shadow From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 07:52:07 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:52:07 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Who looks with his fingers [ Der mit den Fingern sieht] Message-ID: <4E2537A7.4040104@online.no> Hi, Prof. John Kennedy sent this link a while back - sorry about the delay in passing it on. "Please let the accessibleimage community know about the Premiere of this documentary in Berlin, Tuesday May 12th It focuses on Esref Armagan with interviews of Pascual-Leone of Harvard and Kennedy of Toronto among others." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPrxbHtw7pc Best regards, Lisa From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 07:55:21 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:55:21 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Fwd: accessibleimage: editor@accessinformation.org.uk post needs approval Message-ID: <4E253869.4030008@online.no> -------- Opprinnelig melding -------- Emne: accessibleimage: editor at accessinformation.org.uk post needs approval Dato: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:02:15 -0400 (EDT) Fra: FreeLists Mailing List Manager Svar-Til: editor at accessinformation.org.uk Til: accessibleimage-moderators at freelists.org This message was received for a list you are a moderator on, and was marked for moderation due to the following reason: Non-member submission to closed-post list. To approve this message and have it go out on the list, forward this to accessibleimage-repost at freelists.org If you wish to decline the post, change the 'apppost' below to 'delpost'. If you wish to edit the post, change it to 'modpost' and edit the message as needed - not all mail programs will work with modpost. DO NOT DELETE THE FOLLOWING LINE. Ecartis needs it. // apppost 4E01F5E7:DCF.1:npprffvoyrvzntr > From editor at accessinformation.org.uk Wed Jun 22 10:02:15 2011 Return-Path: X-Original-To: accessibleimage at freelists.org Delivered-To: accessibleimage at freelists.org Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by turing.freelists.org (Avenir Technologies Mail Multiplex) with ESMTP id 4E4A7E2D777 for; Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:02:15 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at localhost.localdomain Received: from turing.freelists.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (turing.freelists.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id uuf8CRUNrN1G for; Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:02:15 -0400 (EDT) Received: from outgoing-smtp.namesco.net (outgoing-smtp.namesco.net [85.233.160.25]) by turing.freelists.org (Avenir Technologies Mail Multiplex) with ESMTP id 91FD8E2D842 for; Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:02:14 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [192.168.0.7] (helo=artemis.hosts.co.uk) by outgoing-smtp.namesco.net with esmtp (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from) id 1QZO0E-0007qN-0J; Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:01:58 +0100 Received: from root by artemis.hosts.co.uk with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from) id 1QZNhi-000403-4b; Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:42:50 +0100 From: =?utf-8?q?=22Simon=20Hayhoe=22?= Reply-To: =?utf-8?q?=22Simon=20Hayhoe=22?= Subject: =?utf-8?q?RE=3a=20Kindle=20e=2dbook=20version=20of=20British=20history=20of=20blindness=20is=20now=20available?= MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Namesco Webmail v3.0 Message-ID:<1308750169188 at names.co.uk> Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:42:49 +0100 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-namescosender: 0 2002 X-namesco: 192.168.0.171 X-ACL-Warn: You have exceeded your sending limits. Please wait before sending more e-mails. X-Spam-Score: 2.2 (++) To: undisclosed-recipients:; Dear All, Just to let you know that my first book, God Money and Politics: English attitudes to blindness and touch, from Enlightenment to integration, is now available on in e-book Kindle edition. For those, like me, who were a little loathed to pay the =C2=A360/$100 + price tag for the hardback or =C2=A330/$50 + for the paperback, the Kindle edition is now a much cheaper =C2=A36.99/$11.48. The other massive advantage is that you also get to read the book almost immediately, without having to wait for the distributors, Amazon, mail service, etc. to bring it to your door. The links for the book in the US and UK Amazon websites are as follows. http://www.amazon.com/Attitudes-Blindness-Enlightenment-Integration-eb ook/dp/B004S2PXYE/ref=3Dsr_1_17?ie=3DUTF8&qid=1308738747&sr=3D8-17 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Attitudes-Blindness-Enlightenment-Integration- ebook/dp/B004S2PXYE/ref=3Dsr_1_5?ie=3DUTF8&s=3Ddigital-text&qid=1308742295&sr=3D 8-5 I checked on the US website this morning, and the book seems to be #28 in the best sellers on SEN-Physical Disability, which is better than it sounds as there is some stiff competition from some multi-national publishing houses writing on disability as a whole. Just in case you are also interested, my third book has just been accepted by a the US academic publishing house, Cambria Press. It will detail the methods and models I use for researching blindness and education. Its current working title Researching Legacies of Blindness. Best wishes and cheers, Simon ---------------------------------------------- Dr Simon Hayhoe, Editor ECO: On Blindness and the Arts - http://www.blindnessandarts.com Leicester, UK // eompost 4E01F5E7:DCF.1:npprffvoyrvzntr From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 08:08:16 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:08:16 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] engineering college, artists Message-ID: <4E253B70.1020005@online.no> Buffalo Narrows artist going blind, but not stopping http://northernprideml.com/2011/07/12/334/ New Developments May Give Online Advertising for the Disabled a Boost It is not as though such technology is unavailable: a decade ago Amazon rolled out Amazon Access , which gives the blind access to its ecommerce site. More recently, Italian flag-carrier Alitalia introduced an on-board safety card written specifically for sight-impaired passengers. It includes three-dimensional relief illustrations, as well as instructions in Braille symbols. (via Flight Global). http://www.marketingvox.com/new-developments-may-give-online-advertising-for-the-disabled-a-boost-049565/ Special engineering college for visually challenged PTIJul 13, 2011, 04.06pm IST HYDERABAD: In a novel initiative that will help visually challenged students, the city-based 'Devnar Foundation for the Blind' is planning to start an exclusive engineering college for them. Despite being visually-impaired, many students are highly motivated to pursue engineering courses and there are several success stories, A Saibaba Goud, Devnar Foundation's Managing Trustee, told PTI here today. "Some of our children are highly motivated to follow engineering courses. One of our students is employed in a multi-national company and four others are studying B Tech in different colleges recognised by the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU)," Goud, a recipient of Padma Shri and several other awards, said. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-07-13/education/29768607_1_engineering-college-saibaba-goud-engineering-courses Vision impaired shown the artist within Although she's lost most of her sight, Cathy Gardner's eyes still sparkle. The Hemet woman is completely blind in her left eye and has little sight in her right, but as the 58-year-old holds a pink ceramic rose she made and painted herself, she marvels at the feeling of belonging she's found in a classroom of blind or visually impaired students who meet weekly to create art. The students' work comes with the help of a team of volunteers at the weekly art class at the Braille Institute in Rancho Mirage. http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110707/NEWS01/107060350/Vision-impaired-shown-artist-within excerpt Famous Blind and Sight Impaired People: James Thurber - (December 8, 1894-November 2, 1961) James Thurber was a comedian and cartoonist most known for his contributions to New Yorker Magazine. While playing with his brothers William and Robert, William shot him in the eye with and arrow while playing a game of William Tell making him almost completely blind after the loss of an eye. At school James could not play sports with his friends due to this accident so he decided to work on his creative mind, putting his skills in writing. Claude Monet - also known as Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet (November 14, 1840 - December 5, 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise. His popularity and fame grew. By 1907 he had painted many well-known paintings, but by then he had his first problem with his eyesight. He started to go blind. He still painted, though his eyes got worse. He wouldn't stop painting until he was nearly blind. In the last decade of his life Monet, nearly blind, painted a group of large water lily murals (Nympheas) for the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris. Esref Armagan - (born 1953) Esref is a blind painter of Turkish origin. Mr. Armagan is an important figure in the history of picture-making, and in the history of knowledge. His work is remarkable. He has demonstrated for the first time that a blind person can develop on his or her own pictorial skills the equal of most depiction by the sighted. This has not happened before in the history of picture-making. He was born blind to a poor family in Turkey, and has been drawing or painting since childhood. He has had exhibitions in Turkey and in Holland and the Czech Republic. In 2004, he was the subject of a study of human perception, conducted by the psychologist John Kennedy of University of Toronto. http://www.foroyaa.gm/modules/news/article.php?storyid=7305 From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 09:14:06 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:14:06 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] sports, Disneyland description, photography Message-ID: <4E254ADE.3050406@online.no> Hi, Mixed bag - a lot of sports. Regards, Lisa Visually Impaired Golfers Hit Links http://www.wlwt.com/sports/28564744/detail.html excerpt The exhibition at Media Day by Nino and Marie Pacini brought about a special moment, and immediately took me back to those who used to work at Holley Carburetor during the early years. My old design mentor, Tony DiGiovanni, told me how visually-impaired inspectors literally checked parts with feeler gages, while their seeing-eye dogs sat beside them. They gave productivity and quality a whole new level of meaning. http://www.torquenews.com/119/visually-impaired-inspectors-show-skills-media-day-eyeson-design excerpt Visually impaired excited about Sound TT NABIN KHATIWADA KATHMANDU, July 9: "Service?" asked Krishna Dhungana. "Yes," replied Sarita Aryal and a different type of table tennis game began. It was a different game as they were serving under the net and scoring points. http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=33268 excerpt Device gives vision-impaired info of Disneyland A new program that gives descriptions of outdoor areas in Disneyland for visually impaired guests was launched Wednesday. The program is part of the Enhanced Audio Description, a program on a hand-held device that previously only gave descriptions of 19 attractions in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure that debuted in 2009. The hand-held device, called Disney's Audio Device, is the size of a smart phone and has raised tactile buttons in different shapes to controls volume, menu options, location and an overview of the device. Mark Jones, manager of Disney domestic services for guests with disabilities, said the hand-held device now also uses GPS triangulation to tell guests where they are in Disneyland. "As you're walking around the park, as a person with a visual disability, the device will give you information based on your surrounding," Jones said. "So as you're walking down Main Street for example, it would tell you that you are standing on Main Street, U.S.A." Visitors choose either two-ear or one-ear headsets. WGBH, a PBS producer, provided the audio content. Officials declined to release the cost of the product. The feature allows guests to access options on the device that give detailed information about different themed lands, as well as menu items at restaurants and the location of restrooms in each land. "It's not designed to escort you around the park," Jones said. "It's designed to give you information about your surroundings." Jones said visually-impaired guests can get the devices on loan at Guest Services at the entrance to the park for a $25 refundable fee. There are 15 devices in Disneyland, Jones said. The program is scheduled to launch in California Adventure in 2012. Guests put the headphones on and as they walk though Disneyland, a voice will cue and tell them where they are. Depending on their location, the update could change every 25 feet or so. For example, just as one is stepping foot on the wood planks of the drawbridge at Sleeping Beauty's Castle, the program http://www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=307263 */Best Male Athlete with a Disability /* Visually impaired professional triathlete Aaron Scheidies has been nominated for a 2011 ESPY in the Best Male Athlete with a Disability category. Scheidies, the son of ROLA employee Mike Scheidies, has represented ROLA for the past 3 years. He has proven himself in the sport of triathlon, winning seven national championship and six world championship titles. The twenty-nine-year old athlete has competed in more than 150 triathlons, setting world records at every distance for paratriathletes. http://utvweekly.com/index.php/2011/07/aaron-scheidies-named-finalist-for-the-2011-espys/ Blind hockey player to skate Halifax to Toronto 2 TORONTO - A blind Toronto hockey player will be inline skating from Halifax to Toronto in support of hockey programs for the visually impaired. Mark DeMontis, founder of the national charity Courage Canada, put wheels to pavement Wednesday in a demonstration for the press at the Lakeshore Trail, where he was training for his cross-Canada skate. "I really wanted to be a part of something in my life that would really make a difference," the 24-year-old athlete said. "I founded Courage Canada so that these youth and adults who are visually impaired can have an opportunity just like I had growing up, and that I was blessed with, to learn and play something that's really special here in Canada." The Toronto area native played triple-A hockey for years before being told by doctors that a rare condition, Leber's Optic Neuropathy, was robbing him of his central eyesight. http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/06/blind-hockey-player-to-skate-halifax-to-toronto World's best blind triathletes coming to Peterborough By MIKE DAVIES, Examiner Sports Director Updated 12 days ago The world's top three blind and visually impaired triathletes are competing at Sunday's Subaru Peterborough Half-Ironman Triathlon. They are part of a new program called Won with One, sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB), which has chosen Peterborough for its inaugural race. "Peterborough was just a natural choice," said Jan Ditchfield, CCB Accessible Sports Program and Development Manager and founder of Won with One. "It's a well known race which is well respected. Some of the best athletes come out to do it every year and we just thought it would be a really good opportunity for us to do our first race in Ontario." http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3202516 article link Visually impaired and blind sailing at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=88620 Visually Impaired Photography is on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=133294703352148&v=wall Q&A: Sarah Wilson, Austin article about a sighted photographer at a high school prom - reason included is because of the photographer's perspective on visual impairment and the meaning of photography for vi. excerpt *The blind and visually impaired students seem genuinely excited about being photographed. Why do you think that is, especially since some of them won't be able to appreciate the images?