From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Oct 2 15:31:08 2012 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 17:31:08 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Discover the Body by graphic designer Halla Sigga Message-ID: Hi, A link to a wonderful new book Discover the Body by graphic designer Halla Sigga using 3-D printing. Beautiful. http://hallasigga.com/portfolio/discover-the-body/ text from site: DISCOVER THE BODY The book "Discover the body" is a three dimensional textbook about the body for blind and visually impaired children aged 6 to 8. There is a shortage in teaching material with pictures for the blind. We all need pictures to explain the world around us and the blind are no exception. When I made the decision to make teaching materials for the blind and visually impaired it was clear that I needed to learn how the blind and visually impaired to see and feel the world. Try to understand the way they interpret imagery and work from there. After reading a lot about the subject, talking to blind children, producers to tactile books, the staff of the National Istitute for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Defblind and scholars in the field. I saw that I had limited myself in terms of fonts, color schemes and topic. When it came to finding a way to make the book. I decided to take a new approach and print the book in a and three-dimensional printer. Because in the next few years, the technology will become good enough to print the book in plastic with different densities that will give blind and visually impaired a better picture of the topic. To my knowledge this technology has not been used before for the blind and visually impaired. Since I've never worked in three dimensions before I had to find and study the three-dimensional programs and applications, find out how I could print the book, what options are available and how plastic material works before I could proceed with the design of the book. The teaching material is about the human body. Discover the body is designed to make reading fun, informative and with the needs of blind and visually impaired in mind. For example, the plastic material the book is made of, use of colour and the choice of fonts in the book. Both the design of the edges of the pages, pictures and the pattern in the book is based on the topic of each spread. The text in the book is based on the textbook Come and view the body by Gunnhildi Oskarsdottir and Ragnheidi Hermannsdottir. The photographs here above are of the prototype, but below there is a video with the right colors and closer explanation on how the book works. -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Oct 2 15:54:07 2012 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 17:54:07 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month 10th Anniversary: FIRST NEWSLETTER - New Format! Message-ID: Forwarding email from Marie Clapot Project Coordinator, Art Beyond Sight Dear 2012 Awareness Month participants, We are so glad to be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the collaborative. Thank you all so much for your on-going efforts to moving the field forward. As you can see on the calendar (link below), most of you have exciting events coming up: http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-calendar.shtml October will offer many opportunities for you and your staff to learn about new initiatives in arts organizations across the US and the world. Art Beyond Sight will be holding its annual all-day Telephone crash course on Monday October 29th(any of your staff, colleagues and friends can call-in and listen to the scheduled experts ? follow link below for full program) http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-crashcourse.shtml Check out our first Newsletter: learn more about what?s happening in October and discover our Museum Staff profiles, this week Amanda Blake, Dallas Museum of Art. http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-emailalerts.shtml text from .pdf This year marks our 10th Awareness Month! For the past decade we have worked to increase art education for those with vision impairments through the collective efforts and collaboration of museums, schools, cultural institutions, libraries, and service organizations throughout world. Once more, this October we celebrate art education and creativity for people with vision loss and other dis-abilities. We are so proud of Awareness Month?s success in initiating change! Over the last ten years, the num-ber of participating organizations has grown from 30 to over 250 to form a dynamic international com-munity, where exchange and dialogue have helped improve successful programming for people with disabilities We would like to welcome these long-time participants as well as all the newcomers who have joined our cause. ? In 2010, Art Beyond Sight/Art Education for the Blind created Project Access for All, the first national database that lists in detail the level of accessibility of arts and cultural institutions. Last year Project Access was promoted by NYC?s Mayor at his annual ADA event, attended by more than 500 New Yorkers with disabilities. We are beginning to promote this initiative with national organizations that represent or serve people with disabilities, but we must in-crease the number of U.S. states represented. As part of your celebration of Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month and commitment to improving accessibility, help by registering your organization now. Its free! You control the material listed for your organization, and can access it for updates as often as you wish. Note: Only the services that you have will appear on the website. Check it out and October 2012 Email Alert One 1 A look back at past Awareness Month poster designs 2 Mark Your Calendars! October 26th-28th? Multimodal Approaches to Learning International Conference The Conference co-organized with The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the cornerstone of Art Be-yond Sight's Awareness Month. It addresses inclusive and multisensory learning environments and strategies, particularly in relation to the arts and museums. Our discussions will focus on experi-ences that involve sound, touch, movement, drama, olfactory and modes of proprioceptive learning. This year, in addition to an impressive roster of speakers and artists who will be joining us we are also very excited to announce that Peter Sellars, the renowned theater, opera and festival Direc-tor will be our keynote speaker. The event will take place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://artbeyondsightconference.blogspot.com/ October 29th- Telephone Conference Crash Course This year?s Crash Course offers two new features: ?Museum Clinics,? which address critical issues and day-to-day concerns of technology, development, and administrative staff, and a ?Docent Roundtable? at which docents from across the country share their ideas, tips, and stories. This Week?s Tech Innovation: The Sensational Blackboard Ann Cunningham, an art teacher at the Colorado Center for the Blind, recently developed the Sensational Blackboard, a device that allows its users to create raised line drawings quickly and easily. It?s constructed of a thin, flat, lightweight piece of plastic with one rubberized side. Simply by placing a piece of paper on top of the rubberized surface and using a ballpoint pen to draw or trace an image, one can create a raised-line drawing. The pressure of the pen cracks the paper. These cracks create tactile images. The Sensational Blackboard re-tails for $29.95 and can be found at sensationalbooks.com. Watch how its used: http://www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=1621260 3 Art Beyond Sight: How did you first get involved in the art education field? Amanda Blake I started volun-teering in art museums in high school, taught children?s classes while I was in college, and interned in a couple of art museums while getting my graduate degree. I have been fortunate to work in art museums ever since! I was first inspired by my high school art teacher, Ms. Dirks. My class went to the Wichita Art Museum each week and it was during those trips that I discovered what art mu-seum education was all about. I have always loved art and the idea of having a job that would allow me to teach people about art in front of the artwork was very exciting to me. Interacting with people with disabilities has always been a part of my life and is a great joy to me, but it wasn?t until I had worked at the Dal-las Museum of Art for a couple of years that I discovered ways to inte-grate experiences focused on visitors with disabilities into programming that we were already doing so that new access programs could both overlap as well as exist alongside current family programs. ABS: Within the last few years at the Dallas Museum of Art you have devel-oped programs for people with special needs. What types of people have you targeted? AB: Access Programs at the Dallas Museum of Art cur-rently include visitors with both early and late stage Alz-heimer?s disease, children with autism and their families, visitors with vision impairment, and adults with develop-mental disabilities. Our longest running program is our partnership with the Arc of Dallas, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; it has been occurring monthly for the past four years. It has been amazing to see this group grow artistically within the Museum; when the Arc began to attend our partner-ship program, we only spent fifteen minutes in the gal-lery before visiting the studio for our art-making time. Last month, we spent two hours in the galleries exploring works of art together. Our Meaningful Moments pro-gram for visitors with Alzheimer?s disease has cultivated a devoted group of attendees and our Alzheimer?s care facility visits continue to grow. During the month of Oc-tober when we participate in Art Beyond Sight Aware-ness month, we enjoy having many first-time visitors attend our programs to explore ways of experiencing art without vision. But probably the most successful program that the Museum has for visitors with special needs is our programming for children with autism and their families; there is an enormous interest in this program-ming from the community and the im-pact that the programs have on fami-lies is profound. ABS: What has made that program so successful/effective? AB: The Autism Awareness Family Celebrations are successful because they fill a need in the community. Very few public institutions offer custom-ized, cultural, or recreational opportunities for children Amanda Blake is the Manager of Family Experiences and Access Programs at the Dallas Museum of Art. Amanda oversees planning a variety of family activities at the Museum and Access Programs for visitors with special needs. Amanda has an MA in Art History and her Graduate Certification in Art Museum Education from the University of North Texas, and a BFA from Oklahoma State University. Interview with an access program creator? Dallas Museum of Art?s Amanda Blake 4 with autism and their families. Many families with chil-dren with autism, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, find it difficult to find social and educational ex-periences that welcome their entire family. The DMA?s Autism Awareness Family Celebrations, which take place four times a year, provide a safe, comfortable way for children with autism and their families to experience the healing power of art. In the DMA?s Center for Creative Connections (C3), the Museum?s experiential educa-tional gallery, families can participate in staff-led gallery experiences, enjoy an interactive musical performance, and create works of art in the C3 art studio ? all before the Museum opens to the public, and at no charge. Families are then given a free pass to return to the Mu-seum during regular hours. I think that providing a welcoming and safe environ-ment is crucial for the success of this program. The op-portunity for families to be in the Museum before public hours helps to relax many fears that parents have about bringing a child with autism into a museum environ-ment, and we hope to arm the parents with tools that will make their trip to the Museum a positive one with information prior to the event. I work closely with an autism specialist, another important element of the pro-gram, to plan programming specifically designed for chil-dren with autism. We create a social story for families to use prior to the visit, plan art-making activities with au-tism-friendly supplies, construct a sensory space com-plete with weighted vests and therapy balls, and work together to staff the event with people experienced in working with children who have special needs. ABS: What challenges have you come up against while implementing these programs? What advice would you offer for other museums who are implementing or are interested in implementing similar programs? AB: I feel fortunate to have not run into many chal-lenges while implementing these programs; the Museum supports Access Programs and places a great deal of em-phasis on engaging our community within the Museum. Our security team is incredibly welcoming of visitors with special needs and is always more than happy to open our doors early so that our visitors may have a pri-vate museum experience before the Museum opens. Right now, the main challenge that I have is trying to keep up with all of the visitors interested in attending our Access Programs! My advice to other museums in-terested in implementing similar programs is to just try a small program as an experiment to see how the commu-nity reacts. Our first Autism Awareness Family Celebra-tion was an experiment for the awareness month in April STAY TUNED! Our next alerts will feature more interviews and information about our upcoming Telephone Crash Course Conference. Thank you for participating in Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month 2012! 5 Need to get press coverage? If you haven?t contacted your local press about Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month, DO SO TODAY, and if you need any help, feel free to contact Art Beyond Sight for direct quotes from its staff to include in your press release ? or give Art Beyond Sight?s phone number (212-334-8723) to reporters. Also, feel free to print and include our factsheets in your press kits. Here?s a link to them: http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-pressroom.shtml Want to publicize your Awareness Month events? This is our final call for entries for the Art Beyond Sight Calendar. Send details to aeb at artbeyondsight.org. Be sure to include your organization?s name and the event date, time, location, and contact if pre-registration is required. The calendar is found on Art Beyond Sight website; click on ?calendar? at the bottom of the home page or click on this direct link to it: http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-calendar.shtml Have a success story to share in a future Email Alert? Send information and a digital photo or two to aeb at artbeyondsight.org. and after seeing how the Dallas community responded in such a positive way, it was clear that these types of pro-grams are needed and would be supported by the com-munity. It is also very important to work with specialists who work with the audience that you are trying to culti-vate to learn more about the audience as well as enlist their expertise in planning elements of the programming. I would also recommend asking specialists to help lead training sessions about the intended audience for mu-seum staff to help raise awareness of the particular audi-ence and to prepare staff for upcoming programs. ABS: What do you envision for the field? What is needed to move forward? AB: I think that many institutions are moving towards inclusion and the development of access programming. As public awareness of disabilities increases and the number of people afflicted with diseases like Alzheimer's disease and disorders like autism continues to grow, the need for programming in museums for visitors with spe-cial needs becomes more and more apparent. To move towards inclusion and access for all, museums need to continue listening to their communities to better serve visitors and develop programming by observing commu-nity groups and people not currently represented in its audiences. It is also helpful to learn about new and excit-ing programs that other museums are implementing, and to connect through resources like Autism Speaks, the Arc, the Alzheimer's Association, and, of course, Art Be-yond Sight. Email Alert written and designed by Laurie Horesta, Summer Intern Sincerely, Elisabeth, Nina, Joan and Marie Art Beyond Sight 589 Broadway, 3rd fl. New York, NY 10012 (212) 334-8723 fax:(212) 941-6024 www.artbeyondsight.org www.nybeyondsight.org www.projectaccessforall.org -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 5 11:30:05 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:30:05 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] art Message-ID: <506EC4BD.8020005@online.no> (Tony Auth/WHYY) Art program helps Alzheimer's patients focus Many museums have created programs to make their exhibitions accessible to people in wheelchairs or the blind. The Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College, in Collegeville, Pa., is reaching out to people with mental disabilities. http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/arts-and-culture-everything/item/44670-art-program-helps-alzheimers-patients-focus-?Itemid=4 Sacramento's Blind artists Pete Eckert, in his Sacramento photography studio, cannot see what he is photographing, but through memory and instinct painstakingly creates images that will be part of Thursday's show http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/10/4806859/sacramentos-blind-artists.html?mi_rss=Photo%20Galleries Gallery showcase for blind artist TALENT IN THE FRAME: A work by Yvonne Dolloway, who will be featured in a London exhibition A north-east artist who is registered blind has had her work showcased at a prestigious London gallery. Paintings by Yvonne Dolloway, from Gardenstown, have been included in an exhibition at the city's Menier Gallery. The display was put together by the Macular Disease Society to mark its 25th anniversary and celebrate the artistic talent of people affected by sight loss. http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2923294 Radio program with Peter Eckert - inclues other subjects Insight: Hantavirus / Almost Somewhere / Blind Artists / Sea of Bees The fact and fiction about a rare and deadly virus at Yosemite National Park; A travel writer's tale of a month-long journey along the John Muir Trail; Visonary blind photographer Peter Eckert; Sacramento indie band Sea of Bees. http://www.capradio.org/news/insight/2012/09/10/insight-hantavirus--almost-somewhere--blind-artists--sea-of-bees Art that's meant to be enjoyed with real feeling With most art it's a case of look don't touch, but at Pauline Harper's new studio the opposite applies. Many of the artworks created by the visually impaired artist at the studio, Hands On, are designed to be enjoyed through touch. "It kind of goes hand-in-hand with the name, Hands on Art. "Most people paint what they see, but we're painting with what we feel," said Ms Harper, who has just 3 per cent vision. "Most of our art is touchable which is a huge difference from the average piece of art." http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/7643739/Art-thats-meant-to-be-enjoyed-with-real-feeling Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/10/4806859/sacramentos-blind-artists.html?mi_rss=Photo%20Galleries#storylink=cpy Blind Ballerinas to dance with artists of the Royal Ballet in Flag Handover Ceremony Fernanda Bianchini, choreography project pioneer, has four dancers taking part in the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games http://rio2016.com/en/news/news/blind-ballerinas-to-dance-with-artists-of-the-royal-ballet-in-flag-handover-ceremony Painter, 80, opens her first art exhibition with stunning works she has produced despite being almost blind A talented painter is enjoying success with her first art exhibition - despite being almost blind. Kate Barclay, 80, was diagnosed with macular disease in 2008 and has had to give up driving, has problems finding her keys, using the phone and struggles to see the pavement on the few occasions she ventures out of her home. The disease means her vision is constantly blurred but thanks to 40 years of practice and the help of friends who drive her to rural locations to complete her masterpieces, she still produces over 30 landscape paintings every year. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2198775/Kate-Barclay-Painter-80-opens-art-exhibition-stunning-works-produced-despite-blind.html#ixzz28QIUoEoJ Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2198775/Kate-Barclay-Painter-80-opens-art-exhibition-stunning-works-produced-despite-blind.html From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 5 11:35:12 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:35:12 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Talented Blind Teenage Artists In Shanghai Message-ID: <506EC5F0.4070601@online.no> Talented Blind Teenage Artists In Shanghai About two months ago, just before coming to Belgium, I went on a 10 day trip to Shanghai to visit my mum and obviously to eat. While I was there, my mum took me to visit a close friend of hers whom I?m well acquainted with and who I know as Professor Liu. Professor Liu is an artist and a well known sculptor in China, he runs an art studio in a government subsidized artists village on the outskirts of the city where he employs about a dozen or so talented people whom he trains and who help him with his work. I normally visit him when I?m back and take the chance to view some of the new artworks that the studio has produced. However, on this visit I stumbled upon one of his classes that he was teaching and I discovered something that I found incredibly impressive and admirable. Instead of teaching the adults (18+) and tertiary students that he usually teaches he was instructing teenagers and not only that, but they were also visually impaired. Although, teaching an art class to handicapped students isn?t something inconceivable, it?s the level of talent and the dedication that these students had that really moved me. http://fromnowhereinparticular.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/talented-blind-teenage-artists-in-shanghai/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 5 11:41:42 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:41:42 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] How Do Blind People Picture Reality? Message-ID: <506EC776.70704@online.no> How Do Blind People Picture Reality? Paul Gabias has never seen a table. He was born prematurely and went blind shortly thereafter, most likely because of overexposure to oxygen in his incubator. And yet, Gabias, 60, has no trouble perceiving the table next to him. "My image of the table is exactly the same as a table," he said. "It has height, depth, width, texture; I can picture the whole thing all at once. It just has no color." If you have trouble constructing a mental picture of a table that has no color --- not even black or white --- that's probably because you're blinded by your ability to see. Sighted people visualize the surrounding world by detecting borders between areas rich in different wavelengths of light, which we see as different colors. Gabias, like many blind people, builds pictures using his sense of touch, and by listening to the echoes of clicks of his tongue and taps of his cane as these sounds bounce off objects in his surroundings, a technique called echolocation. "There's plenty of imagery that goes on all the time in blind people," he told Life's Little Mysteries. "It just isn't visual." As well as being blind himself, Gabias is an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia who conducts research on perceptual and cognitive aspects of blindness. His personal and professional experience leads him to believe that the brains of blind people work around the lack of visual information, and find other ways to achieve the same, vitally important result: a detailed 3D map of space. The brain region neuroscientists normally think of as the "visual" cortex, rather than being left to languish, plays a key role in the blind's mental mapping process. In sighted people, visual information first goes to the visual cortex, which is located in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain. From there, it goes to the parietal lobe, sometimes referred to as the "where system" because it generates awareness of a sensed object's location. Next, the information is routed to the temporal lobe, also known as the "what system" because it identifies the object. Evidence from recent brain-imaging experiments indicates that blind people's brains harness this same neural circuitry. "When blind people read Braille using touch, the sensory data is being sent to and processed in the visual cortex," said Morton Heller, a psychologist who studies spatial cognition and blindness at Eastern Illinois University. "Using touch, they get a sense of space" --- and the relative locations of the raised dots that form Braille letters --- "that's not visual, it's just spatial." http://www.livescience.com/23709-blind-people-picture-reality.html From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 5 11:56:53 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:56:53 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] maps 18390, archaeologist, photography Message-ID: <506ECB05.300@online.no> Tactile maps from an 1830s atlas for the blind Braille wasn't widely in use in the 1830s, but Samuel Gridley Howe, founder and president of the New England Institute for the Education of the Blind, wanted to develop an atlas that his students could read unaided by a seeing person. To that end, he created a specially embossed atlas that could be read by touch. With the aid of John C. Cray and Samuel P. Ruggles, Howe developed the map using new embossing methods that he believed would be superior to earlier relief maps. Fifty copies of the atlas, perhaps the first of its kind, were printed, each containing 24 state maps plus explanatory text in raised (but non-Braille) letters. Ancient image of childbirth discovered by blind archaeologist This Etruscan ceramic fragment is over 2,600 years old, and it's quite possibly the oldest depiction of childbirth ever found in Europe. It's a marvelous sight to behold, but the person who actually discovered it hasn't even seen it. The fragment is an artifact of the Etruscan civilization, which dominated Italy before the rise of the Romans. The image, which is surprisingly graphic for a ceramic fragment, is one of the few ancient depictions of childbirth that archaeologists have uncovered, and it's quite possibly the oldest known depiction in the western world. The fragment was discovered by William Nutt, a graduate student at the University of Texas, while excavating at the Poggio Colla site northeast of Florence. Nutt explains the significance of the find: "The image is unique because in the classical world, we don't see a lot of birthing scenes. The real question is if we don't see these types of birthing scenes anywhere else in classical art, then why is it on this pot? It obviously meant something to the people who were there and who made it. A number of kingdoms broke down and changed over a short period of about 100 years. Looking at the culture change helps us to learn a lot about how societies adapt to stress, what being a part of a society means and it helps us to learn about ourselves." Nutt himself is legally blind, which at first might seem like a fairly big challenge to doing archaeological fieldwork. But, as he explains - and this finding confirms - vision isn't really required to excavate: "I used dental tools and a sharpened trowel to slide along the ground. I'd run my hands along the soil, feeling and uncovering different layers. If I started to notice a soil change, I'd check with another excavator. I was really very fortunate to work with a great group of people." http://io9.com/5852943/ancient-image-of-childbirth-discovered-by-blind-archaeologist?tag=blind Blind Photographers Use Gadgets to Realize Artistic Vision When a brain tumor caused professional photographer Alex Dejong to lose his eyesight three years ago, he turned to gadgets to continue making his art. Carrying around a Nokia N82 cellphone, Dejong used assistive software to translate sounds into visuals in his mind. After stitching together a mental image of his surroundings, he snapped photos with his Canon and Leica digital cameras. But Dejong?s blindness is acute: He can only perceive light and dark. Because Dejong could not see his own photographs, he hired an assistant for editing. Until recently, editing was a part of the creative workflow that he thought he?d lost forever. And then to his surprise, Apple?s iPhone 3GS, which launched late June, gave him back the ability to edit photos. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/blind-photographers/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 5 12:31:41 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:31:41 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] home builder, maps Message-ID: <506ED32D.7040703@online.no> Hi, Article and video about a builder who is blind - very interesting. Regards, Lisa Sensing systems for robots could help blind navigate The technologies that help robots navigate their surroundings are being adapted to help blind people to move about indoor and outdoor spaces independently. /New Scientist/ reports of a 3-D navigation system for the blind being developed at the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France. It consists of a pair of glasses equipped with cameras and sensors like those used in robot exploration, and a handheld electronic Braille device. The system produces a 3-D map of the wearer's environment and his/her position within it that is constantly updated and displayed in a simplified form on the handheld device. It uses a collection of accelerometers and gyroscopes that keeps track of the user's location and speed. This information is combined with the image to determine the user's position in relation to other objects. The system generates roughly 10 maps every second, which are transmitted to the handheld Braille device to be displayed as a dynamic tactile map. The system could eventually allow blind people to make their way, unaided, wherever they want to go, according to Edwige Pissaloux, a researcher working on the project. She told /New Scientist/: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/emergingtech/sensing-systems-for-robots-could-help-blind-navigate/3258 Blind Abilene man celebrating successful homebuilding business In many ways, Tim Ellis is just like every other homebuilder. He oversees construction, shops for the best prices on materials, meets with clients, cuts checks for subcontractors. But while most builders get to look upon a completed project with pride, seeing the fruits of months of labor in the form of a brand new house, all Ellis sees is darkness. The 37-year-old Big Country native has been blind for more than a decade now, but it hasn't stopped him from pursuing a career that most would reserve only for the sighted. He's the co-owner of Cornerstone Custom Homes, a homebuilding company he and his business partner Matt Loudermilk started three years ago. It's a venture both men were warned not to pursue, but even with the odds against them, their client list and number of construction sites have grown each year. http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/apr/07/blind-abilene-man-celebrating-successful/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 5 13:26:29 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 15:26:29 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Kate McLean blog sensory maps Message-ID: <506EE005.9020208@online.no> /Kate McLean blog sensory maps/ http://sensorymaps.blogspot.co.uk/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 5 13:18:57 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 15:18:57 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Joshua Miele on NPR, ancient tactile maps, color blind code, smell maps Message-ID: <506EDE41.6050300@online.no> Hi, Some interesting finds today. A great radio program with Joshua Miele and maps, articles about Inuit floating maps. Then articles about an artist who makes sensory maps - smell maps and emotion maps - based on Inuit floating maps. Regards, Lisa radio program Maps Help the Blind See Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco just launched the first-ever program to provide blind people with Braille maps. For the maps' inventor, who was blinded at the age of 4, this is part of a crusade to change the way people think about blindness. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19115820&ft=2&f=1090 Portuguese designer becomes 'hero' for the colourblind PORTO (Portugal), March 22 --- Identifying lines on a colour-coded metro map is tricky for those who can't see some colours. Choosing clothes or telling a green from a red apple can be just as baffling. But the pioneering work of a designer in the northern Portuguese city of Porto means such quandaries may soon pose less of a challenge for the colour blind. Miguel Neiva has spent much of the past decade creating a simple colour-coding system that employs easy-to-memorise symbols for the colour blind to distinguish between certain pigments, such as red and green. Though Neiva is not himself colour blind, he says childhood experiences formed the basis of his current work. "I had a colour-blind friend at primary school who for years was victimised by children like me who mocked him," says the 42-year-old Neiva, speaking from his studio. About eight per cent of the male population has some degree of colour vision deficiency, according to several sight associations, whereas less than one percent of women are affected. Neiva's so-called ColorADD system is based on primary colours. A diagonal slash symbolises yellow, while red and blue are represented by triangles pointing in different directions. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/features/article/portuguese-designer-becomes-hero-for-the-colourblind Remarkable Seniors Recognized .... Daniel applied the same focus to academics as he did to music, said his father, Roger Gillen. Mr. Gillen gives the example of Daniel's penchant for geography from an early age. "He would make tactile maps --- he was very much interested in maps --- and he made a map of the world across our bedroom wall with these little Wikki Stix. And it was quite remarkable, because we weren't exactly sure how Daniel learned the actual physical outlay of countries," he said. In looking back on his school years, Daniel's proudest accomplishment, he said, was mastering a mainstream school environment. http://www.schoolbook.org/2012/06/24/remarkable-seniors-recognized/ Ancient tactile maps to ease navigation of coast lines In a comment to my business blog , mprove pointed me to the cover of Bill Buxton's book 'Sketching User Experiences' . It shows a close-up of some physical artefact that is not discernable at first glance. On page 36 you can find the explanation what it is: it's a map made of wood showing some coastal region which was used by the Inuit people to navigate along the shores of Canada and Greenland (see the picture below) Tactile Maps and Imaginary Geographies story on NPR about Braille city maps for the blind instantly reminded me of some artifacts I had read about during one of my literature surveys for my oral exams (/Place as Recently Imagined by Archaeologists/, to be exact). Peter Whitridge wrote a brilliant article titled /Landscapes, Houses, Bodies, Things: "Place" and the Archaeology of Inuit Imaginaries/ that queried the binary set up between space and place wherein space is portrayed as empty, scientific, geometrical, and place is embodied, historical, culturally-constructed. To do this, he demonstrated Inuit placemaking in songs, myths, legends, even tongue-twisters where Unalakleet place names are strung together--mnemonics of places along travel routes. Personhood encorporates place, and every personal name corresponds with a place name; both people and places are signified as important by the very fact of being given specific names. The Inuit made songs, but they also made maps. These were often sketched in snow or sand, but some of them were sketched on paper with pencil for European explorers, and were intelligible to these Westerners. These are interesting in comparable abstractions of space (thus directly addressing Whitridge's question about the space/place binary) but I am more interested in the 3D wood carvings of the East Greenland coastline, with the details of inlets and islands in sculptural relief. These could be employed by at night in conjunction with the stars, feeling your way along the coastline, navigating at an intimate scale. I wonder if tactile maps could be extrapolated to other domains--what would a tactile BART map feel like? What about an archaeological map? Would the relief become sharper under our fingertips as we came closer to concentrations of artifacts, living spaces? Would it become hot as we came closer to the hearth, cool as we traveled to a periphery? I'll have to try it sometime--the reaction of a field director as I handed her a carved stick after survey might be worth it. http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/tactile-maps-and-imaginary-geographies/ Blind architects have a real feel for the site lines Reporting from San Francisco --- The architects met on a damp October Saturday and set off to visit a modern New York landmark, the American Folk Art Museum. The building is clad in lustrous bronze panels that shift in color as they catch the sun's slow trek across the sky. Inside, a skylight shoots brilliant beams into a grand interior space. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/12/local/la-me-blind-architect12-2010jan12 Tactile Map Making (usually Part II of Putting ORIENTATION back into O&M) Presenter: Diane Brauner Most young students with visual impairments learn best with "hands-on" materials. Using tactile materials, such as a map, is a /concrete /way to build abstract spatial concepts. Good tactile maps can condense a large, complex environment into a small, functional overview of the area. Students can learn to quickly explore the tangible map - gleaning critical spatial and orientation concepts. These tactile maps also help to develop good mental maps. With a good mental map, a student can learn to travel independently and confidently in familiar and unfamiliar environments. Even preschoolers -- with the proper pre-map training -- can use simple tactile maps effectively. This session will elaborate on how to teach these "foundation" map skills, when and how to introduce maps skills to young students, demonstrate easy ways to quickly make quality tactile maps for students and adults of all ages, analyze previously made maps and many other map related concepts http://aerbvi.org/2012international/tactilemapmaking.htm Orientation and Mobility in Texas In case you had not heard already, or have not had a chance to review it yet, The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) has finalized and published their Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics. It is now available on their Web site for download as a PDF and is an excellent resource in planning and producing tactile graphics for working with students and clients. The direct link to the site is http://www.brailleauthority.org/tg/index.html Of particular interest for orientation and mobility is Unit 8 that details considerations and strategies for maps tailored to the student's travel environment. The initial Units of the document provide wonderful templates and other specific areas to consider for determining materials to be used and specifying the goal of the tactile graphic or map to ensure that the main goal of your work is adequately represented as the emphasis of the final product. Also, immediately preceding the specific orientation and mobility section is an example of a complex diagram of a bus route; this is at the end of Unit 7. http://www.tsbvi.edu/blog/om/tag/tactile-maps-2/ Edinburgh Castle as a tactile map. A collaborative research project with FSB Enterprises in Kircaldy and the Scottish Research Council to develop a tactile maps for use bu tourism and recreation. Graphics use a new method of plastic printing. http://www.katemcleandesign.com/pro/tactile_map.html tactile emotional map http://www.katemcleandesign.com/personal/tactile_emotion.html An emotional map based on the Inuit floating maps of fishing grounds. This map depicts the emotional state of a person undertaking their first year of an MFA at Edinurgh College of Art. http://www.sensorymaps.com/maps_diverse/tactile_emotion.html SMELL MAPS AS CARTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OF SENSORY PERCEPTION IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT My research investigates smell perceptions of the city environment, depicting the findings in a variety of artistic, cartographic forms and augmenting and altering the maps on the basis of audience response. In an ocular-centric world we should seek alternative platforms for meaningful communication, including multi-sensory, non-visual and the stimulation of personal memory through the creation of ambiance. My work draws from contemporary cartographic theory and sensory ethnography to develop tools for analyzing sensory ethnographic findings; visual and linguistic descriptors for an odor classification system; and to contribute to debates on promoting memorable urban tourism where tourists fulfill multiple roles as authors, consumers and producers of the smellscape. http://www.sensorymaps.com/research.html smell map http://www.katemcleandesign.com/personal/smell_edi.html Tactile & Braille Signs http://www.as-s.co.uk/braille-signs/tactile-signs/tactile-maps.html Lines in the Darkness: An Atlas for the Blind http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/574-lines-in-the-darkness-an-atlas-for-the-blind?page=all From jenjusti11 at gmail.com Tue Oct 9 21:52:39 2012 From: jenjusti11 at gmail.com (Jennifer Justice) Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2012 21:52:39 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Invitation to connect on LinkedIn Message-ID: <313701344.3013517.1349819559459.JavaMail.app@ela4-app2314.prod> LinkedIn ------------ I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. - Jennifer Jennifer Justice Video Description Professional Development Intern at Video Description and Research Development CEnter San Francisco Bay Area Confirm that you know Jennifer Justice: https://www.linkedin.com/e/vudcqh-h83jppud-o/isd/9006796708/ibv3v7CT/?hs=false&tok=2HQfBOOeLwhBs1 -- You are receiving Invitation to Connect emails. Click to unsubscribe: http://www.linkedin.com/e/vudcqh-h83jppud-o/uYFEuWLf4NZmxzDbrQoiXsdIENt_wtj-AQUjPMhIq5FqSz0z31meXspO9a_1vI/goo/art_beyond_sight_learning_tools%40nfbnet%2Eorg/20061/I3018570780_1/?hs=false&tok=0anvEu3TbwhBs1 (c) 2012 LinkedIn Corporation. 