* 'Maybe this is just my imagination, but I believe that the participation of a photographer at an event helps to bring an element of significance and celebration. Photography has already been a part of these teenagers' lives. Most likely, their families photographed them at their first birthday and will take pictures of them at graduation in their cap and gown. Photography helps document the milestones. Therefore, although many of these kids will never see the pictures of themselves, they understand what photography and portraiture symbolizes. It reinforces the fact that there is something significant happening- that this event or this person should be remembered and honored'. http://www.featureshoot.com/2011/04/qa-sarah-wilson-austin/ From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 11:20:53 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:20:53 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Blessing Vera, Vatican Museum, photography, architect, Silhouette Artist, commercial Message-ID: <4E256895.6040002@online.no> BLESSING VERA - BIOGRAPHY The half blind painter was born 1980 in the dusted satellite town, 26km outside Harare (Zimbabwe, Southern Africa). He lost one eye at 18 months. His Grandma raised him in Chitungwiza and at the age of 17 he spread his wings to find the meaning of life, as he saw it through one eye. Working for a security company in his teens, he observed many interesting facets of everyda...y life and began to take a serious interest in capturing his observations in the form of drawings. In 1998 his talent overcome him and he enrolled at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe were he studied art. The B.A.T. (British American Tobacco) funded his studies until end 1999 at which point BAT withdraw because of political instability. 1999 - Young Artists Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Zimbabwe 2000 - Young Artists Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Zimbabwe 1999 - Final year exhibition, (National gallery Zimbabwe) 2003 - One man exhibition (The heath, S.A,) 2005 - Crossroads exhibition (Peter Gallery SA) 2005 - Exhibit at Chris Tugwell Gallery SA BLESSING?s art is primarily to be found at various galleries on the famous South African Garden Route, Western Cape. BLESSINGS works of art has found its way all over the world. He currently works on commissions by various private art collectors. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blessing-VERA-artist-the-one-eyed-half-blind-painter/202537829759547#!/pages/Blessing-VERA-artist-the-one-eyed-half-blind-painter/202537829759547?sk=info Lytro is Coming! The greatest technological invention for visually impaired photographers since autfocusing cameras? Shoot first, focus later technology! http://www.photographerswithdisabilities.com/index.php/resources/equipment/for-visually-impaired excerpt think I have sent this once before but sending again - slide show with great pictures and wonderful commentary Audio slideshow: Photography by blind people http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8466714.stm excerpt Blind builder After his eyesight was snatched away from him by an illness, an architect channels his passion and his knowledge to a crusade that now benefits persons with disabilities. MANILA, Philippines ? Professions in the field of fine arts like architecture, interior design, industrial design, and advertising require a lot of visual perspective, from conceptualizing to actual drawing and planning. This is why it is almost impossible for visually-impaired individuals to engage in these professions. But once in a while, there is always someone who stands out to be an exception to the rule. Love for architecture Jaime Silva is an architect. He is also blind who may not be designing houses or buildings right now, but still largely contributes to the profession he is most passionate about. A member of the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP), Silva, chairman of the organization?s Accessibility Committee was recently awarded Outstanding Professional of 2011 by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC). Silva was recognized for his efforts in advocating for the Accessibility Law. Silva and his twin brother Tomas was born with congenital glaucoma, a condition that damages the optic nerves and often leads to blindness. His glaucoma was worse than his brother?s and over the years, Silva's sight deteriorated. But even though his eyesight was slowly fading away, Silva was not discouraged to take up Architecture in college. His love for this fine art blossomed when, as a young boy, he would watch the construction of houses in their community with much fascination. He knew from then on that architecture was his dream profession. ?I?m lucky that my parents allowed me to take up Architecture despite my poor eyesight. They knew that I really liked it. If you don?t go for your passion and your dreams, you?ll regret it that?s why I pursued it,? the 61-year-old architect shares. In college at the Mapua Institute of Technology, Silva?s eyesight continued to worsen. He would wear extraordinarily thick eyeglasses to help him through the course. He was also often bothered by constant headaches, a common symptom of glaucoma. Nevertheless, Silva graduated and eventually passed the board exams for architecture. He designed his first project, a small resort in Batangas, afterwhich he was hired by a big architecture firm to be part of many projects such as building residential houses in exclusive subdivisions, hotels, and other structures. He also started building his own family at this point. http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/327295/blind-builder article The Crocker Art Museum presents ?The Ultra Sensory Tour? for visually impaired individuals on April 15 at 3 p.m. Listen to rich descriptions, smell spices, and touch different fabrics during a multi-sensory tour of the museum?s permanent collection. This program is recommended for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Free with museum admission. http://www.egcitizen.com/articles/2011/03/29/lifestyle/doc4d9270798e772348073258.txt excerpt Visually impaired student to stage photographic exhibition AN AYRSHIRE woman who suffers from a serious visual impairment is staging a photographic exhibition to illustrate how she sees the world. Student Linda Howard, 38, has no central vision as she suffers from a rare form of macular degenerative disease known as punctate inner choroidopathy, PIC. But she is determined to make people aware of how she sees the world so Linda borrowed a friend?s camera to take snapshots of how the world looks through her eyes and the resulting pictures will be on show at her exhibition to run at Irvine?s Harbour Arts Centre gallery from April 1 to April 17. http://www.irvineherald.co.uk/ayrshire-news/local-news-ayrshire/local-news-irvine/2011/04/01/visually-impaired-student-to-stage-photographic-exhibition-75485-28425857/ The movies are descriptive - audio technology offers detailed narration of programming and movies for the blind or visually impaired - and the fashion shows consist of students who come into the Lackawanna Branch of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind to help entertain. http://thetimes-tribune.com/lifestyles-people/blind-association-client-involved-in-county-agency-s-many-programs-fashion-show-1.1121620#axzz1SXt5JG5N Commercial photographers helping the disadvantaged March 12, 2011 A visually impaired photographer features in a brand new TV advertisement for the latest Nokia camera phone. Gary Waite, a photographer from Croydon stars in the advertisement as he wanders around Blackpool taking photos with the camera phone. Waite unearthed his talent for photography with the help of charity PhotoVoice. PhotoVoice was set up to empower disadvantaged communities across the UK and the world through photography. The charity works with amateur and commercial photographers from Leeds to Lebanon on various projects that highlight and capture the plight of disadvantaged communities. Waite participated in the Sights Unseen project for the charity teaching visually impaired and blind people sensory photography techniques. Waite said: ?I?ve been taught to use my other senses to take pictures. ?For instance, hearing and smelling the sea air and the sound of the roller coaster then, like every photographer, taking as many shots as possible.? PhotoVision?s project manager Matt Daw commented on the power of the Nokia commercial: ?[It] shows that as well as finding photography enjoyable and rewarding, blind and partially sighted people can take fantastic photographs and share their unique perspective on the world with others.? Daw added: ?Gary, and other blind and partially sighted people, experience the world in no less vivid detail than anyone else; it is just that senses other than sight naturally take precedent.? PhotoVision also works with commercial photographers from Leeds and around the UK, who offer their support, be it through supplying products, sharing their knowledge or using them for as their organisation?s charity of the year. http://www.powerhousephoto.co.uk/commercial-photographers-helping-the-disadvantaged-1486.html article Blind photographer star of TV ad filmed in Blackpool Gary Waite said he used his hearing to time the roller coaster shot Audio slideshow: Photography by blind people A blind photographer is the star subject of a new TV advert for a mobile phone company filmed in Blackpool. The commercial showcases Croydon photographer Gary Waite capturing the resort in its glory using a Nokia camera phone. He said: "I've been taught to use my other senses to take pictures. "For instance, hearing and smelling the sea air and the sound of the roller coaster then, like every photographer, taking as many shots as possible." The 49-year-old, who lost his eyesight 10 years ago due to a hereditary eye disorder retinitis pigmentosa, has only recently discovered his talent for taking pictures. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12596142 IPhone app helps the blind identify US bank notes US software vendor Ipplex has launched an iPhone application that helps blind and visually impaired Americans identify bank notes. http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22352 LookTel Money Reader helps the visually impaired count their money http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/03/looktel-money-reader/ article Arts grants celebrate the creative spirit The Council recently received a project grant from the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission. According to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, ?These grants are an opportunity to showcase the work of the many creative, artistic minds in our county while celebrating everything that makes our communities great.? The Council?s project title is ?Creative Expressions from Inner Vision.? Participating artists are Judith Rasmussen (read related interview below), Janis Senungetuk and Mary Mesman. The grant provides money for them to purchase material to create new works that will be shared with the broader community. Judith is a potter. Janis uses digital photography and printing techniques to create beautiful portraits of flowers, and Mary works in collage. ?Creative Expressions from Inner Vision pays tribute to artwork created by visually impaired artists and encourages children with visual impairments to engage in the arts. This is a collaborative project of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired, Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and Edgewood College.? On April 7, Janis, Judith and Mary will take a sample of their artwork to MMSD?s Vision Program?s Spring Potluck for an evening of sharing and creating. They will discuss why they are passionate about art and how they overcame the challenge of vision loss to pursue their creative dreams. A few blind or visually impaired students will show samples of their artwork, too. Students attending the event will be invited to create art at an activity station directed by Edgewood College Professor Janice Havlena and her art therapy students. On Friday, May 6, from 5 to 7:30 p.m., the Council will host an opening artists? reception. Save The Date! Artists participating in the grant will present a gallery talk and invite questions. Their exhibit runs from May 6 through July 1, 2011. This project is supported by the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission with additional funds from the Overture Foundation, the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation and the Alliant Energy Foundation. http://www.wcblind.org/archives/arts-grant-celebrates-the-creative-spirit-2/ Vatican Museums offer hands-on approach to art for the blind, deaf A corner of a sarcophagus is seen in the pre-Christian and early Christian art and artifacts display at the Vatican Museums. The Museums have started special tours for the deaf and blind, offering a multi-sensory experience of some of its most famous works. VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican Museums have launched special tours for the deaf and blind. The two-hour tours are free to the hearing- and visually impaired and seek to offer a multi-sensory experience of some of the Museums' most famous works. The initiative also marks the first opportunity for the deaf in Italy to receive training and work in a museum as an experienced guide rather than solely as an interpreter, said speakers at a news conference March 1. Seven women, five of whom are deaf, received specialized training in art history and archaeology at the Museums so they could work as professional guides for the new tour for the deaf. One of the new deaf guides, who introduced herself as "Anna," said through an interpreter that she and her new co-workers were happy the new opportunity to work as a professional museum guide "happened at the Vatican Museums." The tour for the deaf includes stops in the Raphael Rooms, the Sistine Chapel, and visits to the classical statues collection. The guides are fluent in a number of sign languages, including British and French sign languages. The itinerary for the blind and visually impaired includes a blend of sensory experiences to help the person appreciate a work of art "without making them wish they could see," said Isabella Salandri, who is in charge of the new tours. For example, to examine Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio's "Deposition From the Cross," visitors first listen to a passage from the Bible explaining the scene in which Christ is taken down from the cross and readied for burial. Then they listen to a Gregorian chant whose lyrics are connected with the biblical event and hear a brief account of the artist's life. One by one, each visitor's hands are then placed on a resin bas relief of the scene in the painting of Nicodemus and John laying Christ on a stone while Mary and other women look on. Helping guide the person's hands across every detail of the bas relief "lasts a long time," Salandri said, "because it's like a puzzle; they need to create a mental picture" of how the many faces and limbs, including Christ's limp body, are arranged. Visitors then feel real items depicted in the painting such as the thick velvety leaves of a common mullein herbal plant and a linen shroud that smells of myrrh and aloe, the same herbs used in burial cloths at the time. Sara di Luca, a restorer at the Museums, said she used the same materials and techniques Caravaggio used in his masterpiece to make a sample canvas and oil painting of a section of the "Deposition." She said she used similar brushes and thickness of paints in her sample piece so that visitors could touch the copy and feel the same kind of rough canvas, trace the brushstrokes, and smell the oil medium of the paint just as Caravaggio would have used. Di Luca also made a sample fresco of Melozzo da Forli's "Angel With Lute" to give visitors a similar sensation of feeling and smelling how the design and medium are represented. Visitors also receive a booklet written in Braille and bold large print; it includes raised dots tracing the outline of both Caravaggio and Melozzo's two works. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1100834.htm Creative Spirit Symposium Explores Interaction Between Art and Music for Artists with Visual Disabilities DOYLESTOWN, PA? The James A. Michener Art Museum's Education Outreach and Diversity Department hosts the seventh annual Creative Spirit Symposium for Artists with Visual Disabilities on Sunday, April 3, 1 to 4 pm. This year?s program will explore the interaction between art and music and will introduce symposium attendees and those with visual or hearing impairments to this unique relationship..... The distinguished panel will be moderated by Dr. Goldberg. Panelists include Carol Saylor, a painter who has gradually turned to sculpture during about 25 years of progressive deafness and blindness; Ashby Saunders, a legally blind sculptor, who will focus on the important role music plays in his life and work; and Sara Steele, artist and activist, who will explore the intersections of color, rhythm and form through watercolor http://www.phillyburbs.com/lifestyle/travel/article_a3119b40-466f-11e0-8249-0017a4a78c22.html?mode=story site Sight of Emotion Interation through art http://www.sightofemotion.org/index.php Master Scissor Artist In Town Silhouette Artist Creates Original Art Out Of Paper Read more: http://www.kitv.com/news/28573032/detail.html#ixzz1SY6h7qwP HONOLULU -- It's a classic art form that's gaining in popularity with the help of master scissor artist Karl Johnson, who is in town.His work has been featured in dozens of national magazines and he's created silhouettes for thousands of people, including celebrities Tom Cruise, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lopez.But kids at the Children's Discovery Center were the stars on Saturday.In 90 seconds, Karl Johnson is able to turn a simple piece of paper into a work of art."All of a sudden, you see him doing all of these movements and it comes out and it looks like your child. I mean, it really is cool," said John Wacker, father of two young girls who sat for a silhouette portrait with Johnson.Johnson is a third generation silhouette artist. He learned the craft at 10 years old and still uses the German steel surgical scissors his father once owned."I got his old scissors that he was throwing away and I just started doing this as a hobby. I just took to it like a fish to water because of the vision thing," Johnson said.Johnson was born blind in his left eye. He judges distance and shape by a person's shadow. http://www.kitv.com/news/28573032/detail.html website Karl took to this unusual art form extremely well. Something he attributes, in part, to having vision in only one eye. Karl was born being able to see only from his right eye. Not having binocular vision forces Karl to judge the distance and shape of an object by examining its shadow. This allows Karl to capture an image in shadow in an uncanny way. Karl's work hangs in the homes of many Hollywood notables including Jennifer Garner, Reese Witherspoon, Oprah, Hilary Duff, Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes, Drew Barrymore and many others. He was commissioned by Marc Anthony to create silhouettes of Jennifer Lopez for her 40th Birthday Party. Karl also appeared in person at the party to cut silhouettes for the guests. Most recently Karl created silhouettes for the guests at Reese Witherspoon's wedding. http://www.cutarts.com/pages/aboutkarl.php http://www.cutarts.com/ From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 11:44:37 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:44:37 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] God Money and Politics:, English attitudes to blindness and touch, from Enlightenment to, integration Message-ID: <4E256E25.8050306@online.no> Forwarding from Simon Hayhoe Dear All, Just to let you know that my first book, God Money and Politics: English attitudes to blindness and touch, from Enlightenment to integration, is now available on in e-book Kindle edition. For those, like me, who were a little loathed to pay the =C2=A360/$100 + price tag for the hardback or =C2=A330/$50 + for the paperback, the Kindle edition is now a much cheaper =C2=A36.99/$11.48. The other massive advantage is that you also get to read the book almost immediately, without having to wait for the distributors, Amazon, mail service, etc. to bring it to your door. The links for the book in the US and UK Amazon websites are as follows. http://www.amazon.com/Attitudes-Blindness-Enlightenment-Integration-eb ook/dp/B004S2PXYE/ref=3Dsr_1_17?ie=3DUTF8&qid=1308738747&sr=3D8-17 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Attitudes-Blindness-Enlightenment-Integration- ebook/dp/B004S2PXYE/ref=3Dsr_1_5?ie=3DUTF8&s=3Ddigital-text&qid=1308742295&sr=3D 8-5 I checked on the US website this morning, and the book seems to be #28 in the best sellers on SEN-Physical Disability, which is better than it sounds as there is some stiff competition from some multi-national publishing houses writing on disability as a whole. Just in case you are also interested, my third book has just been accepted by a the US academic publishing house, Cambria Press. It will detail the methods and models I use for researching blindness and education. Its current working title Researching Legacies of Blindness. Best wishes and cheers, Simon ---------------------------------------------- Dr Simon Hayhoe, Editor ECO: On Blindness and the Arts -http://www.blindnessandarts.com Leicester, UK From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 12:49:21 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:49:21 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Why Does Writing Make Us Smarter? Message-ID: <4E257D51.3060303@online.no> Hi, Read this in the Huffinton Post about handwriting and brain development. The article is about handwriting and, I assume, sighted individuals but wondered if there could also be a correlation betweem drawing and blind individuals? Thereby making an assumtion that drawing could give cognitive benefits for a blind person? What do you think? Why Does Writing Make Us Smarter? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/16/why-does-writing-make-us-_n_900638.html Regards, Lisa From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 13:06:27 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:06:27 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] NASA Unveils a New Lunar Book for the Visually Impaired Message-ID: <4E258153.5020703@online.no> NASA Unveils a New Lunar Book for the Visually Impaired MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - NASA will unveil a new book for blind and visually impaired readers at a media event and reception hosted by the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) at 6 p.m. PDT on July 18 at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. The book "Getting a Feel for Lunar Craters" was created with the NLSI and features tactile diagrams of the lunar surface designed to educate the blind and visually impaired about the wonders of Earth's moon. David Hurd, a space science professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, Pa., is the book's author. He and tactile engineer John Matelock began creating tactile astronomy tools after a student with a visual impairment signed up for Hurd's introductory astronomy course. Cassandra Runyon, a professor at College of Charleston, Charleston, S.C. and Hurd previously produced "A Tactile Guide to the Solar System with Digital Talking Book" for NASA. Hurd and students from the California School for the Blind, Fremont, Calif., are scheduled to attend the unveiling. "NASA's Lunar Science Institute is committed to the development of resources to bring lunar science into the world of those who cannot see. 'Getting a Feel for Lunar Craters' is one giant step for humankind, making lunar science visible through touch and sound," said Yvonne Pendleton, director of the NLSI. News media planning to attend must contact Cathy Weselby at 650-604-4789 or cathy.weselby at nasa.gov before 5 p.m. Monday, July 18, for credentials. The NLSI is a virtual organization that enables collaborative, interdisciplinary research in support of NASA lunar science programs. The institute uses technology to bring scientists together around the world and comprises competitively selected U.S. teams and several international partners. NASA's Science Mission Directorate and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington, funds the institute, which is managed by Ames. For more information about the NASA Lunar Science Institute, visit: http://lunarscience.nasa.gov http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=34085 From fnugg at online.no Tue Jul 19 13:25:18 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:25:18 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Tactile map of Eden created for people with visual impairments Message-ID: <4E2585BE.2000204@online.no> Tactile map of Eden created for people with visual impairments Today saw the unveiling of a beautiful wooden scale model of Eden Project that allows people with visual impairments to experience the site's famous landscape and architecture. Complete with Biomes and planting schemes, the map is the handiwork of Lauren Milton, who created it on her model-making course at The Arts University College of Bournemouth. http://www.edenproject.com/blog/index.php/2011/07/tactile-map-of-eden-created-for-people-with-visual-impairments/ From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Fri Jul 22 11:57:29 2011 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:57:29 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] books on line! Message-ID: <6CC588DF64F27444A0B9D05DDC2BA1A85448C2907E@mail1> Hi, Just a few books I found on Google books. Some seem to be the complete book (preview) on line or nearly complete ? others have included because they sounded very interesting. Gems online: Tactile Graphics by Polly Edman, Art beyond Sight: a resource guide to art by Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Seeing beyond sight: photographs by blind teenagers By Tony Deifell, Understanding and representing space: theory and evidence from studies with blind and sighted children By Susanna Millar, God, money, and politics: English attitudes to blindness and touch, from the Enlightenment to integration By Simon Hayhoe Best regards, Lisa Tactile graphics Polly Edman http://books.google.com/books?id=C7vq4-Th71AC&dq=subject%3A%22Maps%20for%20the%20visually%20handicapped%22&source=gbs_similarbooks Art beyond sight: a resource guide to art, creativity, and visual impairment By Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel http://books.google.com/books?id=B4ioCFic7m0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false Understanding and representing space: theory and evidence from studies with blind and sighted children By Susanna Millar http://books.google.com/books?id=6nhoi8Hzuo4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false Seeing beyond sight: photographs by blind teenagers By Tony Deifell http://books.google.com/books?id=vZ_Tjqer364C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false God, money, and politics: English attitudes to blindness and touch, from the Enlightenment to integration By Simon Hayhoe http://books.google.com/books?id=FCRomhAmvbQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=falseTactual perception: a sourcebook Tactual perception: a sourcebook William Schiff, Emerson Foulke http://books.google.com/books?id=UvP0O0al0aMC&dq=subject%3A%22Maps%20for%20the%20visually%20handicapped%22&source=gbs_similarbooks no preview ? but sounds interesting International directory of tactile map collections Frank Kurt Cylke, Judith M. Dixon, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Section of Libraries for the Blind, Library of Congress. National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped No preview ? sounds interesting Tactile maps: a listing of maps in the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped collection Library of Congress. National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped http://books.google.com/books?id=9xVKtwAACAAJ&dq=subject:%22Maps+for+the+visually+handicapped%22&hl=en&ei=FV0pTpmbFsbEtAbm9ZCgDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAw no preview ? sounds interesting Resolution on the standardization of tactual symbols used on town maps for the visually handicapped, Brussels, 1 October 1983 First European Symposium on Tactual Town Maps for the Blind, 1983 - 18 pages http://books.google.com/books?id=vZCBNQAACAAJ&dq=subject:%22Maps+for+the+visually+handicapped%22&hl=en&ei=FV0pTpmbFsbEtAbm9ZCgDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBA Preview The World of Colour By David Katz http://books.google.com/books?id=49Vtnp2k1MEC&dq=subject%3A%22Maps%20for%20the%20visually%20handicapped%22&source=gbs_similarbooks no preview ? sounds interesting How can I make what I cannot see? Shir? Fukurai http://books.google.com/books?id=lKxPAAAAMAAJ&dq=subject%3A%22Maps%20for%20the%20visually%20handicapped%22&source=gbs_similarbooks preview On touching, Jean-Luc Nancy By Jacques Derrida http://books.google.com/books?id=HhWRuBFw-bIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Fri Jul 22 21:13:39 2011 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:13:39 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Tactile Mapping Resources (New Website) Message-ID: <6CC588DF64F27444A0B9D05DDC2BA1A85448A17513@mail1> Hi, Forwarding following email: My name is Robert Pickett and I am a research assistant for the Spatial and Map Cognition Research Lab in the Geography department at the University of Oregon. I found your email through the listserv ?accessibleimage? and I am contacting you to let you know that through our research we have produced a number of tactile mapping products that you may find useful. We have recently created a new website to house our products for dissemination to the public, which includes products such as: Tactile and Mapping Editor (TaME) a program developed in order to make the production of tactile maps and graphics easier for the general population, a number of Tactile Thematic Maps (you need a Tactile Image Enhancer and swell-form paper) displaying information such as population and education density for States throughout the United States (soon we hope to have lesson plans available that utilize these maps to teach human geography to students who are blind or low vision), and a general use Tactile Symbol Set to make the production of tactile maps more consistent and intuitive. All of these products are available on our website to download for free. The URL for our new products website is: http://geography.uoregon.edu/maps and the URL for our research lab?s website is: http://geography.uoregon.edu/geocog. We hope that you might find these products useful, and that you will share them with your list. Sincerely, Robert Pickett -- Robert Pickett Research Assistant Spatial and Map Cognition Research Lab (SMCRL) geography.uoregon.edu/geocog geography.uoregon.edu/maps University of Oregon -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Mon Jul 25 07:20:00 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:20:00 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] taxi signals for the blind Message-ID: <4E2D1920.2000804@online.no> Susan Woolf Artist Intent http://susanwoolf.co.za/content/artistic-intent Big Apple to see SA's taxi signals for the blind South Africa's unique taxi hand signals have gone to New York. A collection of work by artist Susan Woolf, inspired by the gestures, is on exhibition at the prestigious Museum of Modern Art. Artist Susan Woolf with the stamp collection of tactile shapes inspired by hand signals used by taxi commuters in Gauteng Picture: RAYMOND PRESTON Woolf, credited with creating the first artwork based on the pervasive taxi signals, is exhibiting a collection of tactile shapes which have been turned into a braille version of her work. The Sandton mother of three, who left for the US last Sunday, said she was "completely surprised" and honoured by the museum's invitation. "It's not something somebody expects," she said. Long fascinated by the intricate hand signs between taxi drivers and their passengers to signal their intended destination, Woolf was inspired to develop a new language for blind commuters. Her first work on the taxi signals appeared in a 2007 taxi-sign handbook, which has been translated into seven African languages. Woolf said a short video explaining the culture of taxi signs and her development of these into a language suitable for blind commuters was shown at the exhibition. "It's a working travel language that's completely multicultural. There about 50 or 60 hand signs in Gauteng alone," she said. Last year, the South African Post Office launched a series of colourful stamps of Woolf's taxi signal art. These have since been voted the fifth-most important series of stamps in the world. The stamps also have raised shapes of the signs for the blind. The idea to translate the signs into a language for blind commuters was born out of Woolf's natural curiosity. She presented her idea to Blind SA and, for the first few years, worked closely with the organisation to develop the language. "So many blind people have to take taxis, and this is just a way of including people. I didn't expect anything to come of it. I just did it because it was right and it worked, and it was fun." The response, said Woolf, was remarkable. The shapes were also translated into a Braille handbook. "Blind people have said to me that they felt wonderful to be included. It's giving people a chance to look up a sign if they want to go somewhere. It's empowering people with an option," she said. Woolf, a graduate of the Johannesburg School of Arts, is working on her PhD. Her thesis on the hand signs is based on the art and anthropology of her research. During her 19-year career as an artist, she has held exhibitions in South Africa, the UK, Germany and the US. The Taxi Hand Sign Shape Lingo for Blind People opens to the public at the Museum of Modern Art today and runs until November 7. http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/2011/07/24/big-apple-to-see-sa-s-taxi-signals-for-the-blind?service=print link at Moma Talk to Me with video http://moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/objects/146251/ What is /Talk to Me/? /Talk to Me/ is an exhibition on the communication between people and objects that will open at The Museum of Modern Art on July 24th 2011. It will feature a wide range of objects from all over the world, from interfaces and products to diagrams, visualizations, perhaps even vehicles and furniture, by bona-fide designers, students, scientists, all designed in the past few years or currently under development. http://wp.moma.org/talk_to_me/ From fnugg at online.no Mon Jul 25 09:04:32 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:04:32 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] artist, science models, ceramist, exhibition, blog Message-ID: <4E2D31A0.1000007@online.no> Hi, Links and excerpts to articles. Regards, Lisa She started coping with the eye disease 15 years ago and is now totally blind in her left eye and objects are fuzzy through her right eye. "I don't really remember what it's like to see," Cross said. "I knew I'd be old. I knew I'd be wrinkled. But, I didn't know I'd be blind," she said. She is happy, however, with her good fortune in life and noted that she's doing just fine. Macular degeneration hasn't stunted her love of daisies, remembering pansies hardly ever die and that red geraniums blend well with the perennial palette that fills her gardens. Her green lawns are infused with bundles of yellows and reds each spring as she carefully places flowers on different patches of the property, perfecting her art to a tee. http://www.westyellowstonenews.com/news/article_4290347e-b646-11e0-8f4e-001cc4c002e0.html 6 interactive directories for Leroy Merlin with tactile map and wayfinding http://www.eng.viadirect.com/2011/07/l%C3%AEle-des-medias-has-equiped-at-the-end-of-june-it-first-retail-store-leroy-merlin-main-do-it-yourself-stores-in-europe-l.html HYDERABAD: A small collection of tubes, wires and beads are tucked away in a corner as 80-year-old Egbert Dawson walks among the life-sized models of various biological systems he has created over 11 years. "I preserve whatever I can find. You never know what might come in handy," says the biology teacher. These relief models are specially designed to aid biology education for visually impaired students. "Initially, it was very difficult to teach the concepts related to different biological systems like the circulatory system in animals or the various parts of a flower. Though these topics are discussed in a text book, it is difficult to explain them to a student who cannot see. Hence, I started making these models for explaining things better," said Dawson. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/giving-model-lessons-to-visually-impaired/169329-60-121.html West Drayton man took up sculpture after going blind ARTIST Colin Hoppe has not always been a successful sculptor -- he only discovered his talents after losing his sight. "I've seen more now that I'm blind then I could when I could see," he told the Gazette when asked what impact his artistic gift has had on his life. Colin, 52, suffers from retinitis pigmentosa-- an hereditary disease that sees the eyesight degenerate throughout the sufferers lifetime. Two of his brothers are registered blind and another is short-sighted. His sister carries the gene and could pass it on to her children. Colin, of Lavender Rise, West Drayton, used to be a chef, before his eyesight declined forcing him to stop work in 1994. He embarked on an adult education course in pottery as part of his rehabilitation, later taking classes at Harlington Community School in Hayes. He made his first piece of pottery during the course and went on to unleash a passion for sculpting. One of his teachers recommended a group called Blind Art and it was through them that Colin took part in his first exhibition and sold his first piece of work. http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-london-news/local-uxbridge-news/2011/07/21/west-drayton-man-took-up-sculpture-after-going-blind-113046-29097457/ BlindArt Collection @ Royal National College for the Blind The opening of the BlindArt Collection at the Royal National College for the Blind, Hereford The BlindArt Permanent Collection showcases exceptional work by artists, both visually impaired and sighted, and encourages a re-evaluation of what constitutes visual art. BlindArt Permanent Collection breaks through traditional hierarchies & barriers in the arts by actively encouraging all works to be experienced through touch. The Collection challenges the notion that sight is essential for creating and enjoying exceptional art. The BlindArt Permanent Collection is the worlds first permanent showcase of visual art accessible to visually impaired people, and includes paintings, sculpture, installations and other works of art. Each work in the Collection is made accessible through a range of access materials: large print & Braille labels, audio-descriptive guides, tactile images, large print & Braille catalogues, etc BlindArt will use the Collection to promote Inclusive Exhibition Design to museums, galleries and art schools. Since July 2009 BlindArt Permanent Collection has been permanently housed at the Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) in Hereford. RNC is a key player in national and international innovations in the teaching and training of people with sight loss, and is a leading resource centre for professionals working in the field. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8vA2fabxWw&feature=related Jorge Restrepo art for the blind Managua http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6P9JKOHSjo&feature=related sent before, but thought to send again 'What Seeing is Really About' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmIvik74ZE&feature=related Reflections: Art in Italy, Art in San Diego blog A sculptor goes through "an exhausting labour with hammer and chisel, is covered with dust and sweat so that he looks like a baker and not like an artist, whereas 'the painter sits in great comfort before his work, well dressed, and wields his light brush loaded with lovely colours. He can be dressed as well as he pleases, and his house can be clean and filled with beautiful paintings. He often works to the accompaniment of music, or listening to the reading of many fine works. All this can be heard without being drowned with the sounds of hammering or other uproar.'" Anthony Blunt, The Social Position of the Artist.* * Leonardo was fending off attacks from sculptors - like Nicolo Tribolo. Tribolo's response to a survey conducted by Benedetto Varchi in 1546 that considered which medium was the more noble - sculpture or painting. Tribolo argued that a blind man could decipher the reality of a sculpted work, but a painting would be merely a flat surface. http://www.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/joe-nalven/2011/jul/19/reflections-art-in-italy-art-in-san-diego/ I am a Color blind artist and need help.? I am an digital artist and I am color blind (red-green I think) -- and-- I need a program of some sort that can extract colors from pictures and tell me what color it is.IN WORDS (If it exist at all) I cannot find one anywhere plus Photoshop's dropper doesn't help. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110718225737AA1iYmE From fnugg at online.no Mon Jul 25 11:02:16 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:02:16 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] The Albino Code and actor Dennis Hurley Message-ID: <4E2D4D38.7050909@online.no> Hi, Link to actor Dennis Hurley's site and his film The Albino Code. REgards, Lisa Dennis Hurley http://www.dennis-hurley.com/ http://www.7fluidoz.com/albinocode/ Writters statement When May 19, 2006, rolls around, Ron Howard 's /The Da Vinci Code / will hit theaters (well, barring any legal difficulties). For those of you who haven't read the novel, there's a heavily featured character named Silas, who's not only an Opus Dei monk and an assassin, he's also an albino. As someone with albinism , I can tell you that albinism affects the pigment of the eyes, skin, and hair; vision problems are a key part of the condition---probably the most important part. In /The Da Vinci Code /novel , Silas has red eyes, shoots people from far distances, and drives in a high-speed car chase at night. Putting aside the fact that people with albinism do not have red eyes, the activities that Silas engages in are nearly impossible for someone with albinism (at least for any that I've met, and I've met a lot of folks with our trademark paler-than-pale skin). Dan Brown supposedly did his research in the area of religion, but he seemed to skip the albinism research entirely when he created Silas. Silas is a full, rich character in the book, I admit, but he bears no resemblance to a real-life person with albinism. As a result, Mr. Brown perpetuates the negative and fictional stereotypes of the evil albino with red eyes and/or supernatural powers that Hollywood has perpetuated for years (e.g. /End of Days /, /The Matrix Reloaded /, /Powder /). Admittedly, I did try my best to audition for the role of Silas, not to further the stereotype, but to bring my own sense of realism to the role (not to mention, landing a part in a Ron Howard film would have been a pretty big break for a struggling actor). Of course, that plum of a role went to Paul Bettany (/A Beautiful Mind /, /Wimbledon /) a non-albino from Brooklyn. So, instead of complaining endlessly, I wrote a short film parody, entitled /The Albino Code/, with the following premise: "What if the story of /The Da Vinci Code/ could be told from Silas's point of view? And what if Silas were an actual person with albinism thrust into a world of secret codes, mystery, and assassination?" The film will be shot in early April, and will be available here on May 11, 2006 (one week before the release of /The Da Vinci Code/). The Albino Code film http://www.7fluidoz.com/albinocode/moviehbw.php Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind http://nfbpad.wordpress.com/ From fnugg at online.no Mon Jul 25 13:09:45 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:09:45 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] iphone, Body building, teacher artist, Lunar Craters txt and wav file Message-ID: <4E2D6B19.6090109@online.no> video of new Iphone app - bill recognition Blind iPhone users discover a wealth of useful apps http://newsok.com/blind-iphone-users-discover-a-wealth-of-useful-apps/article/3586744 Braille book brings lunar craters down to earth NASA Ames releases new book with tactile diagrams for visually impaired readers Craters more than 200,000 miles away from Earth are now within reach for visually impaired readers thanks to a new Braille book that debuted Monday at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field. "Getting a Feel for Lunar Craters" features tactile diagrams of the lunar surface and is designed to educate the blind and visually impaired about Earth's moon, according to NASA http://mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=4509 http://lunarscience.nasa.gov/articles/tactile text version http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/files/getting_a_feel_for_lunar_craters.pdf audio file http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/files/getting_a_feel_for_lunar_craters.wav http://www.nightskyobserver.com/the-moon/nasa-creates-tactile-book-for-the-visually-impaired-to-learn-about-the-moon/ http://www.agiweb.org/geotimes/june04/education.html Babineaux sees his dream being realized Baron Babineaux Jr. has spent eight months pursuing competitive bodybuilding, a sport that relies on listening to instructions and seeing the results of gym hours, without having the ability to do either. At age 12, Babineaux was diagnosed with Usher?s syndrome, which means he is deaf and legally blind. Sliding his hands over and around gym equipment, Babineaux chooses a machine, straddles the seat and starts his workout in preparation for his first competition. Trainer Josh Sonnier stands behind him and taps on his shoulder indicating when to start and when to stop. ?He?s a 32-year-old man,? said Sonnier. ?He?s no different than me. We talk about the same things.? By ?talk,? Sonnier is referring to the system of tactile gestures the two have worked out to communicate. Although Babineaux has taught Sonnier some signs, most of their code is a series the two worked out on their own. http://www.iberianet.com/news/babineaux-sees-his-dream-being-realized/article_06e40d92-aaa2-11e0-93c6-001cc4c03286.html Blind artist shares beauty Pauline Harper might be blind, but she sees, and shares, plenty of beauty. The New Plymouth artist was born with a condition that means depending on the light, she has between 3 and 7 per cent of the vision non-sight-impaired people have. Most of the time she can only make out the vaguest of shapes and colours. "I only see pretty people, I can't see wrinkles or spots or anything like that," she said. But sometimes she can see more than people with perfect sight. "When it's foggy, it's like living in rainbows. I never realised that most people don't see them until my husband asked me, 'How can you find something so grey and miserable beautiful?' " This extraordinary perception of the world comes through in her textured and raised paintings, which she describes as "the best form of counselling", having helped her work through loss, grief, abuse, fear and chronic illness. And she enjoys helping others like her express what they see and feel in a similar way. http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/slider/5260403/Blind-artist-shares-beauty Longview woman applies Swedish art to blankets and throws Colleen Holten, an avid reader who is legally blind, didn?t need another hobby that would strain her eyes. Still, her mother kept getting her to try Swedish weaving. "I had no interest," the Longview woman said. When she finally relented, agreeing to try a table runner while on a cruise, Holten was hooked. "It?s very, very relaxing," she said. "Instead of gambling" on the cruise ship, "I was in my bunk, weaving." http://tdn.com/lifestyles/article_831fc7f4-aa8c-11e0-ae93-001cc4c03286.html From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Fri Aug 19 07:58:14 2011 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:58:14 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Fruchterman's blog, Diagram Center, Poet Message-ID: <6CC588DF64F27444A0B9D05DDC2BA1A85A65C9B587@mail1> Hi, Link to Jim Fruchterman's blog about the Diagram Center. In it gives some information about the image description web tool called Poet. "I saw an initial demonstration of a web-based image description tool, called Poet. This makes it possible for people describing graphics (publisher production people, illustrators, alternative media producers like Benetech, and volunteers) to work from a standard web browser and interactively add image descriptions to DAISY books. The described book can then be re-published and made available to users who wish to have image descriptions voiced by digital talking book software tools or players, or have the descriptions in Braille." Blog link http://benetech.blogspot.com/ Regards, Lisa Vennlig hilsen Lisa Yayla R?dgiver ---------------------- Huseby kompetansesenter Gamle Hovsetervei 3 0768 Oslo Telefon 22029539 lisa.yayla at statped.no www.statped.no/huseby -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Sep 6 08:07:20 2011 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 10:07:20 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Ngram Viewer - Google search tool Message-ID: <6CC588DF64F27444A0B9D05DDC2BA1A85BAC54F234@mail1> Hello, Google has a very interesting tool which I think a lot of you might like and find useful. It is called Google Books Ngram Viewer and the result can be a cornucopia of literature. With Ngram you enter a phrase or two and Google does the search with a resulting graph of the occurrence of the phrase(s) from say 1800 to 2000. Once you have the result you can click on a time period and Google shows the books, articles that it came up with. The first thing I did when I read about Ngram was to enter the term "tactile graphics" for the period 1800 to 2000. The result was interesting - the curve started at 1980 slowing sloping upwards to 1990 where it shoots up like a church spire. Next I entered the phrase blind painter for the same period - really neat! The results will probably need some sifting through so if not the mother-load a rich source. Google Ngram Viewer http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/ Regards, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Thu Sep 15 08:38:28 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:38:28 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] John Bramblitt, flag Message-ID: <4E71B984.8080709@online.no> Blind artist introduces parish students to his colorful world September 14th, 2011 John Bramblitt says it sounds crazy that the loss of his sight led him to a career as a visual artist, but that's exactly what happened. The 40-year-old artist from Denton, Texas, whose work is on display at the "Sight Unseen" exhibit at the Old Post Office Museum, was invited to speak at a Winnsboro-Franklin Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday to explain how art helped him cope with blindness. Bramblitt was left blind ten years ago by a rare form of epilepsy. http://www.franklinsun.com/news.php?id=4018 article about Degas exhibition Despite chocolate box image, Degas a "radical" http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/13/uk-arts-degas-london-idUSLNE78C04620110913 Blind SC Students Receive Tactile American Flags SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) Students at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning, never knowing exactly what they're saluting. The Herald-Journal of Spartanburg reported (http://bit.ly/pGCXGk) that changed Friday, when visually impaired students received 17 tactile American flags. The Kate Barry Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution donated the flags. DAR members in Missouri hand-crafted the flags. Blue braid borders a square of shiny star-shaped brads, and nylon webbing indicates where the red stripes are. Students can feel the 50 stars and the 13 red-and-white stripes. Students say they're happy