2029 Stierlin Ct, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Oct 16 07:14:45 2012 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2012 09:14:45 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Art Beyond Sight Email Alert 3 forwarding Message-ID: Hi, Forwarding from Marie Clapot, Project Coordinator. Cheers, Lisa October 2012 Email Alert Three 1 Website Yields Performance by Devorah Greenspan Thanks to the AEB artist website, I was able to collaborate with international artist Ahmet ?g?t in Perfoma '09. Performa is a biennial event, lasting for several weeks with many sponsors and venues. Ahmet ?g?t was born in Diyarbakir, Turkey, in 1981. He is a conceptual artist living and working in Amsterdam and Istanbul. The performance was a homage to Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor and writer Hrant Dink, 1954-2007. The Performance took place on November 15, 2009, in New York City. While I painted, Ahmet and I engaged in conversation about our lives and a variety of other topics. Although Hrant Dink aroused political debate on both sides, our homage touched history, while avoiding conflict. Painting an entire piece in two and a half hours challenged creative perfec-tionism. I wear glasses for general dis-tance. I work without them. Up close, I can move my head to adjust my eyes as needed for details. The idea of painting in the dark did not rattle me one bit. Symbolically it meant the darkness of strife. It also showed my capability. Painting in the dark, I use the compensa-tion techniques I developed as a young child. I'd write a reminder note, some- Devorah Greenspan shares her experience of painting with artist, Ahmet ?g?t, whom she discovered through ABS?s e-gallery... A moment of the performance captured. Photo ? Paula Court. Courtesy of Performa. 2 Mark Your Calendars! October 26th-28th? Multimodal Approaches to Learning International Conference The Conference co-organized with The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the corner-stone of Art Beyond Sight's Awareness Month. It addresses inclusive and multisen-sory learning environments and strategies, particularly in relation to the arts and museums. Our discussions will focus on experiences that involve sound, touch, movement, drama, olfactory and modes of proprioceptive learning. This year, in addition to an impressive roster of speakers and artists who will be joining us we are also very excited to announce that Peter Sellars, the renowned theater, opera and festival Director will be our keynote speaker. The event will take place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://artbeyondsightconference.blogspot.com/ October 29th- Telephone Conference Crash Course This year?s Crash Course offers two new features: ?Museum Clinics,? which ad-dress critical issues and day-to-day concerns of technology, development, and ad-ministrative staff, and a ?Docent Roundtable? at which docents from around the world share their ideas, tips, and stories. http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-crashcourse.shtml Times, using only shaded street lights entering through the windows. I could feel approxi-mately where I was on the page. Painting is a more complex endeavor. I selected my acrylic paints in advance, memorizing each colors' location on the small work table next to the easel. The audience randomly shone flashlights, varying any light, while they watched the work in progress. Painting and drawing contend with putting the three dimensional onto a two dimensional surface. My spatial conception results from a lifetime of individualized "reverse engineering," which in the artistic application, allows me to paint. ? 3 New York City and London Online ? Who?s Next? Some five years ago, Art Beyond Sight/Art Education for the Blind (ABS) launched New York Beyond Sight ? an online program featuring recorded verbal descriptions of New York City landmark buildings and public (outdoor) artworks. This program makes NYC?s cultural riches accessible to blind New Yorkers, gives sighted people a new per-spective on the city?s artworks and landmarks, and sends a message of equal ac-cess, inclusion and tolerance. By using the voices of New Yorkers ? writers, ac-tors, dancers, clergy, politicians, business and community leaders who are promi-nent in their professions and passionate about the landmarks they describe ? the program also highlights the diversity of the city and encourages all New York-ers and the city?s many visitors to visit these cultural treasures. Here?s a link to the Website: www.nybeyondsight.org. One of ABS?s long-term goals for this project was that it would inspire other groups in other cities to replicate it. Thus the staff was delighted when VocalEyes, a nonprofit in the UK, asked about doing a similar program on London. ABS shared its experience, tips, and procedures with VocalEyes, which introduced London Beyond Sight earlier this year. ?They have a marvelous group of artists lending their voices to this project,? says ABS?s Joan M. Pursley, ?and we hope that they will continue to add new de-scriptions to their site, as we do each year to ours.? Here?s a link to London Beyond Sight: http://www.vocaleyes.co.uk/feedpage.asp?section=213§ionTitle=London+Beyond+Sight Recently, ABS had a query from a Canadian nonprofit wanting advice about starting a Vancouver Beyond Sight program. We hope many of you will want to begin a similar pro-gram to make your city?s landmark buildings, historic sites, and outdoor artworks acces-sible to people who cannot see. If so, contact Joan M. Pursley at editor-at-large at artbeyondsight.org. ?The costs involved are minimal,? says Pursley, ?and doing the project is great fun. Lou Giansante, who writes and records our verbal descriptions, and I have learned a lot about our city?s history, seen some great buildings, and met doz-ens of really interesting New Yorkers who volunteered to be recording artists.? 4 Accessibility in South Africa MAP: Meaningful Access Programme Despite cutbacks in funding and a forced down-scaling of activities, MAP (Meaningful Access Programme) has continued to stay alive and well through the contribu-tions of volunteers who work to facilitate art. Corpo-rate funder Truworths Social Involvement Trust, which sponsors MAP?s children and adult group, has taken upon itself the task of finding more funders. Together, the volunteers and Truworths Social Involvement Trust are helping to expand MAP, which now also includes the Museum Access Projects. MAP?s success is evident in the nine workshops scheduled between August and December in cultural centers such as the South African Jewish Museum, the South African National Gallery, and the Alpha School for Autistic Children. Program creator Sandra Eastwood explains that the art work cre-ated by the attendees of each of these programs ?will be returned to the relevant schools in time for their end-of-year exhibitions before being given to the learn-ers to take home.? In her own words, Eastwood relates the current state of MAP and her hopes for the future of accessibility: ?The broader MAP is working really well and I feel that both the Irma Stern Museum and the South African Jewish Museum provide especially ripe ground for aug-menting access facilities. I am interested, too, to see what the Jewish Museum has done in NYC in this re-spect and obtain some tactile information they have prepared, which I can give to the SAJM.? ?All remains on a small scale and is dependent upon a handful of us. This is why I feel it important to spread our wings and also to give priority to the documenta-tion of what we have done. I have been involved since 1967 and was totally daunted by this self-set task at the beginning. I have now come to the conclusion that I need not write a detailed history or present an over-view of literature or the present state of access throughout the world. Our emphasis will be on what has worked for us, not a manual on 'how to' because each workshop presents fresh opportunities, but a sharing of what we have found to be good. At best, it could provide inspiration for others who want to ex-plore this exciting field.? Dominican School for Deaf Children responding to an exhibition of drawings by Barbara Tyrell of traditional dress at Iziko South African National Gallery by collaged dress and Mary Harding School for the Intellectually Impaired drumming a necklace then collaging necklaces in response to the same exhibition. Email Alert written and designed by Laurie Horesta, Summer Intern -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Thu Oct 18 11:20:27 2012 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:20:27 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] [Nfbnet-master-list] Webinar: "Do It Yourself" Educational Description: Guidelines and Tools Message-ID: Forwarding Webinar: "Do It Yourself" Educational Description: Guidelines and Tools Join us for a free, forward-looking webinar on the changing world of educational video description on October 24, 2012. This innovative webinar is presented by the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), in collaboration with the Video Description Research and Development Center (VDRDC), and the Description Leadership Network (DLN). Register now at http://webinars.dcmp.org/. This exciting and interactive presentation is perfect for teachers, administrators, and parents who want to learn about the latest developments in video description technology and how it can help students who are blind and visually impaired in educational settings. Topics include: * Live demonstrations of two FREE software programs which can be used to add description to media. * The "Dos and Don'ts" of description. * An update of the activities of the VDRDC. * An overview of resources for obtaining described materials for use in the classroom. The Video Description Research and Development Center (VDRDC), administered by The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, is a two-year project with the mission to develop new technologies and techniques for the annotation of online video content and improving video accessibility for students who are blind or visually impaired. The VDRDC is funded by the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), grant number H327J110005. This webinar is the second in a series of four to be presented during the two-year project. An archived copy of the first webinar, Bringing Video Description Into the 21st Century, is available on the registration page. Webinar participants will have valuable opportunity to learn from and interact with VDRDC scientists and members of the Description Leadership Network - a coalition of world-class organizations involved with the practicality, policy, and technology of blindness and video accessibility. DLN members include: The American Council of the Blind (ACB), The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), CaptionMax, The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), Dicapta, IDEAL Group, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA), The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), and Narrative Television Network (NTN). CEU credit, through the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals (ACVREP), will be available to participants. -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Oct 23 05:18:43 2012 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:18:43 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] =?utf-8?q?Art_Beyond_Sight?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=99s_Awareness_Month=2C_Telephone_Conference_Crash_Course?= Message-ID: October 2012 Email Alert Four One of the benefits of joining Art Beyond Sight?s Awareness Month is that you receive access to re-sources that guide participants in creating access programs. Our annual Telephone Conference Crash Course is one such resource. This year?s Crash Course, taking place on Monday, October 29th, offers two new features: ?Museum Clinics,? which address critical issues and day-to-day con-cerns of technology, development, and adminis-trative staff, and a ?Docent Roundtable? at which docents from around the world share their ideas, tips, and stories. 9:30 ? 10 a.m.: Welcome by Elisabeth Axel, Founder and President, Art Beyond Sight, and Report from the Multimodal Learning Conference: Rebecca McGinnis (The Metro-politan Museum of Art) 10 ? 11 a.m.: Museum Clinic: Cost and Cost Effectiveness of Accessibility Pro-grams. This clinic looks at issues around real costs of access programs, provides ideas for low-cost or no-cost solutions, and tips for creating sustainable programs. Discussion Leader: Kathy Foley, (Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum) Speakers: Jayna Hintz (Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum ), Mary Ann Perkins (Carnegie Museum of Art), Leah Fox (Currier Museum of Art) 11 a.m. ? noon: Small Museums and Audi-ence Research and Engagement Discussion Leader: Nina Levent (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Susan Shifrin, (Burnum Mu-seum), Ashley Rex (Bechtler Museum of Modern Art), Carmen Smith (Meadows Mu-seum) Noon ? 1 p.m.: Museum Clinic: Website Ac-cessibility. In this clinic experts address common issues around website accessibility, discuss solutions, offer tips regarding easy accessibility audits, legibility, contrast, new/free software, accessible apps for museums, etc. It is designed for web staff, program-mers, app/software developers, and graphic designers. Discussion Leader: Nancy Proctor, (Smithsonian Institution) Speakers: Sharron Rush, (Knowbility) Glenda Sims (Web consuant), Jared Smith (WebAIM) October 2012 Email Alert Four One of the benefits of joining Art Beyond Sight?s Awareness Month is that you receive access to re-sources that guide participants in creating access programs. Our annual Telephone Conference Crash Course is one such resource. This year?s Crash Course, taking place on Monday, October 29th, offers two new features: ?Museum Clinics,? which address critical issues and day-to-day con-cerns of technology, development, and adminis-trative staff, and a ?Docent Roundtable? at which docents from around the world share their ideas, tips, and stories. 1 1? 2 p.m.: Docent Roundtable: The Nuts and Bolts of Docents? Craft Session Leader: Joan Pursley (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Donnie Wilburn (Seattle Art Museum), Marilyn Batali (Seattle Art Museum), Judy Schmeidler (Jewish Museum of Art, NYC), Fran Megarry (Minneapolis Institute of Art) 2 ? 3 p.m.: Museum Clinic: Grant Writing and Accessibility. Experts address common issues in writing grant applications for accessibility and service programs for audiences with disabilities. Also offered: Advice on writing an accessibility plans for an institution/exhibition. This clinic is designed for development and program staff. Session Leader: Kim Hutchinson (Disability Funders Network) Speakers: Beth Bienvenu (National Endowment for the Arts), Kristy Traut-mann (FISA Founda-tion), Don Ehman (NJ State Council on the Arts), Elaine Katz (Kessler Foun-dation), Susan Olivo (Readers Digest Partners for Sight Foundation) 3 ? 4 p.m.: Pilot Programs: Challenges and Success Discussion Leader: Marie Clapot (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Adelia Gregory (Brooklyn Mu- seum of Art), Debra Hegstrom (Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Bridget O?Brien (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) 4? 4.30 p.m.: Reflections on the Day and Sug-gestions of Topics for Future Teleconferences Save the date: Monday, October 29th The full program is also available online at http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-crashcourse.shtml. Number to call: (712) 432-0220; Conference code: 232-2012 Notes: (1) All times given are Eastern Daylight Time. (2) Each session features 15 minutes for Q&A/discussion at the end of the hour. 2 Art Beyond Sight: How did you get involved in the art education field? Diana Bush: My university background prepared me for a career that included academic teaching. This was always my primary career aspiration. When I began actually teaching, as a fellow in the Art Humanities program at Columbia University, I discovered that the educational component of the usual research-writing-pedagogy was quite impor-tant to me. Art Humanities is a course that empha-sizes proactive thinking and ac-tive learning through discussion, debate, and similar - not at all the usual lecture course format. From the beginning, I appreci-ated the collaborative and coop-erative aspects of educating very much. That early experience was a kind of revelation. I benefited tremendously from the related faculty mentoring and the discus-sion meetings that were held in connection with the course. This was the origin of my conviction that active discus-sion, talking with (as opposed to ?at?) a group, was a very effective means of educating. To date, for those occasions when I must present informa-tion in a lecture format, I will break the informa-tion into small segments, perhaps into a single idea, and then stop and initiate discussion, a kind of going-over things, before moving to the next idea. This is a central component of my pedagogi-cal strategy with any audience. Working at the Museum of Modern Art was a sig-nificant opportunity for me given those interests and that background, because I was able to work with many different people, from different back-grounds and with varying levels of engagement with art and with the museum broadly speaking. The museum's audience is very diverse. In other words, working with various groups in the mu-seum, and in the context of on-site programs, gave me the opportunity to develop important aspects of my own pedagogical strategies. And I was given the opportunity to do so in the community of like-minded and very intelligent, interesting peo-ple whom I encountered in the various departments at MoMA. ABS: How long have you been working in this field? Throughout that time how has the field changed? DB: I have been teaching from the end of the 1990s (teaching assistant) and began in earnest, with my own classes, from the early 2000s. It is my sense that discussion-based and active learning is gaining ground over the older lecture-course for-mat. This approach is especially important for Diana M. Bush (MA, Institute of Fine Arts, M.Phil., Columbia University) is completing her dissertation on Weimar photomontage. She is an independent educator and course instructor in the Department of Education, MoMA, and lectures on modern art, aesthetics, and criticism at Stevens Institute of Technology. Interview with an Educator? MoMA?s Diana Bush This past June, as an intern for Art Beyond Sight I was able to shadow a touch tour at MoMa led by Diana Bush. Although an avid museum goer, this tour was unlike any-thing I?d experienced before. So much did I enjoy it that I decided to feature Diana in this week?s newsletter. 3 beginning students, I think, because it encourages the development active of thinking; the develop-ment of ideas, rather than the simple memoriza-tion of facts. Although ... knowing names and dates and histories, information, remains impor-tant. It is not that learning has become "easier" or requires less work, but that the active develop-ment of critical thinking skills is gaining in impor-tance and this requires different work, and there-fore a shift in pedagogical strategies as well. If a student is required only to memorize or mull through dates, artists, etc., s/he will often do so in isolation, never testing any ideas against those of a peer or in the context of a group. Discussion and debate, fostered in an environment where there is a close connection between educator and student, encourages the testing of ideas and models of in-terpretation, the development of more complex models when interpretations are no longer satis-factory, and so on. The instructor learns and par-ticipates also, and this changes the dynamic be-tween educator and participants. Developing the conceptual aspects of "information" has become important, I think, in both museum and class-room. In my opinion, museums as institutions will be-come even more important as educational re-sources and contexts for both academic and other kinds of learning. This is a very positive develop-ment. ABS: What approaches have you have found most effective for particular audiences? DB: I usually have a basic idea, but I develop a more specific approach once I meet a given group (i.e., are they university students? older adults? individuals who are blind or partially sighted?). Once I am with the group, I listen care-fully and try different approaches based on my interactions with the members. I truly enjoy interacting with people given their specific interests, in finding that way in which they can, as individuals and/or as a broad group, con-nect with a given project, with a set of objects, with an exhibition, etc. This can be challenging, but in the most positive and meaningful of ways. There are numerous ways to discuss art and it is always possible, through interaction, to find that interpretation or reading that resounds with a given group or individual. Working in Community and Access Programs at MoMA, I have had the opportunity to engage with New Yorkers of all ages and abilities, throughout the five boroughs, through programs at the Mu-seum, as well as at libraries and community cen-ters. I have learned a lot from the participants! Working with them opened entirely new dimen-sions of experience and thinking that otherwise would have been closed to me. ABS: What is your relationship to the participants in your tours? DB: This varies. There are always new people and new perspectives, and there are always people with whom I enjoy a long acquaintance. I have de-veloped lasting friendships with people who have participated in the different programs. I often run into participants from the library programs at the Museum! ? 4 This Week?s Tech Innovation: The Access American Stories App This past April, the Smithsonian Institution released the Access American Stories App which they describe as ?a bilingual (Spanish/English) ?crowdsourced? audio experience and companion to the American Stories exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.? It?s designed to facilitate interaction and enhance the ex-perience of museum-goers with vision impairment or blindness. How it works: When a person approaches an ob-ject on display at a museum he opens the app, which prompts him to record his reaction and experience, make suggestions as to how the exhibit can be im-proved, and respond to comments left by others. The app also engages those who simply want to listen to staff and visitors speaking about the objects and time periods from American history that most interest them. 5 Email Alert written and designed by Laurie Horesta, Summer Intern -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Tue Oct 23 06:18:03 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:18:03 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] art, photography Message-ID: <5086369B.70706@online.no> * * *Watkins Glen students turn blind eye toward art Acclaimed artist shows youngsters what it's like to create with a visual impairmentWATKINS GLEN* --- It had the potential to be real messy. It was, in a controlled sense. Art can be that way. Plastic coffee and yogurt containers held reservoirs of color for 21 Watkins Glen Elementary School third-graders. They spread paint, thickly, onto square pieces of Plexiglas. Nearby, a few at a time, built a blue background for a large painting of a sunflower. And they all wore goggles, the dollar-store kind, with layers of clear packing tape covering the lenses. "It felt weird," said Molly Dunham, 8. "I just kind of randomly stuck my brush in the paint and then I just smeared it," said Noah McCauley, 9. Perhaps for the first time, these 8- and 9-year-old art students were seeing the world as the visually impaired do, including two third-grade classmates and guest instructor George Mendoza. Mendoza, 57, is a legally blind painter, author and textile designer who came from New Mexico to spend Monday through Thursday at the Watkins Glen school. A $5,000 grant from the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes covered his visit http://www.stargazette.com/article/20121017/NEWS01/310170082/Watkins-Glen-students-turn-blind-eye-toward-art?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE&nclick_check=1 Blind artist visits Watkins Glen http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=CB&Dato=20121017&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=310170046&Ref=PH Blind artist will bring special skills to Watkins Glen George Mendoza, a legally blind painter, textile designer and author from New Mexico, will visit Watkins Glen Elementary School from Oct. 15 to 18. He will demonstrate his unique artistic expression to staff and students, and raise awareness about the needs and gifts of blind students in the building. Mendoza's work is on display at a Smithsonian-affiliated museum in Texas. Mendoza experienced vision loss at a young age from an incurable eye disease. His abstract work reflects his current physical sight combined with dreams, memories and emotional experiences. http://www.stargazette.com/article/20121006/NEWS02/310060035/Blind-artist-will-bring-special-skills-Watkins-Glen Blind artist will bring special skills to Watkins Glen http://www.stargazette.com/article/20121006/NEWS02/310060035/Blind-artist-will-bring-special-skills-Watkins-Glen?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp article Being legally blind hasn't kept Joan Lautensack from her needlework About a decade ago, Joan Lautensack learned that she had age-related macular degeneration. Accepting the reality that she would likely lose her vision, the longtime needlework artist began teaching herself how to work without seeing what she was doing. "I basically do mostly just free form kind of things --- no counted cross stitch or anything I have to be specific about where I'm putting the needle," Lautensack said. The Jeffersonville woman, who began stitching at a young age, once taught home economics and stitching at night schools. Now that she's legally blind, her proactive efforts have paid off, as Lautensack spends much of her time stitching. "At some point in my life, maybe 20 to 25 years ago, I decided I was going to (stitch) a garden in every (needlework) technique," Lautensack said, explaining that there are many different techniques. On display at Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library through October is "probably 25 years or more of work" that Lautensack began before she was legally blind, and much of which she finished after her sight began to leave her. http://www.thereporteronline.com/article/20121008/LIFE01/121009615/being-legally-blind-hasn-t-kept-joan-lautensack-from-her-needlework A more blind-friendly island? It's a mixed report card on whether urban changes have all been for the better SINGAPORE - At the Marina Bay Sands' ArtScience Museum exhibit, blind visitors can trace, with their fingers, the outlines of six artworks by legendary artist Andy Warhol done in an embossed reproduction for their benefit. http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC121006-0000041/A-more-blind-friendly-island Sacramento's Blind artists http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/10/4806859/sacramentos-blind-artists.html?mi_rss=Photo%20Galleries Gallery showcase for blind artist http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2923294 Niagara's Do It! listings Cultural Reflections: Through My Eyes. Selected works in graphite by visually impaired Ojibwa artist Richard Langlois. 5017 Victoria Ave., Niagara Falls. http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2012/08/23/niagaras-do-it-listings Seeing life in another dimension SNAP HAPPY: Josh Wilkinson was born blind which makes his choice of career remarkable. His devoted parents worked to develop his sight and he is now a professional photographer. Josh Wikinson's lifelong dream was always to be a photographer. Which is kind of strange when you consider the 19-year-old was born blind. But just like glasses helped him see better as a youngster, the camera these days acts as his eyes. Get him behind a lens and he sees things from a whole new dimension. His work has already won him a national competition and earned him his own exhibition at Hebden Bridge Arts Centre. Josh could not see anything as a baby, and for many years his parents, Nigel and Sue Wilkinson, of Mount Tabor, Halifax, had no idea how his sight would develop. http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/health-and-family/seeing-life-in-another-dimension-1-3782697 From fnugg at online.no Tue Oct 23 06:34:43 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (fnugg at online.no) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:34:43 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] photography Message-ID: <50863A83.3040106@online.no> Korematsu Included in Sculpture of Noted Humanitarians A special feature for the visually impaired will allow visitors to explore life-sized bronze busts of each humanitarian, and will include information in Braille. The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., will permanently display a small-scale casting of the educational monument in their museum. http://rafu.com/news/2011/09/korematsu-included-in-sculpture-of-noted-humanitarians/ Photography workshop for the blind and visually impaired Sharing a group portrait of the last generation of blind and visually impaired photographers who attended the Sight of Emotion photography workshop. I had the opportunity of joining this workshop and to see the capacity of the students to break the mental barrier that prevented them from making pictures. They are full of ideas and I have learned to perceive light with other senses apart from sight, which is fascinating. The next project I'm working on is to renew and organize their picture archive, sharing with them my experience with several photo agencies. In the future I'll share in this blog their impressive stock archive. For those who have not seen it yet, I want to share an audio-slide show I made earlier this year about this workshop. To see the story enter this link: http://www.chicosanchez.com/thesightwithin/ http://chicosanchezphotos.blogspot.no/2011/08/photography-workshop-for-blind-and.html http://www.sightofemotion.org/ Program teaches blind to learn photography Founded five years ago, the foundation teaches the blind and visuallt impaired to use their other senses to choose subjects, create images and express in photographs how they perceive the world. A group of 30 visually impaired or blind people are learning photography with the help of the Mexico City foundation called Eyes That Feel. Founded five years ago, the foundation teaches the blind and visuallt impaired to use their other senses to choose subjects, create images and express in photographs how they perceive the world. For example, the students are taught to photograph the sounds they hear or the smells they sense. The students are also taught to use the warmth of the sun to know where to place themselves to photograph their subject. http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=79522 Mexico City blind photographer share their world MEXICO CITY --- Rodrigo Telon Yucute focuses on the sound of the voices, raises a camera and snaps off a shot, capturing an image of a couple laughing as they sit on a yellow park bench. He shows it to the subjects, but cannot see it himself. The photographer-in-training has been blind for nearly 30 years. "When I was young, I met a lot of people and it always caught my attention how they would take photographs to keep as mementos," Telon said. "I like to take photographs to capture a moment that I can later share with my family and friends so they can see what my life is like." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20110926/lt-mexico-blind-photographers/ From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Oct 23 10:58:10 2012 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:58:10 +0200 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] =?utf-8?b?W0FydF9iZXlvbmRfc2ln?= =?utf-8?q?ht=5Fadvocacy=5D_=5BArt=5Fbeyond=5Fsight=5Ftheory=5Fand=5Fresea?= =?utf-8?q?rch=5D_Art_Beyond_Sight=E2=80=99s_Awareness_Month=2C_Telephone_?= =?utf-8?q?Conference_Crash_Course?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Heartily agree! The Crash Courses are always useful. Would be great to be able to go back and listen again and again. Regards, Lisa -----Opprinnelig melding----- Fra: Art_beyond_sight_advocacy [mailto:art_beyond_sight_advocacy-bounces at nfbnet.org] P? vegne av simon hayhoe Sendt: 23. oktober 2012 09:06 Til: art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org; accessibleimage at freelists.org; art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org; art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org; artbeyondsightmuseums at nfbnet.org; art_beyond_sight_learning_tools at nfbnet.org Emne: Re: [Art_beyond_sight_advocacy] [Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Art Beyond Sight?s Awareness Month, Telephone Conference Crash Course As ever, this is a really exciting event. However, with the time difference and work commitments it is difficult to log in. Would it be possible for someone on the list to record it and maybe publish it? Best wishes and many thanks if this is possible, Simon > From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no > To: accessibleimage at freelists.org; > art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org; > art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org; > art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org; > artbeyondsightmuseums at nfbnet.org; > art_beyond_sight_learning_tools at nfbnet.org; > art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org > Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:18:43 +0200 > Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Art Beyond Sight?s > Awareness Month, Telephone Conference Crash Course > > > October 2012 Email Alert Four > > One of the benefits of joining Art Beyond Sight?s Awareness Month is that you receive access to re-sources that guide participants in creating access programs. Our annual Telephone Conference Crash Course is one such resource. This year?s Crash Course, taking place on Monday, October 29th, offers two new features: ?Museum Clinics,? which address critical issues and day-to-day con-cerns of technology, development, and adminis-trative staff, and a ?Docent Roundtable? at which docents from around the world share their ideas, tips, and stories. > > > 9:30 ? 10 a.m.: Welcome by Elisabeth Axel, Founder and President, Art > Beyond Sight, and Report from the Multimodal Learning Conference: Rebecca McGinnis (The Metro-politan Museum of Art) 10 ? 11 a.m.: Museum Clinic: Cost and Cost Effectiveness of Accessibility Pro-grams. This clinic looks at issues around real costs of access programs, provides ideas for low-cost or no-cost solutions, and tips for creating sustainable programs. > Discussion Leader: Kathy Foley, (Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum) > Speakers: Jayna Hintz (Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum ), Mary Ann > Perkins (Carnegie Museum of Art), Leah Fox (Currier Museum of Art) > 11 a.m. ? noon: Small Museums and Audi-ence Research and Engagement > Discussion Leader: Nina Levent (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Susan Shifrin, (Burnum Mu-seum), Ashley Rex (Bechtler Museum of Modern Art), Carmen Smith (Meadows Mu-seum) Noon ? 1 p.m.: Museum Clinic: Website Ac-cessibility. In this clinic experts address common issues around website accessibility, discuss solutions, offer tips regarding easy accessibility audits, legibility, contrast, new/free software, accessible apps for museums, etc. It is designed for web staff, program-mers, app/software developers, and graphic designers. > Discussion Leader: Nancy Proctor, (Smithsonian Institution) Speakers: > Sharron Rush, (Knowbility) Glenda Sims (Web consuant), Jared Smith > (WebAIM) October 2012 Email Alert Four One of the benefits of joining Art Beyond Sight?s Awareness Month is that you receive access to re-sources that guide participants in creating access programs. Our annual Telephone Conference Crash Course is one such resource. This year?s Crash Course, taking place on Monday, October 29th, offers two new features: ?Museum Clinics,? which address critical issues and day-to-day con-cerns of technology, development, and adminis-trative staff, and a ?Docent Roundtable? at which docents from around the world share their ideas, tips, and stories. > 1 > 1? 2 p.m.: Docent Roundtable: The Nuts and Bolts of Docents? Craft > Session Leader: Joan Pursley (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Donnie > Wilburn (Seattle Art Museum), Marilyn Batali (Seattle Art Museum), > Judy Schmeidler (Jewish Museum of Art, NYC), Fran Megarry (Minneapolis > Institute of Art) > 2 ? 3 p.m.: Museum Clinic: Grant Writing and Accessibility. Experts address common issues in writing grant applications for accessibility and service programs for audiences with disabilities. Also offered: Advice on writing an accessibility plans for an institution/exhibition. This clinic is designed for development and program staff. > Session Leader: Kim Hutchinson (Disability Funders Network) Speakers: > Beth Bienvenu (National Endowment for the Arts), Kristy Traut-mann > (FISA Founda-tion), Don Ehman (NJ State Council on the Arts), Elaine > Katz (Kessler Foun-dation), Susan Olivo (Readers Digest Partners for > Sight Foundation) > 3 ? 4 p.m.: Pilot Programs: Challenges and Success Discussion Leader: > Marie Clapot (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Adelia Gregory (Brooklyn Mu- > seum of Art), Debra Hegstrom (Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Bridget > O?Brien (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) 4? 