to have flags in their classrooms that help them understand the history in the design. DAR members say the school needs another 57 flags. They're working with other organizations to supply those. http://www2.counton2.com/news/2011/sep/10/blind-sc-students-receive-tactile-american-flags-ar-2389359/ a mention on a website - but no link to original "The colors are so bright and the design quite unique. But it got better the more I read about it. This is artwork from a team of two BLIND artists!!!" http://thetygerlily.com/tag/blind-artist/ article http://www.goupstate.com/article/20110910/ARTICLES/109091030/1083/ARTICLES?Title=Tactile-American-flags-allow-SCSDB-students-to-see-what-they-are-saluting *"Emotional" Phones Relay Handholding, Kisses* The technology may be used to help blind mobile phone users read braille on handsets. http://www.mobiledia.com/news/107571.html John Bramblitt ...... In the Old Post Office Museum in downtown Winnsboro, Bramblitt's exhibit, 'Sight Unseen', will remain through November First. The artist, with his faithful guide dog, Echo alongside, led a workshop at Franklin Parish High. Students painted with blindfolds to aquaint themselves with a blind artist's world. If you'd like to know more, John has a book coming out in the spring. It's title: "Shouting in the Dark". "It is full of my paintings. It tells the story of how I lost my eyesight and the depression I went through from that. And how I learned to paint and how that helped me." http://www.knoe.com/story/15429038/blind-artist-visits-winnsboro?clienttype=printable http://www.coastlinepilot.com/news/tn-cpt-0909-dubin-20110909,0,6189002.story friend told him the other day that he led a blind man to the sculpture. The man had gone down to the park and was trying to find the beams. His friend led the man to it and he quietly stood there, just feeling the fallen beams. http://www.coastlinepilot.com/news/tn-cpt-0909-dubin-20110909,0,6189002.story Sight unseen Works of blind artist on exhibit in Winnsboro. John Bramblitt offering workshop Saturday http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20110908/LIFESTYLE/109080305 CBS news video Blind Man Is One Talented Painter http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/blind-man-is-one-talented-painter/ From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Thu Sep 15 11:12:39 2011 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:12:39 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Getty museum educator, Vatican, Pete Eckert, student, art program Message-ID: <6CC588DF64F27444A0B9D05DDC2BA1A85BFDD8E2B4@mail1> Hi, A few more links. Pete Eckert's article on how he got into photography is a good read - excerpt from it : Women talk about a glass ceiling. Blind folks face a glass front door. We can look into the workplace but aren?t allowed to enter. I do something else. I slip photos under the door from the world of the blind to be viewed in the light of the sighted Regards, Lisa article and video Pete Eckert: The blind visual artist Posted by Chris on Thursday, March 3, 2011 ? 1 Comment and 0 Reactions It?s been a while since something has got me thinking as much as the story of Pete Eckert. You see, Pete lost his eyesight around the time he gained his degree, though after losing his eyesight he carried on to experiment in various different mediums and eventually settled on photography. Photography is now is main job, he exhibits his work, he is active within the photography community and has been gaining awards left, right and centre. For more on Pete?s work, you can visit his website here: www.peteeckert.com/ http://www.pixelatedphotographer.com/pete-eckert-the-blind-visual-artist >From Pete Eckert's website- A short history of how I got into photography. I didn?t take photography seriously until I went totally blind. I was trained in sculpture and industrial design. I have always been a visual person and planned to study architecture at Yale, but then I started to lose my sight. A doctor coolly told me I had Retinitis Pigmentosa and left the room without further comment. While listening to Dr. Dean Edell, on a San Francisco TV network, I learned I would go completely blind. A caller asked about RP. I remember the doctor?s words; they hit me like a hammer. ?A person with RP gradually looses their sight until they go completely blind.? There is currently no cure for RP. It took me two years to recover and figure out what to do. I was a carpenter at the time. I did first-rate work. So I never needed to hunt for a job. None-the-less I worked very little, just enough to pay the rent and for food. My girlfriend, Amy, stood by me during this difficult time. Amy and I were engaged. I worried about the future. At one point I laid out charts graphing the loss of vision over time for her. I told Amy if she left me after we married I wouldn?t hold it against her. She stuck it out. In June we will be married 25 years. Thank you Amy. My sight was going fast. I knew I had to stop driving the Moto Guzzi I love so much. Working on construction sites was also becoming dangerous. I finally came to a decision. We would move to the east coast, so I could be near my family. Thanks mom. We married in a rose garden in Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, Connecticut. I earned an MBA and a black belt in martial arts. My two fears were how to make money and how to protect myself. My MBA and black belt helped but my problems were far from over. .... Amy hated the cold Connecticut winters. Although she did look cute bundled up like a little kid. I promised to get her back home to the west coast. After visiting a friend in Sacramento I realized it was a good place for blind people. It?s flat, the streets are laid out to the compass, it has good transportation, and we like the weather. I had walked too many miles in the snow and dark to get through school and to the Dojo. Sacramento is close enough for Amy to see her family in the bay area. We could also afford a house. I had decided buying a house in San Francisco would never happen because prices are so high and finding work had become so difficult. I found a job with the state. My department?s mission was to help the blind. But as many blind and disabled persons know well, government bureaucracies are often a hindrance instead of help. I was appalled at how the system treated the blind: the people we were supposed to help. California has an unemployment rate of about 85 percent for blind people. I moved on. I decided I wanted to do something fun. .... I was doing woodcuts and had purchased a wood lathe. Each day when Amy came back from work I showed her the day?s art. I was doing larger and larger woodcuts so I could feel the image. Eventually I was cutting these with an electric router. Tai Chi came in handy as I slowly made the cuttings. Each time Amy came home I would do another test print. She barely would sit down before I would be asking how it looked. I was driving her crazy. I needed a new faster media. I needed a better way to tell what I was making. The things I was making on the lathe I knew couldn?t earn a living. They were all nice. People were impressed I could even teach myself to use the lathe safely. But I needed to make a living. I tried making hard wood clocks. A few very nice sighted people helped me design a method so I could cut the gears. It was fun, but took to long to make a profit. I didn?t want to give up and just do art as a hobby. One day I was cleaning out a drawer and found my mother in laws? old camera. She had passed away a few years earlier. I like mechanical things, so Amy found me fooling with it. I asked her to describe the settings to me so I could figure out how to use the 1950?s Kodak. I found the camera fascinating and discovered it had an infrared setting. I thought a blind guy doing photos in a non-visible wavelength would be amusing. I was hooked. I knew nothing about film or manual cameras. My first photography outing after a thousand questions at the camera store started it all. People liked the photos. I had found a quicker media. Again I was asking a million questions at the camera store. I have to give Camera Arts, here in Sacramento, a bunch of credit. I couldn?t have learned photography without them. I searched for photography books. But we ended up having to find them at yard sales. I tried to find photography books at the state library. But the reference computer, intended to let the blind read books, didn?t work. I made an appointment with the resource specialist and she could not make the system work. They called others and no one could help. I wonder if this computer ever worked. I was on my own to find a path. ... The old cameras came with me on my nightly excursions. Uzu had to learn a new command. His command to keep street tough guys from taking my equipment was, ?watch my toys.? I had taught him the command ?find your toy? so adding a command to protect my camera came naturally. It also helped that he looked like a big black wolf. People have tried to mug me for my camera equipment but I?ve never been hurt or lost a single piece. Uzu never hurt anyone. He just placed himself between me and the bad guys until I could get my stuff together and do the fly command I had taught him. Thanks Uzu. I am only a tourist in the sighted world. Women talk about a glass ceiling. Blind folks face a glass front door. We can look into the workplace but aren?t allowed to enter. I do something else. I slip photos under the door from the world of the blind to be viewed in the light of the sighted. I view my work during the event of taking the shot in my mind?s eye. I ?see? each shot very clearly, only I use sound, touch, and memory. I am more of a conceptual artist than a photographer. My influences come from my past memory of art and what I now find in the world at large. I now ask to touch sculptures in museums too. That?s another long story. I am not bound by the assumptions of the sighted or their assumed limits. The camera is another means of making art to me. In fact my drawings look like my photos, (at least the ones I made when I was sighted). There is a common thread uniting all my artwork. If you saw my old figurative sculptures you could tell. They have a sort of bash and crash style. Even when I was very young and 125 pounds doing stone sculpture I started with big rocks and ended up with little ones. I am trying to cut a new path as a blind visual artist. Sighted people don?t help me make the art. They do give me feedback before I do the final large prints. I shoot the image, develop the film, and I do the contact print. I do what I call sample prints. There is a clear dividing line. I need the feedback loop to afford making large final products. I could cut sighted people completely out of my process. I could do a write up about the event of taking the photos. The negatives, contact sheets, and write up about the event could be the final product. I like doing the dramatic large prints better. I want sighted people involved. It is a good bridge between the blind and sighted. I want to be included in the world and accepted. It is important to me that the sighted think about blindness. What I get out of taking photos is the event not the picture. I do the large prints to get sighted people thinking. Talking with people in galleries builds a bridge between my mind?s eye and their vision of my work. Occasionally people refuse to believe I am blind. I am a visual person. I just can?t see. http://www.peteeckert.com/ Vatican museums develop first-ever tours for deaf and blind http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-museums-develop-first-ever-tours-for-deaf-and-blind/ photo http://www.myspace.com/marawave4fineart/photos/1407272#%7B%22ImageId%22%3A1407272%7D article, video, podcast MORENO VALLEY: Legally blind student has artistic vision Although he's legally blind, Erick Cabral, 17, draws praise for his artistic vision. "He's so motivated, he's ahead of everybody," said Dave Torbert, Erick's art teacher at Canyon Springs High School in Moreno Valley. "He's the perfect student to have. He's up to every new challenge." What makes Erick an unusual artist is that his foremost challenge is seeing. He was born with a rare disorder called septo-optic dysplasia. http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_wartist04.27d402b.html Markham artist brings joy Holland Bloorview is Canada?s largest children?s rehabilitation hospital. It pioneers treatments, technologies, therapies and programs that give children with disabilities tools to fully participate in life. People attending the exhibit will see a video of Emily and others painting in her Bloorview program. Emily?s exhibition is a precursor to upcoming programs at the Varley Art Gallery. Programs include Sensory Exploration in the Arts (a program for deaf-blind participants), as well as the Varley?s new art therapy for children with autism spectrum. ... The Varley Gallery?s program for deaf-blind participants starts Wednesday, March 9. People can register for the April art therapy classes now. http://www.yorkregion.com/news/article/962446--markham-artist-brings-joy A Touching Experience: Exploring Art with Blind and Low Sighted Visitors I wouldn?t have become a museum educator if I didn?t believe in the potential magic of an art museum. I?ve had enough experiences at the Getty Villa to know that I?m not crazy?that special experiences can be had with works of art. It may not happen all the time, but it can happen, and when it does, it?s often with results you least expect. Three years ago, I was utterly stumped by the idea of teaching a group with vision loss. Art museums privilege sight over any other sense. Touch, the sense by which many blind and low vision individuals negotiate the world, is considered taboo and against proper museum etiquette. How would anyone without the ability to see create an experience, much less a meaningful one, in such a non-touch environment? http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/a-touching-experience-exploring-art-with-blind-and-low-sighted-visitors/ John Bramlitt's website http://bramblitt.net/ -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Mon Sep 19 02:15:46 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:15:46 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Drawing program for visually impaired Message-ID: <4E76A5D2.8090406@online.no> Forwarding very interesting news about a drawing tool for the visually impaired created by Richard Baldwin, Professor of Computer Information Technology Austin Community College. This message is intended mainly for teachers of blind or visually impaired students in STEM courses. Of course, this is a public forum and everyone is welcome to read the message and provide comments as appropriate. Having been the sighted teacher of a blind student for several years, I firmly believe that making it possible for blind and visually impaired people, and particularly blind and visually impaired students in STEM courses, to communicate using accurate printed and tactile graphics will improve the quality of life and the likelihood of academic success for those students. I have written a computer program that makes it possible, for the first time in history, for blind and visually impaired people to create such graphics in an accessible and user-friendly way. Version 0.0.8 of my drawing program for blind students is now posted and available for free and immediate download at: http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/SWT-SVG/SVGDraw01.zip Three components are necessary to accomplish the goal of widespread graphics communication among blind and visually impaired students and their teachers: * Availability of a robust and universally accepted graphics standard. * Availability of a robust, accessible, and user-friendly drawing program that allows blind people to take advantage of the SVG standard. * Availability of high-quality, economical, and readily available graphics embossing equipment. A robust graphics standard - SVG A robust and universally accepted graphics standard is already available in the form of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). See Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) An accessible and user-friendly drawing program - SVGDraw01 I have written and provided, free of charge, a drawing program that blind and visually impaired people can use to draw pictures. To the best of my knowledge, no other existing program provides that capability. (If such a program exists, it is a well-kept secret.) Thus, for the first time in history, your students can express themselves using graphics. While many drawing programs exist, they are written for use by sighted people and not for use by blind people. My program is designed and written specifically for use by blind and visually impaired people. Even though my program is still under development, it already provides the capability for STEM students to create graphics that mirror many of the figures and diagrams typically found in STEM textbooks. A graph board on steroids As a teacher of blind or visually impaired students, you might think of this program as bringing the old-fashioned graph board into the computer age. Students and others using this program can create both printed and tactile graphics using many of the same thought processes that they would use when