4.30 p.m.: Reflections on > the Day and Sug-gestions of Topics for Future Teleconferences Save the > date: Monday, October 29th The full program is also available online > at http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-crashcourse.shtml. > Number to call: (712) 432-0220; Conference code: 232-2012 > Notes: (1) All times given are Eastern Daylight Time. (2) Each session features 15 minutes for Q&A/discussion at the end of the hour. > 2 > Art Beyond Sight: How did you get involved in the art education field? > Diana Bush: My university background prepared me for a career that included academic teaching. This was always my primary career aspiration. When I began actually teaching, as a fellow in the Art Humanities program at Columbia University, I discovered that the educational component of the usual research-writing-pedagogy was quite impor-tant to me. Art Humanities is a course that empha-sizes proactive thinking and ac-tive learning through discussion, debate, and similar - not at all the usual lecture course format. From the beginning, I appreci-ated the collaborative and coop-erative aspects of educating very much. That early experience was a kind of revelation. I benefited tremendously from the related faculty mentoring and the discus-sion meetings that were held in connection with the course. This was the origin of my conviction that active discus-sion, talking with (as opposed to ?at?) a group, was a very effective means of educating. To date, for those occasions when I must present informa-tion in a lecture format, I will break the informa-tion into small segments, perhaps into a single idea, and then stop and initiate discussion, a kind of going-over things, before moving to the next idea. This is a central component of my pedagogi-cal strategy with any audience. > Working at the Museum of Modern Art was a sig-nificant opportunity for me given those interests and that background, because I was able to work with many different people, from different back-grounds and with varying levels of engagement with art and with the museum broadly speaking. The museum's audience is very diverse. In other words, working with various groups in the mu-seum, and in the context of on-site programs, gave me the opportunity to develop important aspects of my own pedagogical strategies. And I was given the opportunity to do so in the community of like-minded and very intelligent, interesting peo-ple whom I encountered in the various departments at MoMA. > ABS: How long have you been working in this field? Throughout that > time how has the field changed? > DB: I have been teaching from the end of the 1990s (teaching > assistant) and began in earnest, with my own classes, from the early > 2000s. It is my sense that discussion-based and active learning is > gaining ground over the older lecture-course for-mat. This approach is > especially important for Diana M. Bush (MA, Institute of Fine Arts, > M.Phil., Columbia University) is completing her dissertation on Weimar photomontage. She is an independent educator and course instructor in the Department of Education, MoMA, and lectures on modern art, aesthetics, and criticism at Stevens Institute of Technology. > Interview with an Educator? > MoMA?s Diana Bush > This past June, as an intern for Art Beyond Sight I was able to shadow a touch tour at MoMa led by Diana Bush. Although an avid museum goer, this tour was unlike any-thing I?d experienced before. So much did I enjoy it that I decided to feature Diana in this week?s newsletter. > 3 > beginning students, I think, because it encourages the development active of thinking; the develop-ment of ideas, rather than the simple memoriza-tion of facts. Although ... knowing names and dates and histories, information, remains impor-tant. It is not that learning has become "easier" or requires less work, but that the active develop-ment of critical thinking skills is gaining in impor-tance and this requires different work, and there-fore a shift in pedagogical strategies as well. If a student is required only to memorize or mull through dates, artists, etc., s/he will often do so in isolation, never testing any ideas against those of a peer or in the context of a group. Discussion and debate, fostered in an environment where there is a close connection between educator and student, encourages the testing of ideas and models of in-terpretation, the development of more complex models when interpretations are no longer satis-factory, and so on. The instructor learns and par-ticipates also, and this changes the dynamic be-tween educator and participants. Developing the conceptual aspects of "information" has become important, I think, in both museum and class-room. > In my opinion, museums as institutions will be-come even more important as educational re-sources and contexts for both academic and other kinds of learning. This is a very positive develop-ment. > ABS: What approaches have you have found most effective for particular audiences? > DB: I usually have a basic idea, but I develop a more specific approach once I meet a given group (i.e., are they university students? older adults? individuals who are blind or partially sighted?). Once I am with the group, I listen care-fully and try different approaches based on my interactions with the members. > I truly enjoy interacting with people given their specific interests, in finding that way in which they can, as individuals and/or as a broad group, con-nect with a given project, with a set of objects, with an exhibition, etc. This can be challenging, but in the most positive and meaningful of ways. There are numerous ways to discuss art and it is always possible, through interaction, to find that interpretation or reading that resounds with a given group or individual. > Working in Community and Access Programs at MoMA, I have had the opportunity to engage with New Yorkers of all ages and abilities, throughout the five boroughs, through programs at the Mu-seum, as well as at libraries and community cen-ters. I have learned a lot from the participants! Working with them opened entirely new dimen-sions of experience and thinking that otherwise would have been closed to me. > ABS: What is your relationship to the participants in your tours? > DB: This varies. There are always new people and new perspectives, and > there are always people with whom I enjoy a long acquaintance. I have > de-veloped lasting friendships with people who have participated in > the different programs. I often run into participants from the library > programs at the Museum! w > 4 > This Week?s Tech Innovation: The Access American Stories App This past > April, the Smithsonian Institution released the Access American Stories App which they describe as ?a bilingual (Spanish/English) ?crowdsourced? audio experience and companion to the American Stories exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.? It?s designed to facilitate interaction and enhance the ex-perience of museum-goers with vision impairment or blindness. > How it works: When a person approaches an ob-ject on display at a museum he opens the app, which prompts him to record his reaction and experience, make suggestions as to how the exhibit can be im-proved, and respond to comments left by others. The app also engages those who simply want to listen to staff and visitors speaking about the objects and time periods from American history that most interest them. > 5 > Email Alert written and designed by Laurie Horesta, Summer Intern > > -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- > _______________________________________________ > Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research mailing list > Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_researc > h_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your > account info for Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research: > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research > _nfbnet.org/simonhayhoe%40hotmail.com _______________________________________________ Art_beyond_sight_advocacy mailing list Art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/art_beyond_sight_advocacy_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Art_beyond_sight_advocacy: http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/art_beyond_sight_advocacy_nfbnet.org/lisa.yayla%40statped.no -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From elisabethaxel at aol.com Tue Oct 23 11:53:14 2012 From: elisabethaxel at aol.com (Elisabeth Axel) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:53:14 -0400 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] =?utf-8?b?W0FydF9iZXlvbmRfc2ln?= =?utf-8?q?ht=5Feducators=5D_=5BArt=5Fbeyond=5Fsight=5Fadvocacy=5D_=5BArt?= =?utf-8?q?=5Fbeyond=5Fsight=5Ftheory=5Fand=5Fresearch=5D_Art_Beyond_Sight?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=99s_Awareness_Month=2C_Telephone_Conference_Crash_Course?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Simon, Thrilled we can accommodate. The crash courses from the many years will soon be on a searchable database that is an "open source" site --- which means we are counting on you, our colleagues, to add their resources to the site as well. There will be no "hierarchy"-- as there is not in Wikipedia. It will soon be up to the community to build the site together. It will be at www.projectaccessforall.org We will let you know Elisabeth Axel On Oct 23, 2012, at 6:58 AM, Lisa Yayla wrote: > Heartily agree! The Crash Courses are always useful. Would be great to be able to go back and listen again and again. > Regards, > Lisa > -----Opprinnelig melding----- > Fra: Art_beyond_sight_advocacy [mailto:art_beyond_sight_advocacy-bounces at nfbnet.org] P? vegne av simon hayhoe > Sendt: 23. oktober 2012 09:06 > Til: art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org; accessibleimage at freelists.org; art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org; art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org; artbeyondsightmuseums at nfbnet.org; art_beyond_sight_learning_tools at nfbnet.org > Emne: Re: [Art_beyond_sight_advocacy] [Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Art Beyond Sight?s Awareness Month, Telephone Conference Crash Course > > > As ever, this is a really exciting event. However, with the time difference and work commitments it is difficult to log in. Would it be possible for someone on the list to record it and maybe publish it? > > Best wishes and many thanks if this is possible, > > Simon > >> From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no >> To: accessibleimage at freelists.org; >> art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org; >> art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org; >> art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org; >> artbeyondsightmuseums at nfbnet.org; >> art_beyond_sight_learning_tools at nfbnet.org; >> art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org >> Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:18:43 +0200 >> Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Art Beyond Sight?s >> Awareness Month, Telephone Conference Crash Course >> >> >> October 2012 Email Alert Four >> >> One of the benefits of joining Art Beyond Sight?s Awareness Month is that you receive access to re-sources that guide participants in creating access programs. Our annual Telephone Conference Crash Course is one such resource. This year?s Crash Course, taking place on Monday, October 29th, offers two new features: ?Museum Clinics,? which address critical issues and day-to-day con-cerns of technology, development, and adminis-trative staff, and a ?Docent Roundtable? at which docents from around the world share their ideas, tips, and stories. >> >> >> 9:30 ? 10 a.m.: Welcome by Elisabeth Axel, Founder and President, Art >> Beyond Sight, and Report from the Multimodal Learning Conference: Rebecca McGinnis (The Metro-politan Museum of Art) 10 ? 11 a.m.: Museum Clinic: Cost and Cost Effectiveness of Accessibility Pro-grams. This clinic looks at issues around real costs of access programs, provides ideas for low-cost or no-cost solutions, and tips for creating sustainable programs. >> Discussion Leader: Kathy Foley, (Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum) >> Speakers: Jayna Hintz (Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum ), Mary Ann >> Perkins (Carnegie Museum of Art), Leah Fox (Currier Museum of Art) >> 11 a.m. ? noon: Small Museums and Audi-ence Research and Engagement >> Discussion Leader: Nina Levent (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Susan Shifrin, (Burnum Mu-seum), Ashley Rex (Bechtler Museum of Modern Art), Carmen Smith (Meadows Mu-seum) Noon ? 1 p.m.: Museum Clinic: Website Ac-cessibility. In this clinic experts address common issues around website accessibility, discuss solutions, offer tips regarding easy accessibility audits, legibility, contrast, new/free software, accessible apps for museums, etc. It is designed for web staff, program-mers, app/software developers, and graphic designers. >> Discussion Leader: Nancy Proctor, (Smithsonian Institution) Speakers: >> Sharron Rush, (Knowbility) Glenda Sims (Web consuant), Jared Smith >> (WebAIM) October 2012 Email Alert Four One of the benefits of joining Art Beyond Sight?s Awareness Month is that you receive access to re-sources that guide participants in creating access programs. Our annual Telephone Conference Crash Course is one such resource. This year?s Crash Course, taking place on Monday, October 29th, offers two new features: ?Museum Clinics,? which address critical issues and day-to-day con-cerns of technology, development, and adminis-trative staff, and a ?Docent Roundtable? at which docents from around the world share their ideas, tips, and stories. >> 1 >> 1? 2 p.m.: Docent Roundtable: The Nuts and Bolts of Docents? Craft >> Session Leader: Joan Pursley (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Donnie >> Wilburn (Seattle Art Museum), Marilyn Batali (Seattle Art Museum), >> Judy Schmeidler (Jewish Museum of Art, NYC), Fran Megarry (Minneapolis >> Institute of Art) >> 2 ? 3 p.m.: Museum Clinic: Grant Writing and Accessibility. Experts address common issues in writing grant applications for accessibility and service programs for audiences with disabilities. Also offered: Advice on writing an accessibility plans for an institution/exhibition. This clinic is designed for development and program staff. >> Session Leader: Kim Hutchinson (Disability Funders Network) Speakers: >> Beth Bienvenu (National Endowment for the Arts), Kristy Traut-mann >> (FISA Founda-tion), Don Ehman (NJ State Council on the Arts), Elaine >> Katz (Kessler Foun-dation), Susan Olivo (Readers Digest Partners for >> Sight Foundation) >> 3 ? 4 p.m.: Pilot Programs: Challenges and Success Discussion Leader: >> Marie Clapot (Art Beyond Sight) Speakers: Adelia Gregory (Brooklyn Mu- >> seum of Art), Debra Hegstrom (Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Bridget >> O?Brien (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) 4? 4.30 p.m.: Reflections on >> the Day and Sug-gestions of Topics for Future Teleconferences Save the >> date: Monday, October 29th The full program is also available online >> at http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-crashcourse.shtml. >> Number to call: (712) 432-0220; Conference code: 232-2012 >> Notes: (1) All times given are Eastern Daylight Time. (2) Each session features 15 minutes for Q&A/discussion at the end of the hour. >> 2 >> Art Beyond Sight: How did you get involved in the art education field? >> Diana Bush: My university background prepared me for a career that included academic teaching. This was always my primary career aspiration. When I began actually teaching, as a fellow in the Art Humanities program at Columbia University, I discovered that the educational component of the usual research-writing-pedagogy was quite impor-tant to me. Art Humanities is a course that empha-sizes proactive thinking and ac-tive learning through discussion, debate, and similar - not at all the usual lecture course format. From the beginning, I appreci-ated the collaborative and coop-erative aspects of educating very much. That early experience was a kind of revelation. I benefited tremendously from the related faculty mentoring and the discus-sion meetings that were held in connection with the course. This was the origin of my conviction that active discus-sion, talking with (as opposed to ?at?) a group, was a very effective means of educating. To date, for those occasions when I must present informa-tion in a lecture format, I will break the informa-tion into small segments, perhaps into a single idea, and then stop and initiate discussion, a kind of going-over things, before moving to the next idea. This is a central component of my pedagogi-cal strategy with any audience. >> Working at the Museum of Modern Art was a sig-nificant opportunity for me given those interests and that background, because I was able to work with many different people, from different back-grounds and with varying levels of engagement with art and with the museum broadly speaking. The museum's audience is very diverse. In other words, working with various groups in the mu-seum, and in the context of on-site programs, gave me the opportunity to develop important aspects of my own pedagogical strategies. And I was given the opportunity to do so in the community of like-minded and very intelligent, interesting peo-ple whom I encountered in the various departments at MoMA. >> ABS: How long have you been working in this field? Throughout that >> time how has the field changed? >> DB: I have been teaching from the end of the 1990s (teaching >> assistant) and began in earnest, with my own classes, from the early >> 2000s. It is my sense that discussion-based and active learning is >> gaining ground over the older lecture-course for-mat. This approach is >> especially important for Diana M. Bush (MA, Institute of Fine Arts, >> M.Phil., Columbia University) is completing her dissertation on Weimar photomontage. She is an independent educator and course instructor in the Department of Education, MoMA, and lectures on modern art, aesthetics, and criticism at Stevens Institute of Technology. >> Interview with an Educator? >> MoMA?s Diana Bush >> This past June, as an intern for Art Beyond Sight I was able to shadow a touch tour at MoMa led by Diana Bush. Although an avid museum goer, this tour was unlike any-thing I?d experienced before. So much did I enjoy it that I decided to feature Diana in this week?s newsletter. >> 3 >> beginning students, I think, because it encourages the development active of thinking; the develop-ment of ideas, rather than the simple memoriza-tion of facts. Although ... knowing names and dates and histories, information, remains impor-tant. It is not that learning has become "easier" or requires less work, but that the active develop-ment of critical thinking skills is gaining in impor-tance and this requires different work, and there-fore a shift in pedagogical strategies as well. If a student is required only to memorize or mull through dates, artists, etc., s/he will often do so in isolation, never testing any ideas against those of a peer or in the context of a group. Discussion and debate, fostered in an environment where there is a close connection between educator and student, encourages the testing of ideas and models of in-terpretation, the development of more complex models when interpretations are no longer satis-factory, and so on. The instructor learns and par-ticipates also, and this changes the dynamic be-tween educator and participants. Developing the conceptual aspects of "information" has become important, I think, in both museum and class-room. >> In my opinion, museums as institutions will be-come even more important as educational re-sources and contexts for both academic and other kinds of learning. This is a very positive develop-ment. >> ABS: What approaches have you have found most effective for particular audiences? >> DB: I usually have a basic idea, but I develop a more specific approach once I meet a given group (i.e., are they university students? older adults? individuals who are blind or partially sighted?). Once I am with the group, I listen care-fully and try different approaches based on my interactions with the members. >> I truly enjoy interacting with people given their specific interests, in finding that way in which they can, as individuals and/or as a broad group, con-nect with a given project, with a set of objects, with an exhibition, etc. This can be challenging, but in the most positive and meaningful of ways. There are numerous ways to discuss art and it is always possible, through interaction, to find that interpretation or reading that resounds with a given group or individual. >> Working in Community and Access Programs at MoMA, I have had the opportunity to engage with New Yorkers of all ages and abilities, throughout the five boroughs, through programs at the Mu-seum, as well as at libraries and community cen-ters. I have learned a lot from the participants! Working with them opened entirely new dimen-sions of experience and thinking that otherwise would have been closed to me. >> ABS: What is your relationship to the participants in your tours? >> DB: This varies. There are always new people and new perspectives, and >> there are always people with whom I enjoy a long acquaintance. I have >> de-veloped lasting friendships with people who have participated in >> the different programs. I often run into participants from the library >> programs at the Museum! w >> 4 >> This Week?s Tech Innovation: The Access American Stories App This past >> April, the Smithsonian Institution released the Access American Stories App which they describe as ?a bilingual (Spanish/English) ?crowdsourced? audio experience and companion to the American Stories exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.? It?s designed to facilitate interaction and enhance the ex-perience of museum-goers with vision impairment or blindness. >> How it works: When a person approaches an ob-ject on display at a museum he opens the app, which prompts him to record his reaction and experience, make suggestions as to how the exhibit can be im-proved, and respond to comments left by others. The app also engages those who simply want to listen to staff and visitors speaking about the objects and time periods from American history that most interest them. >> 5 >> Email Alert written and designed by Laurie Horesta, Summer Intern >> >> -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- >> _______________________________________________ >> Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research mailing list >> Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org >> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_researc >> h_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your >> account info for Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research: >> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research >> _nfbnet.org/simonhayhoe%40hotmail.com > > _______________________________________________ > Art_beyond_sight_advocacy mailing list > Art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/art_beyond_sight_advocacy_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Art_beyond_sight_advocacy: > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/art_beyond_sight_advocacy_nfbnet.org/lisa.yayla%40statped.no > > -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- > _______________________________________________ > Art_beyond_sight_educators mailing list > Art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/art_beyond_sight_educators_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Art_beyond_sight_educators: > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/art_beyond_sight_educators_nfbnet.org/elisabethaxel%40aol.com From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Mon Oct 29 12:01:30 2012 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:01:30 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Today - Art Beyond Sight's Telephone Conferanse Crash Course Message-ID: Hi, Hope all are well and safe on the east coast. Today is Art Beyond Sight's Crash Course Telephone Conference Crash Course http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-crashcourse.shtml Number to call: (712) 432-0220; Conference code: 232-2012 Telephone Conference Crash Course Tenth Annual Art Beyond Sight TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CRASH COURSE Monday, October 29, 2012 This year's crash course offers two new features: Three Museum Clinics - these professional development sessions are created specifically to address critical issues and day-to-day concerns of museum staff, including technology, development, and administrative staff. A Docent Roundtable that will allow docents from different museums to share their ideas, tips and stories. 9:30 - 10 a.m.: Welcome by Elisabeth Axel, Founder and President, Art Beyond Sight Report from the Multimodal Learning Conference: Rebecca McGinnis, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 10 - 11 a.m.: Museum Clinic: Cost and Cost Effectiveness of Accessibility Programs. This clinic looks at issues around real costs of access programs, provides ideas for low-cost or no-cost solutions, and for tips for creating sustainable programs. Session Leader: Kathy Foley, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Speakers: Jayna Hintz, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Mary Ann Perkins, Carnegie Museum of Art Leah Fox, Currier Museum of Art 11 a.m. - noon: Small Museums and Audience Research and Engagement Session Leader: Nina Levent, Art Beyond Sight Speakers: Susan Shifrin, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art Ashley Rex McCallister, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art Carmen Smith, Meadows Museum Noon - 1 p.m.: Museum Clinic: Website Accessibility. In this clinic experts address common issues around website accessibility, discuss solutions, offer tips re easy accessibility audits, legibility, contrast, new/free software, accessible apps for museums, etc. It is designed for web staff, programmers, app/software developers, graphic designers. Session Leader: Nancy Proctor, Smithsonian Institution Speakers: Sharron Rush, Knowbility Glenda Sims, Web consultant Jared Smith, WebAIM 1- 2 p.m.: Docent Roundtable: The Nuts and Bolts of Docents' Craft Session Leader: Joan Pursley, Art Beyond Sight Speakers: Donnie Wilburn, Seattle Art Museum Marilyn Batali, Seattle Museum of Art Judy Schmeidler, Jewish Museum of Art, NYC Fran Megarry, Minneapolis Institute of Art 2 - 3 p.m.: Museum Clinic: Grant Writing and Accessibility. Experts address common issues on finding and applying for funding for accessibility, work with disabled audiences, and provide advice on writing an accessibility plan for an institution/exhibit. The clinic is designed for development and program staff. Session Leader: Kim Hutchinson, Disability Funders Network Speakers: Beth Bienvenu, National Endowment for the Arts Kristy Trautmann, FISA Foundation Don Ehman, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Elaine Katz, Kessler Foundation Susan Olivo, Reader's Digest Partners for Sight 3 - 4 p.m.: Pilot Programs: Challenges and Success Session Leader: Marie Clapot, Art Beyond Sight Speakers: Adelia Gregory and Kristin Scarola, Brooklyn Museum Debra Hegstrom, Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bridget Hoyt,(formerly with) Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 4- 4.30 p.m.: Reflections on the Day and Suggestions of Topics for Future Teleconferences Notes: (1) Each session features 15 minutes for Q&A/discussion at the end of the hour. (2) You can find an updated schedule online at http://www.artbeyondsight.org/change/aw-crashcourse.shtml. Best, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Fri Nov 9 09:06:04 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:06:04 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] photography, Path to Literacy website, kits, space camp Message-ID: <509CC77C.7090700@online.no> article Lions Teach Photography to Visually Impaired Students Students at the Washington State School for the Blind attended a free photography class funded by the Vancouver Lions Club. http://lionsclubs.org/blog/2012/11/05/lions-teach-photography-to-visually-impaired-students/ article Visually impaired student gets chance to attend space camp Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/11/05/2159243/visually-impaired-student-gets.html#storylink=cpy http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/11/05/2159243/visually-impaired-student-gets.html article Indian Photographer Teaches Visually Impaired To Click Bangalore: Who would imagine a visually impaired person could take a photo? http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=103112075633 article SMK St Francis Produces Tactile Books, Braille To Benefit Visually Impaired Students Kota Kinabalu: SMK St Francis Convent has produced 55 tactile books and Braille story books to benefit the visualy impaired. The book production is one of the workshop's activities held in conjunction with the 1Malaysia Reading Camp 2012, said Director of Sabah State Library (PNS), Wong Vui Yin during his keynote address at SMK St Francis Convent here, yesterday. The speech was read by Senior Deputy Director, Maria Sinti at the closing ceremony of the 1Malaysia Reading Camp 2012 that jointly organized by SMK St Francis Convent and Sabah state library. http://www.brudirect.com/index.php/New-Sabah-Times/smk-st-francis-produces-tactile-books-braille-to-benefit-visually-impaired-students.html website From Paths to Literacy website - This website is the result of a joint project between Perkins School for the Blind and Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI). Let Me See: Tactile Book Kits for Our Youngest Readers Braille books are often inaccessible to our youngest readers who are blind or visually impaired. Without access to illustrations in early board books, early literacy experiences may not be meaningful to preschool children. Veteran preschool teacher Bobette Enderson created Tactile Book Kits to help parents and teachers to create tactile representations of some preferred early childhood books, including /The Very Busy Spider/; /Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?/; and /Goodnight Moon./ Adding tactile representations to the illustrations helps to engage 3-5 year olds in the learning process, while also engaging them in the learning process. These kits include all of the tactile materials needed to adapt the book, as well as a sheet of directions. http://www.pathstoliteracy.org/emergent-literacy/content/resources/let-me-see-tactile-book-kits-our-youngest-readers Counting in Tactile Journals Tactile journals are a way for students who are blind or visually impaired, including those with additional disabilities, to describe their experiences. They provide an opportunity for students to work on communication and self-expression in written or verbal form, in addition to the tactual representations. In addition, they can be a tangible way for students to practice counting skills and number concepts, as shown on the pages here. http://www.pathstoliteracy.org/emergent-literacy-math-literacy-multiple-disabilities-writing/content/strategies/counting-tactile Tactile Graphics http://www.pathstoliteracy.org/tactile-graphics website Let Me See tactile book kits http://www.letmeseekits.com/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Nov 9 09:51:53 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:51:53 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Books, books, books!!! Message-ID: <509CD239.4010800@online.no> links, articles, sites etc about tactile books. At flickerriver (link) huge amount of photos of books - though a mixed bag some more visually tactile art books. A-O sophomore unknowingly leads class to make tactile books ARGENTA --- Argenta-Oreana High School sophomore Morgan Cunningham may be visually impaired, but she's not letting it slow her down, she says. "I can still do the same things other people can even though it's harder to see," said Cunningham, 15, who was diagnosed with optic atrophy, or damage to the optic nerve that can cause vision to dim or reduce the field of vision, at the end of eighth grade. "I just sometimes have to find another way to do them." Speaking last week to Argenta-Oreana sixth-graders who were learning about Helen Keller through a biographical unit in Heidi Hall's language arts classes, Cunningham, unbeknownst to her, helped inspire Hall and the middle school students to take what they'd learned and give back. "We came up with the idea for the kids to make tactile books for the visually impaired not just in Argenta-Oreana, but in Decatur and even the (Illinois School for the Visually Impaired) in Jacksonville," Hall said. "They've learned about Helen Keller's story and Braille and we decided we wanted them to do something for the community and to give back." http://herald-review.com/a-o-sophomore-unknowingly-leads-class-to-make-tactile-books/article_33ab7dfe-223f-11e2-8fba-001a4bcf887a.html website How to Make Tactile Books Tactile books help children relate to the world by touch. While they are often used by visually impaired children, tactile books can help all children learn about texture. Your older toddler or preschooler can help make tactile books for themselves or for visually impaired children. Explore the world of touch with your child and create a keepsake that you two will treasure. http://preschooler.thebump.com/make-tactile-books-4693.html Reading and Making Tactile Books with Your Child http://www.familyconnect.org/parentsite.asp?SectionID=77&TopicID=356&DocumentID=3875 Making Tactile Books http://www.makingtactilebooks.com/makingATactileBook.html http://www.tactilebooks.org/making/index.html http://www.tactus.org/guidelines.html Henry Jack Tactile Book This book was the winner of the 2011 Typhlo & Tactus international contest to create a tactile book. The book is made of fabric, with small toys and objects attached, and a story in print and braille. The next contest will be in October 2013. To see the full book, click on the url below. http://www.pathstoliteracy.org/emergent-literacy/content/strategies/henry-jack-tactile-book http://ldqr.org/livresVirtuels/HenryJack/HenryJack.php Tactile Books Help Blind Students Grasp Scientific Concepts http://assistivetechnology.about.com/b/2012/10/01/tactile-books-help-blind-students-grasp-scientific-concepts.htm Celia Finland website tactile books http://www.celia.fi/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=c0121c14-671c-43a6-904c-1e1fd10bb64f&groupId=23992 Make Tactile Books For Your Classroom Tactile books are a great tool for teaching students with vision impairment. They are also great for an integrated activity to teach mainstream kids about vision impairment and for sharing a positive, language-based activity with students. They are time intensive, but the results are worth it! http://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-inclusion-strategies/35098-using-tactile-books-to-cross-learning-barriers/ A creative resource for the visually impaired Visually impaired children now have a rich fund of accessible knowledge in the form of braille books, audio books, tactile books, made available by the Creative Resource Centre, housed within the Hippocampus Children's Library in Chennai. http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/kids/article3727390.ece Tactile book examples http://pinterest.com/pin/143904150563854655/ Alot of examples !!! Tactile book examples - takes a bit of time to load http://www.flickriver.com/search/tactile+book/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Nov 9 10:14:57 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:14:57 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] =?iso-8859-1?q?audio-tactile_Se?= =?iso-8859-1?q?nsitin=E9raires_book_on_the_Castle_of_Angers_in_Pays_de_la?= =?iso-8859-1?q?_Loire=2C_books?= Message-ID: <509CD7A1.9000005@online.no> Hi, In France - audio-tactile /Sensitin?raires/ book on the Castle of Angers in Pays de la Loire. Very impressive. And more links to articles etc about books. Tactile Books Interview with the Developer A2i has been developing a series of Dual Purpose Books. These are designed for sighted and non-sighted readers to enjoy together, and contain Braille, Tactile images, large text and strong contrast colours.This is an exciting project for us, using some new technology to make professional books in bulk quantity. Our first book has just been launched, and here we interview the Developer, Susie Fisher, to find out more about the idea behind the book: Q. What is the first book all about? "You silly cat" is a cute little story about a cat that always gets in the way. We're really excited about it because it enables blind parents to read together with their sighted children -- and sighted parents with their blind children. In fact it's great for everyone, including individuals and groups, as it's fully inclusive of a range of visual impairments. Q. What makes this new style unique? We believe this is the first dual-purpose book in the UK that can truly be read by blind and sighted people together. A lot of books for blind people include braille and no printed text. Those limited books that do contain images are usually either printed or tactile images, not both at the same time. http://www.a2i.co.uk/tactile-books/ website Creation of an audio-tactile book For the creation of a new audio-tactile /Sensitin?raires/ book on the Castle of Angers in Pays de la Loire, with a focus on the "Tenture de l'Apocalypse" that is displayed in the Castle. This huge wall covering, classified as a Historical Monument in 1902. The /Sensitin?raires/ collection of pedagogical art books is primarily dedicated to visually impaired people and more widely to people with disability. It offers the opportunity to discover some the most emblematic monuments of the French patrimony. http://www.snf.org/index.php?ID=grants_EN&Rec_ID=5231 Equipment For partial funding for the creation of a multi-sensorial box that will be accessible to handicapped people, including the blind, the deaf, and those with mental and motor disabilities. The box is intended to help the handicapped appreciate and experience specific monuments. The box will be dedicated to the recumbent statues of the Basilique Royale de Saint-Denis in Paris. http://www.snf.org/index.php?ID=grants_EN&Rec_ID=2954 Guide book for the exposition of the multi-sensorial box http://www.snf.org/texts/uploads/files/CentMonNatBroc2.pdf Presentation brochure for the launch of the multi-sensorial box http://www.snf.org/texts/uploads/files/CentMonNatBroc.pdf 40 students help make Braille books for blind pupils Forty students, spent three days making tactile books to help raise literacy among the blind. http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/40-students-help-make-braille-books-for-blind-pupils-1.78149 article Book review: 'AUGUSTINA'S SANDCASTLE' Kathy Michaelson, a teacher of students with visual impairments at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, ... http://staugustine.com/living/2012-02-18/augustinas-sandcastle-book-review From fnugg at online.no Fri Nov 9 13:05:09 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:05:09 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] {Disarmed} The International Association for Sight Impaired Artists- Global Message-ID: <509CFF85.3090509@online.no> The International Association for Sight Impaired Artists- Global About Us IASIA-Global stands for the International Association for Sight Impaired Artists-Global. We are a non profit organization founded June 29, 2012 by visually impaired artist Michael A. Williams. IASIA-Global mission is to educate, encourage and support the sight Impaired community worldwide to become involved in the visual arts as painters, photographers, sculptors and other forms of 2 and 3 dimensional art. http://www.iasia-global.org/default.html Blind Vision Association for blind artists launches in Memphis. Artist Michael Williams, who suffers from a sight-impairment known as Stargardt disease, may not have the best vision. But most would agree that he's a visionary. In June, the award-winning artist launched the International Association for Sight-Impaired Artists-Global, a nonprofit aimed at empowering blind artists from all over the world. The group will serve as an umbrella organization for chapters across the country, but so far, it only boasts a local chapter, the Memphis Association for Sight-Impaired Artists, which is headquartered out of the Memphis Center for Independent Living on Madison. ..... In 2009, Williams entered his work into the American Printing House for the Blind's art contest. He won third place out of 400 entries. In the years that followed, Williams took home a second place and most recently, a first-place award in the competition. "After I won first place, I decided that it was time for others to know about the opportunities out there for sight-impaired artists and go full steam ahead with this program," Williams said. Williams would eventually like to open an art gallery in Memphis of work by blind artists, and the organization has plans for expanding their chapters city by city each year. Since the headquarters is in Memphis, Williams hopes to host an international competition for blind artists here next fall. Visually impaired artists who would like to submit work for the first local art show in December should visit iasia-global.org for details. http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/blind-vision/Content?oid=3289020 website Artist Michael Williams, http://www.uniquewanders.com/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Nov 9 13:34:37 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:34:37 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Dale Chihuly glass and students, VSA , Laurie Rubin, Bramblitt Message-ID: <509D066D.4020506@online.no> Laurie Rubin paints with the colors of music Mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin dreams in vivid color --- though she's been blind since birth. Yellow? That's the scent of ripe lemons and the warm sun glinting off her cheeks as a child in Encino. White is the crunch of snow and the feel of frothy shaving cream oozing between her fingers. Silver is the cool silkiness of chrome. And brown? That's the sound of B-flat. It reminds the singer of chocolate. "I always joke that part of me can sense color from maybe having had a past life," Rubin says. "When people say silver or purple, I understand what they're saying." Rubin's new memoir, "Do You Dream in Color? Insights From a Girl Without Sight," not only touches on her complex relationship with the color spectrum, it chronicles her against-all-odds rise from musical prodigy as a child in the San Fernando Valley to accomplished international opera singer . http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-laurie-rubin-20121106,0,7557350.story APH Insights 2012, the annual international juried art competition for visually impaired artists that is sponsored by the American Printing House for the Blind, is having a public showcase for the artists' work at the Galt House today through Saturday. The displays are during the 144th annual meeting of the trustees of the printing house organization. This is the 21st year for the competition, which features 82 works by artists from across the United States. Participants range from pre-school children to senior citizens and include professional artists, as well as hobbyists and school art classes. Entries cover a wide range of subjects in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and photography. For information about the show, visit www.aph.org . APH InSights Art http://www.aph.org/museum/insights.html article John Bramblitt, the blind Painter who "sees" ... Instead, Bramblitt is planning to return to UNT for graduate school. And he *had his first flying lesson this summer* as part of a long-term plan to use colored smoke to create abstract art in the air. *"I'm obsessed with painting," he says. "In expressing myself, connecting with people, it's become the way I see the world."