constructing a "drawing" on a graph board using pushpins, rubber bands, a protractor, and a measuring stick. For example, one student might use this program to create and send an SVG file to a friend with the message "Take a look at the cool floor plan of my new apartment." Another student might use this program to create and send an SVG file to a college professor with the message "This is a free body diagram showing the magnitude and directions of forces F21 and F23 caused by the interactions among charges q1, q2, and q3." Getting an immediate visual output I will be adding new capabilities over time. However, I probably won't add capabilities that would not be useful to blind and visually impaired users. For example, the program does not, by default, produce an immediate visual output. The primary output is intended to be a printer, a graphics embosser, or both. But, if you are sighted, or if you are blind and using the vOICe sonification software to view the progress of your drawing, you can use a procedure described in the attached file to view your drawing as it progresses. High-quality, economical, and readily-available graphics embossing equipment This is the area where we fall short relative to achieving our widespread graphics communications goal. Although high-quality embossing equipment is available in the marketplace, it is not economical (by computer standards) nor is it readily available for the personal use of most blind students. I view this as a supply and demand problem. Prior to the release of my program, there were no robust, accessible, and user-friendly tools that made it possible for blind people to create accurate graphics for use with a high-quality embosser. Thus, the demand for such embossing equipment has been very limited. My hope is that by making it possible for all blind people to create accurate graphics, the demand for such embossing equipment will go up and the costs for the equipment will come down. Even today, however, many schools, colleges, and other organizations own high-quality graphics embossing equipment that they can make available to their blind and visually impaired clientele on some basis. In those cases, there is no reason for blind people to hold back from learning to communicate using graphics. My drawing program is freely available for you and your students to use. As a teacher, it is up to you to connect your blind and visually impaired students to those available hardware embossing resources. The attached HTML file is the User-Instruction file for my drawing program named SVGDraw01. Please feel free to forward this message to others who may have an interest in the use of graphics by blind and visually impaired people. Richard Baldwin Professor of Computer Information Technology Austin Community College baldwin at austincc.edu http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/ Instructions.htm Brief instructions for using the program named SVGDraw01 Updated 09/17/11 At any time, you can tab down to the button labeled "Press this button to return to the Action List," and use that button to abandon this Instructional document and return to the Action List. Do not press the Esc key. Index * Purpose o A robust graphics standard - SVG o An accessible and user-friendly drawing program SVGDraw01 o High-quality, economical, and readily-available graphics embossing equipment * A note about drawing orientation * Program startup * General user instructions o Selecting actions from the Action List o Performing the action o Pressing the Esc key o Text field objects o Checkbox objects o Button objects o Message box objects o Polylines, polygons, and paths o The name and path of the output file o Rotation, translation, and scaling o A note about page size * Action items o User instructions o Open existing drawing o Start a new drawing o Draw a line o Draw a rectangle o Draw a circle o Draw an ellipse o Draw a polyline, a polygon, or a path + A csv file + A path file + Sample files o Draw line of text o Rotate shapes o Translate shapes o Scale shapes o Delete shapes o Stop program o Write drawing file * Please provide feedback Purpose Select A note about drawing orientation to skip this section and go directly to the next major section. I firmly believe that making it possible for blind and visually impaired people, and particularly blind and visually impaired students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to communicate using accurate printed and tactile graphics will improve the quality of life for those people. The purpose of this program is to make it possible for blind and visually impaired people to create such graphics in an accessible and user-friendly way. Three components are necessary to accomplish that goal: * Availability of a robust and universally accepted graphics standard. * Availability of an accessible and user-friendly drawing program that allows blind people to take advantage of that standard. * Availability of high-quality, economical, and readily available graphics embossing equipment. A robust graphics standard - SVG A robust and universally accepted graphics standard is already available in the form of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). See Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) An accessible and user-friendly drawing program - SVGDraw01 This program is my attempt to provide, free of charge, a drawing program that makes it possible for blind and visually impaired people to take advantage of many of the capabilities of SVG. Even though the program is still under development, it already makes it possible for STEM students to create graphics that mirror many of the figures and diagrams typically found in STEM textbooks. A graph board on steroids One might think of this program as bringing the old-fashioned graph board that uses pushpins and rubber bands to convey graphic information into the computer age. Students and others using this program can create both printed and tactile graphics using much the same thought processes that they would use when constructing a "drawing" on a graph board using pushpins, rubber bands, a protractor, and a measuring stick. For example, one person might use this program to create and send an SVG file to a friend with the message "Take a look at the cool floor plan of my new apartment." Another person might use this program to create and send an SVG file to a college professor with the message "This is a free body diagram showing the magnitude and directions of forces F21 and F23 caused by the interactions among charges q1, q2, and q3." Getting an immediate visual output I will be adding new capabilities over time. However, I probably won't add capabilities that would not be useful to blind users. For example, the program does not, by default, produce a visual output. But, if you are sighted, or if you are a blind user using the vOICe sonification software to view the progress of your drawing, you can use the following procedure to create a visual output. Start the program and select the following two actions in sequence in the Action List: 1. "Start a new drawing" 2. "Write drawing file" Provide the requested information for both actions including the path and file name for the output SVG file. Then open the output SVG file in Firefox or IE9 (earlier versions of IE won't work) . You should see an empty drawing in the browser window. Return to the Action List and start drawing shapes. Each time you want to see an updated drawing, select and process "Write drawing file" and then refresh your browser. Your updated drawing should appear in the browser window. You should be able to continue adding shapes and viewing them so long as you don't select "Open existing drawing" or "Start a new drawing." High-quality, economical, and readily-available graphics embossing equipment This is the area where we fall short relative to achieving the communications goal. Although high-quality embossing equipment is available, it is neither economical nor readily available for the majority of blind people. I view this as something of a supply and demand problem. Prior to the release of the developmental versions of this program, to the best of my knowledge, there have been no readily-available tools that make it possible for blind people to create accurate graphics for use with a high-quality embosser. Thus, the demand for such equipment has been very limited. My hope is that by making it possible for all blind people to create accurate graphics, the demand for such equipment will go up and the costs for the equipment will come down. Even today, however, many schools, colleges, and other organizations own high-quality graphics embossing equipment that they can make available to their clientele on some basis. In those cases, there is no reason for blind people to hold back from learning to communicate using accurate graphics. A note about drawing orientation In most STEM courses , you typically learn to draw graphs and other diagrams with the 0,0 origin in the lower-left corner of the drawing. Positive values along the y-axis go up the page and positive values along the x-axis go to the right. Unfortunately, in SVG, and most other computer graphics programming systems, the situation is reversed insofar as the y-axis is concerned. In SVG, and in this program as well, the 0,0 origin is at the top-left corner of the drawing and positive values along the y-axis go down the page. This not only has an impact on the physical locations of shape objects in your drawings, it also has an impact on the orientation of those objects. for example, this causes the reference corner for a rectangle to be the upper-left corner. It causes the location of the y-coordinate values for all shapes to be measured down from the top of the drawing instead of up from the bottom of the drawing. Note, however, that it does not change the fact that the reference location for a line of text is at the lower-left corner of the first character in the line. At some point, I may attempt to correct this issue arithmetically. In the meantime, however, you will simply need to get used to an upside-down coordinate system, and unfortunately, you may need to refer your teacher or professor to this section in this document. Program startup When the program starts, you will land in an Action List that provides the following actions: * User instructions - opens this HTML file containing instructions in a browser window. * Open existing drawing - opens a drawing file that was previously created and saved using SVGDraw01. * Start a new drawing - starts fresh and creates a new drawing. * Draw a line - draw a straight line segment between two specified points. * Draw a rectangle - draw a rectangle at a specified location with a specified width and height. * Draw a circle - draw a circle at a specified location with a specified radius. * Draw an ellipse - draw an ellipse at a specified location with specified width and height. * Draw a polyline, a polygon, or a path - draw a polyline, a polygon, or a path based on csv data or path data that is imported into the program. * Draw a line of text - draw a line of text at a specified location with a specified point size and other parameters as well. * Rotate shapes - rotate any one or more shapes by a specified angle in degrees clockwise around a specified center of rotation. See Rotation, translation, and scaling below for cautions regarding the use of this action. * Translate shapes - translate any one or more shapes by a specified distance along both the x-axis and the y-axis. See Rotation, translation, and scaling below. * Scale shapes - Multiply the coordinate values that make up one or more shapes by a scale factor to enlarge or shrink the shape. See Rotation, translation, and scaling below. * Delete shapes - delete one or more shapes from the current drawing. * Stop program - just what it says. Be sure to write your drawing into an output file before selecting this action. * Write drawing file - write the current drawing into an SVG file. The first action that you select should be "User Instructions", "Open existing drawing", or "Start a new drawing." You should always select either "Open existing drawing" or "Start a new drawing" and provide the requested information before selecting any of the actions below those two with the possible exception of the action titled "Stop program." General user instructions If you are reading this document from inside the program, you must have already opened this HTML document in an SWT browser widget. If so, keep reading. On the other hand, you may also have opened this document in a standard browser without running the program named SVGDraw01. If so, keep reading. Selecting actions from the Action List With the exception of the action named "Stop program", when you select an item in the Action List and press the Enter key, an action page will open containing labels, text fields, check boxes, radio buttons, push buttons, and other Graphical User Input (GUI) objects. That action page will enable you to provide the information needed and to perform the steps necessary to execute that action. Navigate down through those GUI objects with the tab key. Navigate up through the objects with the shift-tab key combination. Navigate through radio buttons and the items in lists using the arrow keys. Press the tab key to escape from a set of radio buttons or from a list without making a selection. Performing the action With the exception of the action labeled "Stop the program," there is a button on each Action Page that you must press to cause the action to be performed. If you tab past that button and return to the Action List, the selected action will not have been performed. Pressing the Esc key If you press the Esc key when any read/write object on any page has the focus, the current action will be abandoned and focus will return to the Action List where you can select another action. This html viewer is a read-only object and does not behave well if you press the Esc key. If you do accidentally press the Esc key while reading this document, use the tab key to work your way back to the Action List. A few of the other objects are read-only objects and do not respond at all to the Esc key. They only respond to the tab key. Text field objects Press the tab key to accept the default value in a text field. To change the value in the field, type the new value and press the tab key. Normally, it should not be necessary for you to delete the current contents of a text field in order to change it. However, you may find situations where it is necessary for you to delete the current contents so be on the lookout for those situations. Checkbox objects You must press the space bar to check or uncheck a check box. (The Enter key won't do the job.) Button objects You can press either the space bar or the Enter key to activate a button when it has the focus. Message box objects A message box will appear to announce the completion of those actions where completion is not obvious such as writing the output file, for example. Most errors will also result in the appearance of a message box. In most cases, you can press either the space bar or the Enter key to dismiss a message box. However, in some cases you must select one of two buttons labeled Yes and No. If you discover errors that do not result in a message box, please let me know. Polylines, polygons, and paths The polyline, the polygon, and the path are by far the most versatile shapes that you can draw with this program. For example, if you need to plot a function such as y = x^2, the polyline shape or the path shape are probably your best choices. I will explain how to draw these three types of shapes in more detail later. The name and path of the output file When you select "Write Drawing File" in the Action List, you will be prompted to enter a file name for the output file. If you are running the program from an executable jar file, you should provide both a path and a file name, or you probably won't be able to find your output file on your disk. Rotation, translation, and scaling These three features, which fall in the general category of SVG transforms, are relatively easy to use as long as you don't combine them on a single shape. However, once you combine them, the topic of SVG transforms becomes an advanced topic and will probably require outside study on your part for proper use. Among other things, when you apply a combination of rotation, translation, and/or scaling transforms, the order in which you perform the operations is critically important to the outcome. A good understanding of the use of transforms in SVG is needed in order to understand those outcomes. A note about page size Your printer is probably not capable of printing from the extreme left edge to the extreme right edge, or from the extreme top edge to the extreme bottom edge of the largest paper size that it is advertised to accommodate. For example my HP Deskjet 6940 printer advertises "Borderless Printing up to 8.5 x 24 in." However, the largest rectangle that it will actually print is 8.14 x 10.63 inches on a sheet of paper that is 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches high. Therefore, you should probably allow for some loss of print width and print height on the right side and the bottom of the page. If you plan to emboss your drawing on a tactile graphics embosser, you