* http://www.qualitativelife.com/cristalina/2011/03/07/john-bramblitt-the-blind-painter-who-sees/ article Meet Main Line Art Teacher Patty Papatheodore Meet this non-traditional teacher from the Main Line Art Center Patty Papatheodore http://haverford.patch.com/articles/meet-main-line-art-teacher-patty-papatheodore blog A lesson in Realistic/Abstract Portraiture for a blind student http://arteducationdaily.blogspot.no/2011/03/lesson-in-realisticabstract-portraiture.html article Exhibit at Blue Star explores light, visual perceptions .... Then, six or seven years ago, Cunningham-Little began to develop her own vision problems. "That's what you see with cataracts; you see haloes of light where nothing is defined," says Cunningham-Little, pointing to a work in "Breathing Light" called "Cataracts." It's a blue wash of rectangular light, with an elongated white-hot slot in the center, captured, almost like a light painting, inside a white wooden box that acts as a frame. "I view these works as sort of painterly," she says. But creating them is more technically demanding than applying paint to a canvas. Cunningham-Little describes a time-consuming, labor-intensive, close-work process involving meticulously cutting layers and layers of diffracting and colored film, which will be backlit by different shades of neon inside the 10-inch-deep box. Another work, titled "Slit" --- inspired by medications doctors prescribed to improve her vision --- brings to mind a glowing pharmaceutical capsule, while "Corona," with its hot red center and rings of lavender, orange and gold, is like staring into the sun. Not surprisingly, it comes from real life, too, energized by the artist's volunteer work on archaeological digs in West Texas, where "that sun is really something." All of these trippy, multidimensional works --- and especially "Blue Dot for Meditation" --- seem to breathe and pulse and shape-shift before our eyes. Conveniently, wooden benches have been placed in the darkened Blue Star gallery for maximum enjoyment. It's a very participatory art exhibition. http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/visual_arts/article/Exhibit-at-Blue-Star-explores-light-visual-1316506.php news video and article Blind Kids Can Paint with New Invention A blind artist in Louisiana is using a special technique to help teach blind children to paint. Ricky Trione lost his sight 11 years ago, but he didn't let that stop him from painting. http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/April/Blind-Kids-Can-Paint-with-New-Invention-/ His glass menagerie ... In 1976, a car accident on the outskirts of London left him blind in his left eye, with permanent damage to his left foot and ankle. Glass blowers need both eyes for depth perception. Three years later, a body-surfing accident dislocated his shoulder, making it even harder to deliver what he envisioned. He turned in a new direction: toward the age-old system of glass blowing with a team. As the artist in charge, he became a choreographer, not dancer, an architect, not builder. "Once I stepped back,'' he has said repeatedly, "I liked the view.'' At this point, his career took off. Henry Geldzahler, then curator at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, acquired three of his "Navajo Blanket Cylinders'' for the museum. The patterning of Navajo trade blankets inspired fat orbs with a lovely and loose patterning.... http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2011/04/03/mfa_exhibit_finally_gives_colorful_artist_dale_chihuly_his_moment/?page=2 article news video Visually impaired students get unique art experience "It really grabs you and with so much color", says glass artist Dale Chihuly. He is renown for his unique take on blown glass. Dale Chihuly's hot shop Seattle studio team churns out some of the most whimsical and inspiring glass shapes in the world. "If you feel the surface you will feel it is like a pineapple," Chihuly tells a groups of students. On this day, the artist is in Boston helping a group of blind and very low vision students see his work. "Well I have never done anything like that before," says Chihuly. It isn't very often that anyone might be offered the chance to feel what a piece of fine art looks like. "Incredible, incredible. Like nothing you ever felt before? Nothing no nothing," says student Renzo Rios-Nino. Chihuly's through the looking glass is now open at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He himself has a vision problem, having lost an eye in car accident several years ago. It has not slowed him, an inspiration to the kids. http://www.necn.com/04/06/11/Visually-impaired-students-get-unique-ar/landing_arts.html?blockID=498784&feedID=4214 /No Limits/ between artists and the community For 33 years, the nonprofit VSA arts of Georgia has focused on making art accessible to Georgians who are disabled and/or living with low incomes. "We facilitate the donation of more than $2 million dollars worth of ticket stock from 130 venue partners to the constituents of more than 400 agency partners serving more than 100,000 people per year," says Executive Director Elizabeth Labbe-Webb. http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2011/04/02/no-limits-between-artists-and-the-community From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Nov 13 08:50:52 2012 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:50:52 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Camera-to-sound app lets blind people 'see' Message-ID: Hi, Two articles about seeing with sound. One with vOICe and the other via an app. Question about the last statement about object recognition in the visual cortex - think that this has been show before with Esref Armagon? Regards, Lisa Camera-to-sound app lets blind people 'see' excerpt People who have lived in the dark from birth have now found they don't need their eyes to see. A new device developed by Amir Amedi from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and colleagues is giving congenitally blind adults the ability to interpret visual information from sound. By monitoring the neural activity of blind people using the device, Amedi and his team found that even though the users weren't using their eyes, their visual cortex was activated by the soundscapes. This shows, for the first time, that specialised areas responsible for object recognition or reading can still be triggered later in life even if they have never been exposed to normal visual information. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/11/seeing-with-sound.html?cmpid=NLC|NSNS|2012-1211-GLOBAL|seeingwithsound&utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS&utm_content=seeingwithsound excerpt Sensory hijack: rewiring brains to see with sound CLAIRE CHESKIN used to live in a murky world of grey, her damaged eyes only seeing large objects if they were right next to her. She could detect the outlines of people but not their expressions, and could just about make out the silhouettes of buildings, but no details. Looking into the distance? Forget it. Nowadays things are looking distinctly brighter for Cheskin. Using a device called vOICe, which translates visual images into "soundscapes", she has trained her brain to "see through her ears". http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727731.500 Vennlig hilsen -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Wed Nov 21 10:40:18 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:40:18 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Vincet Van Gogh, telephone app, Van Gogh's Yellow Pallet Message-ID: <50ACAF92.9060102@online.no> Showing clarity of vision through painting Carmela Kolman was a gifted artist; pieces she created in high school earned her admission to the Rhode Island School of Design and the master?EUR^(TM)s program at Yale University?EUR^(TM)s School of Art. Then she had surgery and got her vision back ?EUR" and quit painting for seven years. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-11-15/news/35139221_1_marfan-syndrome-national-marfan-foundation-blue-eyes Howard Mallory, 1930-2012 Blind artist specialized in ceramics and masks made of everyday things Ceramist and sculptor Howard Mallory had a gift for finding beauty in the commonplace. "He started using found objects in his art in the late 1990s, after he became legally blind," said his wife, Lessie, of her husband's adjustment to glaucoma that was diagnosed in the mid-1970s. "He saw art in everything." Most of his artworks with found objects were masks commemorating such African-Americans as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman as well as more general African themes. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-howard-mallory-obit-20121102,0,4661175.story Seeing Blindness NICOLAS POUSSIN, "Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun http://www.brooklynrail.org/2012/09/artseen/seeing-blindness-nicolas-poussin-blind-orion-searching-for-the-rising-sun Was Van Gogh Color Blind? But a Japanese medical scientist now contends that Vincent's unique color palette was literally a function of his vision---specifically, a kind of color blindness. According to this researcher, Van Gogh's unforgettable wheatfields and starry nights stick in our minds because they lack a color component most of us can see in nature. http://artblogbybob.blogspot.no/2012/08/was-van-gogh-color-blind.html http://bigthink.com/Picture-This/was-van-gogh-color-blind asada's memorandum notesThe Day I Saw Van Gogh's Genius in a New Light http://asada.tukusi.ne.jp/cvsimulator/e/http://asada0.tumblr.com/post/11517603099/the-day-i-saw-van-goghs-genius-in-a-new-light Chromatic Vision Simulator 2.0 "Chromatic Vision Simulator" is an experience tool which simulates color vision of color vision deficiencies. This software makes and shows you a simulated video from built-in camera in real-time. * Shows you how people with a specific type of color vision deficiency (dichormat) see the world. * Supports "Normal Color Vision," "Protanope," "Deuteranope" and "Tritanope" color deficient type. * Lineups both versions for iOS devices and android devices. The iOS version is compatible with Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod, and the Android version is worked on various Android devices. You can bring it always with you and check out colors at anywhere. http://asada.tukusi.ne.jp/cvsimulator/e/ Art Strings http://www.barbarahortonfineart.com/blog/content/general/28/blind-artists-inspiration-creative-thinking.html Japanese Scientist Says Vincent van Gogh Was Colorblind --- But Does it Matter? http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/821805/japanese-scientist-says-vincent-van-gogh-was-colorblind-%E2%80%94-but-does-it-matter Great lecture "Van Gogh's Yellow Pallette" by Wilfred Niels Arnold http://cas.umkc.edu/Chemistry/kcacs/Van%20Gogh%27s%20Yellow%20Palette/index.html From fnugg at online.no Wed Nov 21 12:20:57 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:20:57 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Living Paintings, astronomy, car rallies, Molecular biosciences Message-ID: <50ACC729.2080802@online.no> 15th BPA car rally to kick off tomorrow http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-04/ahmedabad/31024740_1_shelly-bapna-rally-blind-people-s-association Accessibility is vitally important for people with disabilities and older mobile users "As a Londoner, I use the tube a lot, and have downloaded Tube Deluxe to help me navigate it," says PR executive Tim Lovell, who is also colour blind. "Many think of the London Underground map as one on the pinnacles of design, but it does fall down for people who are colour blind. The colours of the Hammersmith & City line and the Waterloo & City line are, for example, almost indistinguishable to me. To its credit, Transport for London does have a colour blind map available to download, but I'm yet to find a London Underground app, which there are plenty of, that makes use of it." http://www.guardian.co.uk/smart-accessibility/accessibility-disabilities-older-mobile-users?newsfeed=true Making Astronomy Accessible for Blind and Partially Sighted People From an early age children are taught about the world of Space. From the very first steps that man ever took on the moon, to the speculated possibility of alien life on another Planet. For decades science fiction has dominated a large portion of the media. Children are fascinated by blockbusters such as Stephen Speilburg's *"ET,"* George Lucas' cult classic "*Star Wars,"* and the all time classic BBC's *"Doctor Who."* With all these influences it's no wonder why children announce that cultivated saying http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/emily-davison/making-astronomy-accessib_b_2121022.html?utm_hp_ref=uk Living Paintings organization A FREE library of Touch to See books bringing to life the visual world for blind and partially sighted people http://www.livingpaintings.org/ Blind man uses his ears to see http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/09/tech/innovation/daniel-kish-poptech-echolocation/ Kenai kids learn art through 'tactile' lessons http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/170887461_Kenai_kids_learn_art_through__tactile__lessons.html The Tactile Rubik's Cube for the Blind http://technabob.com/blog/2012/09/19/tactile-rubiks-cube/ Blind student creates adaptive learning tools for visually impaired Molecular biosciences and biotechnology senior Ashleigh Gonzales lost her eyesight as a 13-year-old. A lack of tools for visually impaired science students threw up obstacles in her academic life. While her visual impairment offers challenges in learning, it inspired Gonzales to contribute to technology development to minimize these challenges. Gonzales inspired the creation of 3-D tactile boards in a program called 3-D IMAGINE, which is used to help visually impaired students learn material without the help of a lab aide. These boards are made from a cheap plastic in a machine that can carve detailed pictures pertaining to each course into the plastic http://www.statepress.com/2012/09/10/blind-student-creates-3-d-picture-boards-for-visually-impaired/ From fnugg at online.no Wed Nov 21 14:27:43 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:27:43 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] STEM, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nanotechnology, artist, London, books Message-ID: <50ACE4DF.2030200@online.no> Blind student presents 3-D tactile images to national microscopy conference Gonzales is blind. Yet she is pursuing a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degree that requires an understanding of many detailed, microscopic biological elements -- something she finds fascinating and exciting. "When I applied to Arizona State University, I chose molecular biosciences and biotechnology because of my love of biology," said Gonzales. "I was always very interested in science. From a high school biotechnology course, I found that although I loved biology, it was the finer details, such as the molecular processes involved, that I was most interested in." Last spring, she signed up for the 400-level course Cell Biotechnology, which teaches students how to experiment with various types of cell cultures and requires a large amount of work with microscopes. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-08-student-d-tactile-images-national.html#jCp http://phys.org/news/2012-08-student-d-tactile-images-national.html Carmela Kolman http://www.carmelakolman.com/ Where would you take a blind person in London? There is a great deal to experience in London if you are blind or partially sighted. Amy Oliver provides a guide to some of the most suitable attractions. The National Portrait Gallery for example, has the largest number of 'tactile' images in a UK art gallery. More than 130, from each of the eight galleries, feature in a booklet with descriptions. Gallery staff are also trained to give audio tours. ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/in-the-know/london-cultural-attractions/9417377/attractions-for-blind-partially-sighted.html *JUDY Dawes illustrates books for children who just cannot keep their hands off them.* The pages spring to life under the touch of blind and visually impaired youngsters who are eager to read. With a group of volunteers, Ms Dawes sews and glues items to coloured cardboard, to which braille and text are added. For her work making tactile books for Can:Do 4Kids clients, she has been nominated for a Pride of Australia medal in the Community Spirit category. The books help children visualise what they are unable to see. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/a-touching-gesture-for-the-blind/story-e6frea6u-1226415030810 First Tactile Picture Books for Children in Bosnia and Herzegovina The National Library for Blind and Visually Impaired, presented the first children's tactile picture books in Bosnia and Herzegovina: "Pinocchio" and "Pippi Longstocking." The project, worth 4,00KM (cca. $3,000) marked the 40 year anniversary of the Library. Tactile books are books that are modified to enable blind and visually impaired children to comprehend the story. Picture books of "Pinocchio" and "Pippi Longstocking" were made-over into two-dimensional products by using different indentations to make images pop-up and become tangible for the kids. The story itself was translated into Braille and then posted over the original text in clear, see-through stickers as to preserve the original design of the picture books. http://www.openequalfree.org/first-tactile-picture-books-for-children-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina/12632 Nanotechnology Braille display makes Web accessible to the blind In their latest work, the interdisciplinary research group from the University of Tokyo, Hiroshima University, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, AIST, and RIKEN, have fabricated a Braille sheet display operating at 4 V by integrating organic TFT drivers, organic static random-access memory (SRAM), and carbon nanotube-based actuators. http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=24618.php From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 7 10:14:12 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:14:12 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Apps, maps Message-ID: <50C1C174.5030706@online.no> A Mapping App For The Blind Talks You Through The Neighborhood BlindSquare uses FourSquare check-ins to give the visually impaired a sense of what's popular, reads them the menu, and then directs them to the destination. http://www.fastcoexist.com/mba/1681005/a-mapping-app-for-the-blind-talks-you-through-the-neighborhood http://blindsquare.com/ Visually impaired aim for awards Six students have signed up to take part, and have been practising their map reading skills around campus, http://www.longridgenews.co.uk/news/regional/visually-impaired-aim-for-awards-1-5133789 'Indoor GPS': Every step you take, every move you make, Google's got maps for you Google has thrown its weight behind indoor navigation and says the technology is reaching the tipping point, while Australian firms have developed competing technology that they say could roll out in shopping centres like Westfield and QIC within six months. Australian researchers are also using it to try to give independence back to the blind or visually impaired. http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/indoor-gps-every-step-you-take-every-move-you-make-googles-got-maps-for-you-20121115-29e1b.html Color ID Free Color Identifier uses the camera on your iPhone or iPod touch to speak the names of colors in real-time. It's an Augmented Reality app for discovering the names of the colors around you! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/color-id-free/id402233600?mt=8 Teignmouth Cliffden hotel given RNIB 'tactile maps' Teignbridge District Council is helping visitors with visual impairments get the best out of their holidays in Teignmouth by donating 'tactile maps' to the Cliffden Hotel. The Council has given the hotel the six special maps each containing raised profiles of street layouts with street names and useful information written in Braille, so people with little or no sight can find their way around the seaside town. http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/Teignmouth-Cliffden-hotel-given-RNIB-tactile-maps/story-17167768-detail/story.html Hallam students rise to the new Challenge A WOMAN who created a series of tactile maps to help visually impaired people find their way around London's Olympic Park is in the running for a top prize. Patricia Dieng is one of seven former Sheffield Hallam students to have reached the finals of this year's Sheffield Hallam University Enterprise Challenge. Other finalists include Mike Moore, Julie Bishop, Chloe Oakland and Katie Stalker and David Hewitt and Mark Tuckett. Patricia Dieng completed an MA in industrial design and then worked as a design researcher before launching TacMap, which makes maps that help people with visual impairment to navigate buildings and venues by identifying where key features like the lifts and the exits are. http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/hallam-students-rise-to-the-new-challenge-1-5025567 TacMaps http://tacmap.co.uk/what-the-plans-are-about/ A feel for direction *A visually impaired man Thursday reads a subway map designed for the blind by Shanghai metro authorities. The map is supposed to make it easier for the blind to navigate the subway.