may also need to purposely leave a margin on both sides of your drawing to accommodate the width of the mechanical embossing mechanism. Check the specifications of the embosser that you plan to use to determine what those margins need to be.. Action items As mentioned earlier, when you first start the program you will land in an Action List that allows you to select and perform any one of more than one dozen different drawing actions. I will discuss each of those actions in this section so that you will know what to expect when you select one of them. User instructions If you select "User instructions" in the Action List and press the Enter key, you will land on a page containing a button labeled "Press this button to open instructions in a browser." When you press that button, this HTML document will open in a separate browser window. Note that the browser window is an SWT Widget, and may appear to be different in some respects from your standard browser. However, you should be able to navigate and read the document just like you would read any other HTML document in a browser window. When you get to the end of the document, pressing the tab key will land you on a button labeled "Press this button to return to the Action List." As the name implies, pressing the button will cause the browser window to close and focus will return to the Action List where you can make another selection. Almost every page has an "Action" button near the end. If you simply tab past that button and don't press it, focus will return to the Action List and the action will not be performed Open existing drawing Selecting this Action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can open a previously-saved drawing file that was created using this program. (SVG drawing files created using other program may or may not work, so don't be surprised if you open a drawing file that was created using a different program and you experience errors.) Be aware that any work that you may have been doing on a new drawing will be lost unless you save that work by selecting Write drawing file before executing this action. The Action page for this Action is relatively simple. You will be presented with a text field and asked to "Enter name and path of drawing file to open." The existing drawing will have an extension of .svg. Once you have entered the requested information, press the tab key and you will land on a button labeled "Press to open drawing file." Pressing that button will cause a Message Box to pop up containing information about the search for the existing drawing file. Press the OK button on that Message Box and the search will begin. You may have to be very patient at this point. Sometimes it takes a quite a while on my computer for the program to find and open the existing drawing file. If the file is not found, a Message Box will pop up with that information. Press OK to dismiss the Message Box and focus will return to the Action List. If the file is found and opened, a Message Box will pop up with that information as well. When you press the OK button on that Message Box, focus will return to the Action List. Start a new drawing Select this action to start a new drawing. When you select this action and press the Enter key, you will land on a page from which you can provide the information required for a new drawing. The first two text fields allow you to enter a title and a description for your new drawing. If you simply tab past those two fields, a default title and a default description will be recorded for your new drawing. You will be asked to enter the width and height in inches of your new drawing in the next two text fields. If you simply tab past those two fields, default values will be assigned for width and height. A very important point This is where I need to explain a very important point. You specify the width and height of your new drawing in inches, such as 8.5 inches and 11 inches. However, just enter the numbers. Don't enter the units. The units of inches are understood by the program. After you establish the width and height of your new drawing in inches by executing this action, you will be asked later to provide coordinate and/or dimensional information for many other actions. In those cases, you will provide the information in units of 0.01 inch, or 100 units per inch. For example, if you later decide to draw a rectangle that is 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches high, you will specify the width as 850 and you will specify the height as 1100. The Action button Like most other Action pages, this page has an Action button near the end that is labeled "Press to start drawing." When you press that button, a Message Box will pop up to acknowledge that the new drawing is started. Pressing the OK button on the Message Box will return the focus to the Action List. Draw a line Selecting this action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can draw a line segment between any two points in your drawing. The title and description fields On this page, as on may other pages, the first two fields allow you to enter a title and description for the line object. If you tab through these two fields, a default title and a default description will be assigned to the object. Because this is essentially the same on all pages, I won't mention it with respect to Action pages that I discuss in the remaining sections of this document. Coordinate-value fields You will be asked to enter the x and y coordinate values for one end of the line in the next two fields. As usual, the fields already contain default values that you can accept by simply tabbing through the fields. You will then be asked to enter the x and y coordinate values for the other end of the line in the next two fields. Stroke width and opacity You will be asked to enter the stroke width and opacity in the next two fields. You will encounter these same two fields on many action pages and the meaning will always be the same. Therefore, I will explain the meaning here and then ignore it for the remainder of this document. The stroke width The stroke width is the width or thickness of the line that will be drawn. If you are planning to emboss the drawing, the stroke width should probably be at least as wide as the distance between two dots on the embosser. If the embosser supports 20 dots per inch, the stroke width should probably be at least 5, which represents 0.05 inch or the distance between the dots on a 20 dot per inch embosser. If the embosser supports 16 dots per inch, the stroke width should probably be at least 6.25, which represents 0.0625 inch or the distance between the dots at 16 dots per inch. You may find that those values aren't sufficient to provide high-quality embossing and you may may need to make the stroke width even wider than the values suggested above. The opacity If we were talking about color, opacity would be a complicated topic. However, since we are only talking about white, black, and gray, the concept of opacity is fairly simple. You will be asked to enter a value between 0 and 1 for the stroke opacity. The line will be drawn pure black for a value of 1. The line will essentially not be drawn and therefore will be invisible for a value of 0. The line will be drawn with a shade of gray that is half way between between white and black for a value of 0.5. The greater the opacity value, the darker will be the line. The smaller the opacity value, the lighter will be the line. On an embosser with variable dot height, a value of 1 will produce dots with the maximum height. For lower stroke opacity values, the height of the dots will be lower. (Also see The fill checkbox and fill opacity later.) Draw a rectangle Selecting this action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can draw a rectangle whose sides are parallel to the horizontal and vertical axes. If you need a rectangle whose sides are not parallel to the horizontal and vertical axes, you can draw it with this action and then rotate it later or draw it as a polygon or as a path. Using this action, you specify the x and y coordinates of the upper-left corner of the rectangle and the width and the height of the rectangle. As before, you also specify the stroke width and the stroke opacity. The fill checkbox and fill opacity This action, along with several of the other actions to be discussed later, introduces a new parameter - fill. I will explain it here and then ignore it when discussing actions in subsequent sections. Because this is a closed geometric shape, you can cause it to be filled with a color ranging from black through gray to white. Before you reach the action button while navigating down this action page, you will come to a checkbox labeled "Check this box for black fill." You can check (and uncheck) the box by pressing the space bar while the checkbox has the focus. If you check the box, a new text field will be exposed between the checkbox and the action button. You will be asked to "Enter value between 0 and 1 for fill opacity." Opacity has the same meaning here that it has for stroke opacity discussed earlier, except that this time it doesn't simply apply to a line. Rather, it applies to an entire area defined by a line. A word of caution is in order here. I have been told that if you plan to emboss your graphic using an embosser with variable dot height, you should avoid filling large areas with large opacity values. I have been told that this can cause undesirable paper buckling when the embosser attempts to emboss a large area with high dots. It was suggested that low opacity values should be used when filling. The Action button for the rectangle Finally, you will come to an action button labeled "Press to draw rectangle." As usual, pressing the button will cause the rectangle object to become a part of your drawing and focus will return to the Action List. Draw a circle Selecting this action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can draw a circle at a given location with a given radius. You won't find anything new on this page. You will be asked to enter the x and y coordinates for the circle along with the radius of the circle. Draw an ellipse Selecting this action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can draw an ellipse at a given location with a given radius along the horizontal axis and a different radius along the vertical axis. As with the rectangle, you may need to rotate the shape later if the default orientation is not what you need. In case you aren't familiar with this shape, an ellipse is like a squashed circle. It is a smooth closed shape, but its radius may be larger along one axis than it is along the other axis. Once again, you won't find anything new on this action page. This page is much like the page for drawing a circle except that on this page, you will be asked to provide both a horizontal radius and a vertical radius. If you enter the same value for both of the radii, you will end up with a circle. Draw a polyline, a polygon, or a path Selecting this action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can draw a polyline, a polygon, or a path. Polyline and polygon For either a polyline or a polygon, you provide the x and y coordinate values for a set of points. (I will provide and example later.) The points are connected by straight line segments in the order that you define the points. The only difference between the two is that when you draw a polygon, the last point is automatically connected to the first point creating a closed shape. A path A path is a different kind of animal altogether. It can be used to draw something as simple as a straight line segment, and can also be used to draw something as complex as a cubic Bezier curve or an elliptical arc. To use this feature of the program, you will probably need to first study SVG paths. The best material that I have found on the topic is a tutorial located at https://developer.mozilla.org/en/SVG/Tutorial/Paths. Hopefully, it will be sufficiently accessible that you can read it. To draw a path, you provide a string of characters consisting of both SVG path commands and coordinate information. I will provide an example later. The action page The action page for this action is relatively straightforward. The first new thing on the page is a set of three radio buttons by which you specify that you want to draw one of the following three shapes: * Polyline * Polygon * Path Then you are asked to provide the name and path of a file to import that contains the information from which the shape will be drawn. When you enter that information and press the tab key, you land on a button labeled "Press this button to import data file." If you selected either the Polyline or the Polygon radio button, you will need to provide a csv file containing the data. This file must have an extension of .csv or it will be rejected. If you selected the Path radio button, you will need to provide a path file containing the data. This file must have an extension of .pth or it will be rejected. A csv file A csv file is a simple text file containing x,y coordinate value pairs with no spaces and with each value followed by a comma. You can put one or more values on each line so long as you are careful to follow each value with a comma. You can omit the comma at the end of the line if you wish. As mentioned above, the file must have an extension of .csv or it will be rejected. Here are the contents of a simple csv file that can be used to draw either a polyline or a polygon 200,200 600,200 400,400 If you were to use this data to draw a polyline, the program would draw two sides of a triangle. If you were to use it to draw a polygon, the program would draw all three sides of the same triangle. A path file A path file contains the actual SVG code for the path that you want to draw. For example, a file containing the following characters will cause a cubic Bezier curve to be drawn: M130 110 C 120 140, 180 140, 170 110 You will find an explanation of this SVG code in the section on Bezier curves at https://developer.mozilla.org/en/SVG/Tutorial/Paths. Sample files The executable jar file containing this program contains some sample csv files and some sample path files in a folder named Samples. You can extract those files using a program like WinZip and use them to experiment with the data import feature for drawing polylines, polygons, and paths. Many programs, including Microsoft Excel, produce csv files as a standard output. You can also create your own csv files using a text editor. I have never seen a program that produces path files as a standard output format. Therefore, if you use them, you will probably need to create them using a text editor. Although that may sound like a daunting task, you may find it worth your while because you can squeeze a lot of graphic information into a path file once you understand SVG paths. For example, assume that you frequently need to draw curves in a Cartesian coordinate system with an x-axis, a y-axis, and tic marks along each axis, or maybe you need to draw grid lines instead of tic marks. You could create a path file for that basic structure. Then whenever you need to draw a graph, you could begin by importing the path file for the axes and then draw your data points within those axes. Draw line of text Selecting this action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can draw a single line of text at a given location with a given font face (such as Arial) and a given point size. You have three choices for the font style (normal, italic, or oblique). You also have four choices for the font weight (normal, bold, bolder, or lighter). If you have worked through the discussions of the action pages in the previous sections of this document, you shouldn't find anything new on this action page. The starting x and y coordinate values specify the location of the lower-left corner of a rectangle that fully encloses the first character in the line of text. A point size of 72 will probably produce an upper-case "T" that is approximately one-half inch from top to bottom on your printer. Other point sizes produce text that is proportionally larger or smaller. Rotate shapes The first few actions in the Action List discussed earlier deal with getting instructions and either starting a new drawing or opening an existing drawing. After that, the next several actions in the Action List, which were also discussed earlier, deal with drawing specific shapes such as lines, rectangles, circles, paths, etc. Beginning with this section, the next several actions in the Action List deal with actions that you can perform on shapes that you have already drawn. The first of these actions is the "Rotate shapes" action. Selecting the "Rotate shapes" action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can select one or more existing shapes and cause them to be rotated about a specific point by a specific angle in degrees clockwise. (Negative angles rotate counter-clockwise.) The action page The action page for this action is relatively straightforward. First you press a button labeled "Press to get list of shapes in your drawing" to populate a physical list with identifying information about each shape that you have thus far created in your drawing. You can navigate up and down that list using the arrow keys. Each shape in the list is identified as follows: Title {Description} [Unique identifier] The first two items in the identifying information are the title and description that you assigned to the shape when you created it, or a default title and description if you didn't enter a title or description. The third item is a unique identifier that was created by the program when the shape was created. This identifier can be used to differentiate among different shapes having the same titles and descriptions. Embedded instructions Instructions are embedded among the GUI components on many of the action pages. On this page, after you press the button to populate the list, you will see the following instructions: /"When you press the tab key, you will land in a Combo List Box containing one item for each shape in your drawing. You can mark a shape for rotation by selecting the shape using the arrow keys and then pressing the 'r' key. Press the tab key to move out of the Combo List Box."/ After using the arrow keys and the 'r' key to mark all of the shapes that you want to rotate around a common point, you can press the tab key, enter the coordinates of the common rotation point, and enter the rotation angle in degrees clockwise. Finally, you can press a button labeled "Press to rotate shapes" to cause the rotation to be performed. This is the point where your drawing is actually modified. If you tab past this button and return the focus to the Action List, your drawing will not have been modified. Before using the rotation feature, you should read the cautions in the Rotation, translation, and scaling section. Translate shapes Selecting the "Translate shapes" action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can select one or more existing shapes and cause them to be translated (moved) by specific distances along the horizontal and vertical axes. The procedure for performing this action is essentially the same as the procedure for rotating shapes. The differences are: * In this case, you specify translation distances instead of the rotation point and rotation angle required by rotation. * In this case, you mark the shapes that are to be translated using the 't' key instead of the 'r' key. If you understand how to rotate shapes, you should have no problem using this action to translate shapes. Once again, however, before using the translation feature, you should read the cautions in the Rotation, translation, and scaling section. Scale shapes Selecting the "Scale shapes" action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can select one or more existing shapes and cause them to be scaled (made larger or smaller) by applying specific multiplicative scale factors along the horizontal and vertical axes. The procedure for performing this action is essentially the same as the procedure for rotating shapes. The differences are: * In this case, you specify multiplicative scale factors instead of the rotation point and rotation angle required by rotation. * In this case, you mark the shapes that are to be scaled using the 's' key instead of the 'r' key. If you understand how to rotate shapes, you should have no problem using this action to scale shapes. Before using the scaling feature, you should read the cautions in the Rotation, translation, and scaling section. Delete shapes Selecting the "Delete shapes" action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can select one or more existing shapes and cause them to be deleted from your drawing. The procedure for deleting shapes is similar to but simpler than the procedure for rotating shapes. The differences are: * In this case, there are no coordinate values to be provided. Instead, you simply mark the shapes that are to be deleted and press the button labeled "Press to delete shapes." * In this case, you mark the shapes that are to be deleted by pressing the 'Delete' key. Note, however, that the shapes are not actually deleted from your drawing until you press the button labeled "Press to delete shapes" later. Once again, if you tab past that button and return the focus to the Action List, the shapes that you marked will not be deleted from your drawing. If you understand how to rotate shapes, you should have no problem using this action to delete shapes. Stop program As the name implies, selecting the "Stop program" action and pressing the Enter key will cause the program to be terminated. Make sure that you have performed the Write drawing file action before performing this action if you want to save your drawing. Write drawing file Selecting this action and pressing the Enter key will land you on a page from which you can save your drawing with a specific file and path name. The extension .svg will be automatically appended to the file name that you specify so you should not include it when you enter the path and file name. Each time you perform this action, the current state of your drawing will be saved in the specified file. It might be a good idea to perform this action often while creating a drawing so that if you make a mistake (or you have a power failure), you can re-open the most recent good version of the drawing file. Please provide feedback Please let me know if you find errors in these instructions, or you find areas that deserve a more thorough explanation. I would also like to hear about it if there are features that you would like to see added to this program. Dick Baldwin baldwin at dickbaldwin.com From fnugg at online.no Mon Sep 19 02:22:53 2011 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:22:53 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Use of the SVGDraw01 drawing program in STEM courses Message-ID: <4E76A77D.5020507@online.no> Hi, Just forwarding an email that I wrote to AccessibleImage list when Prof. Baldwin wrote about his program. Had questions and etc. Regards, Lisa -------- Opprinnelig melding -------- Dear Professor Baldwin, Congratulations!!! This is wonderful and long waited for. This is indeed a breakthrough. I am looking forward to trying your program and am sure many others will be also will eagerly be doing so. Perhaps you might consider informing the DIAGRAM Project about your tool since they are working towards incorporation of graphic contents for talking books. I think you are pretty correct in saying that there is no existing program free program for the blind and visually impaired to draw pictures. The Talking Tactile Tablet from Touch Graphics, comes close. It is a tool that lets a blind person draw from a touch sensitive screen, it is not free though. I'm sure you will be getting a long list of wish items /questions, even before your program has been tried (hey it's 3 am here and am going to wait a few more hours before trying) and here's a few from me: 1. Is there a library and naming possibility - that is after one has drawn a figure one can give it a name and then have the figure redrawn- say within another? Can you embed a SVG within a SVG? 2. Is there a grid command? Would be useful for checking if figure is in the position wanted and for drawing. One could draw on the grid first (using a WikkiStix for example) and then enter the coordinates afterwards to draw the SVG. Would be useful for others that wanted to draw with this and not just in STEM courses 3. Will this emboss directly to a Juliet, Index Express etc? As a SVG I would see that it would to a ViewPlus embosser but what about the embossers? Does one create a .Brl file? You write "As a teacher, it is up to you to connect your blind and visually impaired students to those available hardware embossing resources." I am not sure, but one cannot emboss an SVG out from other embossers than the ViewPlus embossers. To emboss drawings from these there are other tools, QuickTac (free) and PictureBraille - but one needs to be sighted to use them.With Quicktac, if one converted the SVG to a .bmp and then saved it in QuickTac's fill file one could open it in QuickTac and then emboss it (but need to be sighted). 4. Have you considered XMLForm? Thinking that it would be an easier interface? 5. You mention a printer as output - are you thinking the use of Swell paper as the embossed medium? 6. Have you thought to contact produsers of embossers? They might be interested in expanding their product. ViewPlus? Index has a drawing program for it's embossers and I think FreedomScientific many years back also had a drawing program. Duxburry gives Quicktac for free - so they are also interested in tactiles. Will be sending your message on. Thank you. Your work is very exciting and it is a breakthrough! For a long time I have been looking for a drawing program for the visually impaired. I believe for a visually impaired person that being able to create drawings oneself is a great help in being able to understand and interpret tactile graphics. Doing it oneself gives one a greater understanding. Thank you. Best regards, Lisa Den 17.09.2011 23:42, skrev Richard Baldwin: > This message is intended mainly for teachers of blind or visually > impaired students in STEM courses. Of course, this is a public forum > and everyone is welcome to read the message and provide comments as > appropriate. > > Having been the sighted teacher of a blind student for several years, > I firmly believe that making it possible for blind and visually > impaired people, and particularly blind and visually impaired students > in STEM courses, to communicate using accurate printed and tactile > graphics will improve the quality of life and the likelihood of > academic success for those students. > > I have written a computer program that makes it possible, for the > first time in history, for blind and visually impaired people to > create such graphics in an accessible and user-friendly way. > > Version 0.0.8 of my drawing program for blind students is now posted > and available for free and immediate download at: > > http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/SWT-SVG/SVGDraw01.zip > > Three components are necessary to accomplish the goal of widespread > graphics communication among blind and visually impaired students and > their teachers: > > * Availability of a robust and universally accepted graphics standard. > * Availability of a robust, accessible, and user-friendly drawing > program that allows blind people to take advantage of the SVG > standard. > * Availability of high-quality, economical, and readily available > graphics embossing equipment. > > > A robust graphics standard - SVG > > A robust and universally accepted graphics standard is already > available in the form of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). See Scalable > Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) > > > An accessible and user-friendly drawing program - SVGDraw01 > > I have written and provided, free of charge, a drawing program that > blind and visually impaired people can use to draw pictures. To the > best of my knowledge, no other existing program provides that > capability. (If such a program exists, it is a well-kept secret.) > Thus, for the first time in history, your students can express > themselves using graphics. > > While many drawing programs exist, they are written for use by sighted > people and not for use by blind people. My program is designed and > written specifically for use by blind and visually impaired people. > > Even though my program is still under development, it already provides > the capability for STEM students to create graphics that mirror many > of the figures and diagrams typically found in STEM textbooks. > > > A graph board on steroids > > As a teacher of blind or visually impaired students, you might think > of this program as bringing the old-fashioned graph board into the > computer age. Students and others using this program can create both > printed and tactile graphics using many of the same thought processes > that they would use when constructing a "drawing" on a graph board > using pushpins, rubber bands, a protractor, and a measuring stick. > > For example, one student might use this program to create and send an > SVG file to a friend with the message "Take a look at the cool floor > plan of my new apartment." > > Another student might use this program to create and send an SVG file > to a college professor with the message "This is a free body diagram > showing the magnitude and directions of forces F21 and F23 caused by > the interactions among charges q1, q2, and q3." > > > Getting an immediate visual output > > I will be adding new capabilities over time. However, I probably won't > add capabilities that would not be useful to blind and visually > impaired users. For example, the program does not, by default, produce > an immediate visual output. The primary output is intended to be a > printer, a graphics embosser, or both. But, if you are sighted, or if > you are blind and using the vOICe sonification software to view the > progress of your drawing, you can use a procedure described in the > attached file to view your drawing as it progresses. > > > High-quality, economical, and readily-available graphics > embossing equipment > > This is the area where we fall short relative to achieving our > widespread graphics communications goal. Although high-quality > embossing equipment is available in the marketplace, it is not > economical (by computer standards) nor is it readily available for the > personal use of most blind students. > > I view this as a supply and demand problem. Prior to the release of my > program, there were no robust, accessible, and user-friendly tools > that made it possible for blind people to create accurate graphics > for use with a high-quality embosser. Thus, the demand for such > embossing equipment has been very limited. My hope is that by making > it possible for all blind people to create accurate graphics, the > demand for such embossing equipment will go up and the costs for the > equipment will come down. > > Even today, however, many schools, colleges, and other organizations > own high-quality graphics embossing equipment that they can make > available to their blind and visually impaired clientele on some > basis. In those cases, there is no reason for blind people to hold > back from learning to communicate using graphics. > > My drawing program is freely available for you and your students to > use. As a teacher, it is up to you to connect your blind and visually > impaired students to those available hardware embossing resources. > > The attached HTML file is the User-Instruction file for my drawing > program named SVGDraw01. > > Please feel free to forward this message to others who may have an > interest in the use of graphics by blind and visually impaired people. > > Richard Baldwin > Professor of Computer Information Technology > Austin Community College > baldwin at austincc.edu > > http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/ From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Sep 20 15:19:23 2011 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:19:23 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Congratulations Art Beyond Sight! Message-ID: <6CC588DF64F27444A0B9D05DDC2BA1A85C0859984D@mail1> Hi, Art Beyond Sight received a well deserved award from the Mayor of New York. Follow the link to view and hear the presentation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_XItxRShTo "... a "Letter of Appreciation" from our Mayor for our work re making the arts and culture in NYC accessible to people with disabilities - presented during Disability Awareness Month at Yankee Stadium - before a game:" Congratulations! Thanks to Joan Pursley for sending the information. Regards, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Sep 20 15:25:05 2011 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:25:05 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] October Art Beyond Sight month coming up Message-ID: <6CC588DF64F27444A0B9D05DDC2BA1A85C0859984E@mail1> Hi, More news from Joan: In Dallas Art News: http://www.dallasartnews.com/2011/09/art-beyond-sight-awareness-month-at-the-dallas-museum-of-art/ In the Dallas Observer: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/mixmaster/2011/09/dallas_museum_of_art_hosts_spe.php The art exhibit from Tennessee School for the Blind http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110916/NEWS01/309130080/Students-TN-School-Blind-find-outlet-arts?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE Thanks Joan! Best, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Sep 20 15:46:55 2011 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:46:55 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_educators] Project Acess and videos from Art Beyond Sight Message-ID: <6CC588DF64F27444A0B9D05DDC2BA1A85C08599850@mail1> Hi again, Well one link leads to a lot more. 84 videos at YouTube from Art Beyond Sight Here are a few: Youtube video of Project Access: Rubin Museum of Art - described video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ivIkrLNTsc&feature=relmfu Project Access: Queens Museum of Art http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phDm72Rl5a8&NR=1 Project Access: New York Historical Society http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWSGnQ3adVA&feature=relmfu What's Possible? Art Education for the Blind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaXy7KSEthM&feature=relmfu Vennlig hilsen Best, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services-