* http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/737778.shtml From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 7 10:32:38 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:32:38 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] a bit off the subject - but not completly Message-ID: <50C1C5C6.7020400@online.no> Hi, Thought this would be of interest, perhaps a bit off the subject but then maybe not. Has to do with accessiblity of printed matter and an agency in the UN putting forth purposals. Regards, Lisa WIPO General Assemblies Approve Road Map on Treaty for the Visually Impaired [World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations] In a significant development the 50th session of Assemblies of WIPO member states reached a breakthrough decision on how to complete negotiations on a pact to improve access to copyrighted works for the many visually impaired or print disabled people around the world. The meeting of the General Assembly which concluded on October 9, 2012 approved a road map that could lead in 2013 to a historic diplomatic conference for an international treaty focused on improving access to published works for persons who are visually impaired or print disabled. The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) will hold inter-sessional meetings from October 17-19, 2012 to work on the text of the instrument. The SCCR will meet from November 19-23, 2012 and will continue discussions on the text with the objective of concluding or substantially advancing the text-based work on this topic. Member states agreed to convene an extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly in December 2012 to assess progress on the text and decide whether to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013. Some 300 million blind or visually impaired people around the world stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to current technological realities. Individuals with reading impairment often need to convert information into Braille, large print, audio, electronic and other formats using assistive technologies. Only a very small percentage of published books around the world are available in formats accessible to the visually impaired. At the closing of the Assemblies, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry welcomed the "extremely constructive engagement of member states" in the work of the Organization as demonstrated in the decisions taken by the Assemblies. He underlined the progress made by member states in setting timetables for concluding negotiations on international instruments on access to copyrighted work by the visually impaired, design law and intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore. The Chair of the WIPO General Assembly, Serbia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Uglje?a Zveki?, also welcomed the positive outcome of the Assemblies which took stock of the work of the Organization and set timetables to conclude normative work in several areas. Representatives of regional groups, and individual member states, also welcomed the outcome of the Assemblies and the positive spirit among member states. Regional groups specifically underlined decisions to move forward in discussions on a treaty to facilitate access to copyrighted works by the visually impaired or print disabled. http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/wipo-approves-road-map-on-tv From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 7 13:27:05 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:27:05 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Braille Challange, app Message-ID: <50C1EEA9.9070908@online.no> Braille users compete OSB meet tests comprehension of language for visually impaired Hailey Baskeyfield ran her fingers across the schedule for the Oklahoma Braille Challenge. She ran her fingers down, felt a paper butterfly and exclaimed, "Ooh, what's this?"... More than 20 visually handicapped youths from across Oklahoma competed in the Challenge, which tests proficiency in Braille reading and comprehension as well as speed, accuracy, spelling, proofreading and tactile graphics. Oklahoma's Challenge is one of 37 such competitions in the United States. http://muskogeephoenix.com/local/x2029122552/Braille-users-compete http://muskogeephoenix.com/local/x1284932116/State-Braille-competition-scheduled-today-at-OSB Exhibitions: Chicago's 81-Year-Old Enfant Terrible .... His elegant drawings of such seminal projects as the Illinois Regional Library for the Blind and the Physically Handicapped reveal how he broke free from the Miesian grid and neutral palette, introducing curves, colors and a tactile dimension that helped blind users navigate the space. http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2012/03/Tigerman-Exhibitions.asp Android App to Help Blind People Study Math Studying math while blind is a difficult proposition because many concepts are visually represented using charts, graphs, and other methods. To help address this problem, Engineers at Vanderbilt University have developed an Android app for touchscreen tablets that essentially turns visual objects into tactile ones. When the user touches a line or other object on the screen, the program activates the built-in vibrator so that the object can be felt. http://www.medgadget.com/2012/03/android-app-to-help-blind-people-study-math.html Fifth-grader to compete in Braille Challenge The Braille Challenge, which is celebrating its 12th anniversary, was developed by the Braille Institute of America in Los Angeles in 2001. The challenge is a national event, with 40 regionals and more than 800 students participating throughout the United States and Canada. On Saturday, students from grades one through 12 will test their skills in reading comprehension, Braille speed and accuracy, proofreading, spelling and reading tactile charts and graphs. Sixty-five of the top-scoring students from across the country will be invited to the National Braille Challenge two-day final competition in Los Angeles in June. http://www.enterprisenews.com/topstories/x1170539444/Fifth-grader-to-compete-in-Braille-Challenge ViewPlus gets a nod from Microsoft A Corvallis assistive technology company is getting some public relations mileage out of a promotional road trip by software titan Microsoft. ViewPlus Technologies, which makes embossing computer printers that produce tactile graphics and Braille text for the blind, partners with Microsoft to design systems that work with the company's ubiquitous Windows operating system. On Tuesday, two members of Microsoft's accessible computing group swung by ViewPlus on their way from their Seattle office to San Diego for the International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, the industry's biggest showcase. Known as CSUN after conference organizer California State University-Northridge, the four-day event starts next week. http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/viewplus-gets-a-nod-from-microsoft/article_dfe80dea-5dcc-11e1-b79a-001871e3ce6c.html From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 7 14:20:56 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:20:56 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] artists, de Kooning Message-ID: <50C1FB48.3050105@online.no> Blind Jersey City artist learned to paint again; teaches others at St. Joseph School for the Blind When Jersey City artist Bojana Coklyat lost her sight four years ago, she thought she would never paint again. "I couldn't paint the way I had before," said the School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduate. "I wasn't able to get the detail I wanted and I was just so disappointed in what I had been creating." Coklyat became legally blind when type 1 diabetes caused blood vessels in her eyes to burst and her vision to deteriorate. Coklyat, who was diagnosed at 10, said having to undergo dialysis and take insulin because of her disease was nothing compared to possibly losing her ability to do what she loves most. .... Today, Coklyat inspires other visually impaired people at the St. Joseph's School for the Blind in Jersey City where she teaches an art class to students ages 3 to 21. "They amaze me every day with their enthusiasm and willingness to try something new," said Coklyat, who said the students often work with clay, paint, finger paint and other tactile materials. http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index.ssf/2012/02/blind_jersey_city_artist_learn.html article Flying Blind: de Kooning's "Closed-Eye" Drawings There are 24 charcoal drawings now on display at the Museum of Modern Art that Willem de Kooning did with his eyes closed. This was not an uncommon thing for de Kooning, who often liked to close his eyes, or avert his eyes, or use them to watch TV while he drew. This may sound like a gimmick, or some kind of dada or surrealist gambit, or an act of desperation from an artist running on fumes. But it was none of these. In a fascinating, in-depth study called "'With Closed Eyes': De Kooning's Twist" (published in Master Drawings, vol. 40, no. 1, Spring 2002), the art historian Richard Shiff argues that de Kooning's closed-eye technique: ... allow[ed] de Kooning to circumvent what was for him the more intellectual and regulative organ, the eye, lest it inhibit the more physical organ, the hand. http://hyperallergic.com/55657/flying-blind-de-koonings-closed-eye-drawings/ http://blogs.soartists.com/ArtMatters/2012/08/18/de-kooning-flying-blind/ blog Rachel Dora Ann There is so much more to the world then mere eyes can see. I paint it and share my experiences of losing sight and living happy http://racheldoraannart.blogspot.no/2012/08/blind-meets-mountain.html question Colour identifier tools for colour-blind artist? http://forum.deviantart.com/art/general/1773163/ youtube University of North Texas (UNT) student John Bramblitt paints beautiful works of art in vivid colors, despite the fact that he's been blind for years. www.bramblitt.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P84bfFpVWE&list=PL39E0ECBCB01A5916&index=5&feature=plpp_video From fnugg at online.no Sun Dec 16 18:18:42 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2012 19:18:42 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] {Spam?} photography - Korea, China, Scotland, New Yor, tactile graphics, God Money and Politics Message-ID: <50CE1082.9050003@online.no> MIT's EyeRing sees for the visually impaired To use it, you double-click a little button on its side and speak a command to determine the ring's function (it can currently be set to identify currency, text, prices on price tags, and colors). Point at whatever you'd like more information about---a shirt on a store rack, for instance---and click the button to snap a photo. The picture is sent via Bluetooth to your smartphone, where an app uses computer-vision algorithms to process the image and then announce out loud what it sees ("green," for example, denoting the color of the shirt). The results are also shown on the smartphone's screen. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/mits-eyering-sees-for-the-visually-impaired/28482 Birmingham Museum of Art offers 'Grand Tour' for visually impaired guests (photo gallery) http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/08/birmingham_museum_of_art_offer.html Blind Photography The Strand 07/08/2012 video Duration: 6 minutes Two visually-impaired photographers, Andrew Follows and Rosita McKenzie, talk about the art of blind photography on the eve of their new Edinburgh Festival exhibition Through The Looking Glass, Dimly. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00x2srk The Strand 07/08/2012 Visually impaired vie to shoot Kailash Kher`s music video New Delhi: A group of visually challenged people is competing to qualify to shoot a new music video for popular singer Kailash Kher. One of the many entries for his competition, Kathagaan, is from a group called Blind With Camera. The group trains visually challenged people to shoot pictures. Kher`s company, Kailasa Records, recently launched the contest, wherein the participants are required to shoot their versions of one of his three songs 'Babbaji', 'Ujaale Bannt Lo' and 'Kathagaan' from his latest album 'Kailasa Rangeele'. The best entries will become the official music videos of the respective songs. http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/music/visually-impaired-vie-to-shoot-kailash-kher-s-music-video_116825.htm Partho Bhowmik, the group`s initiator, hopes they win the golden chance. Vision Possible *China Daily* * 31st July 2012 Vision Possible By Shi Yingying Almost blind, Jin Wei didn't let this stop him from pursuing his love for photography. Shi Yingying reports in Shanghai. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-07/31/content_15634259.htm ChinaVision Blog http://news.chinavision.org.uk/?tag=photography-by-the-visually-impaired * God Money and Politics: English attitudes to blindness and touch, from Enlightenment to integration, is now available on in e-book Kindle edition. Man helps visually-challenged people 'see' things as never before *Galvanised by his desire to improve the lives of the visually-impaired, Shahzad Zaidi has been burning the midnight oil for the past five years in order to develop "tactile graphics", which, according to him, help them 'see' through their hands.* He has created over 100 low-cost learning aids and games for the visually-challenged. These include Urdu and English alphabet books with pictures, a science book which depicts a solar system and cross-section of a cell, colouring books, maps and games such as tic-tac-toe. Zaidi started designing these learning aids after his son, Ali Ghazi, lost his eyesight because of Stevens-Johnson syndrome. He recalled how Ali was once asked to remember the names of different shapes as a homework assignment. Zaidi felt that it was pointless for a visually-challenged person to simply remember the name of a shape without having a mental image of it. "It was then that I created a book filled with shapes for my son," he said. http://tribune.com.pk/story/399644/man-helps-visually-challenged-people-see-things-as-never-before/ New exhibition in Edinburgh showcases the work of blind photographers *An exhibition showcasing the photography of blind and partially sighted people is to open in Edinburgh.* The display features work by people with a range of sight loss conditions, all of whom are members of the Revealed Visually Impaired Photographic Group. The group was set up three years ago and now meets monthly at the Edinburgh headquarters of sight loss charity RNIB Scotland. http://news.stv.tv/scotland/107591-new-exhibition-in-edinburgh-showcases-the-work-of-blind-photographers/ Photography by the Visually Impaired -- Samsung Insight Very few campaigns manage to touch your heart and soul forever. Samsung Insight is once such campaign. Keep your box of tissues handy while viewing this one here. Don't tell me that I dint want you on this one. *The Challenge* Samsung Electronics was number one in the compact digital camera market. People already knew that they made great cameras. The company wanted people to see that it was a thoughtful brand with a deep philosophy, too. What was the best way for Samsung to show its humanity and connect with people? http://www.thekoreaguide.com/2012/06/21/samsung-insight-exhibition-on-photography-by-the-visually-impaired/ * * "Shooting Blind" -- Seeing With Different Eyes "Every Tuesday, a group of visually impaired photographers come together in Manhattan, New York City. Some of the people attending are partially blind, while others have suffered from visual degeneration at an early age, or they were born blind. The name of the group is Seeing with Photography Collective (SWCP). http://ikono.org/2012/06/%E2%80%9Cshooting-blind%E2%80%9D-seeing-with-different-eyes/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/06/18/united-states-shooting-blind-seeing-with-different-eyes/ Videos *Lifting the Blindfold;The Seeing With Photography Collective * *What Do Blind People Want From a Museum or Art Experience? * *What's Possible? Art Education for the Blind * http://ikono.org/2012/06/%E2%80%9Cshooting-blind%E2%80%9D-seeing-with-different-eyes/ From fnugg at online.no Sun Dec 16 18:38:13 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2012 19:38:13 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Photography - Lebanon, India and sports Message-ID: <50CE1515.9000306@online.no> Visually Impaired in Lebanon learn Photography! Muhannad learns to see from his ears, instead of his eyes, relying on the sense of hearing, as he is blind. He can't see but the darkness that prevails in front of him, and in spite of that, the picture does not come out of focus when he shots it, using his small camera. http://www.haykhabriyeh.com/visually-impaired-in-lebanon-learn-photography/ A different lens When Krishna took her first photograph, he thought it was a snake he was capturing on camera. When the picture was developed, it turned out to be flower. But now, children like Krishna, who have varying degrees of visual impairment have come up with a whole photo exhibition. These 10 children have broken the misconception that photography is not for the visually impaired. They are now confident they can be ace cameramen. All it took was a four-day session on photography. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-different-lens/954424/ A prelude to include Disability is not inability. The truth was reinforced at a recent exhibition that showcased photographs taken by ten visually-impaired children in Mumbai. Urging people not to treat disabled persons differently, Prasanna Pincha, Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities at the Centre lauded the government's recent notification issued by the Disability Affairs Department on May 12 which proposes creation of a separate ministry for the disabled. Mr. Pincha is the first disabled (visually-impaired) person appointed to the position. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article3449437.ece Blind and online: Progress, not perfection, for visually impaired tech users Gayle Yarnall of Amesbury, Mass., is blind. Consequently, photography is not a skill she ever anticipated mastering. "But the iPhone will tell you if the face in the viewfinder is centered, or if [the face] is small or large," notes Yarnall, who runs a lifestyle consulting firm called Gayle Connected. "Otherwise it's dumb luck, but I am getting pretty good at it." http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9230802/Blind_and_online_Progress_not_perfection_for_visually_impaired_tech_users?taxonomyId=71 Photos: Eating in the dark in Nepal's restaurant for the blind http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/17/photos-eating-in-the-dark-in-nepals-restaurant-for-the-blind/ Youtube Braille Institute teaches nearly blind visually impaired people photography http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flwHbVbj5kY Glasses Give Visually Impaired Ability to See With Music Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) use the auditory or tactile senses to help the visually impaired perceive the world around them. In a recent study, researchers attempted to teach people to move quickly and accurately, using a SSD called EyeMusic. http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/10646/20120705/ssd-visually-impaired-seeing-music.htm Sports in Motion - Blind and Visually Impaired Photo Workshop Projects I'm sharing my latest audio slide-show production: Sight in Motion , a story about sports and athleticism, photographed and recorded by twelve blind and visually impaired photographers. The photographers, who are participating in programs run by the Sight of Emotion organization, took pictures of people playing sports in their neighborhoods as well as Paralympic athletes. http://chicosanchezphotos.blogspot.no/2012/06/sports-in-motion-blind-and-visually.html Easton photographer's eye-opening story While a picture may be worth a thousand words, Easton resident Emily Hawkins's awe-inspiring career path will leave you speechless. Hawkins, 30, is not just any ordinary photographer. She is legally blind, and due to her perseverance and courage to cope with and overcome this barrier, she should be considered extraordinary http://www.wickedlocal.com/easton/news/x386328204/Easton-photographer-s-eye-opening-story#axzz2FEfndMp5 From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 17 04:06:03 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 05:06:03 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] {Disarmed} Dinasaurs, photography, Mexico, Ford, Bugerking, Shakespeare Message-ID: <50CE9A2B.4090603@online.no> Capturing Dinosaurs and Whales, Without Seeing Them At the American Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, Hashim Kirkland lowered his camera a bit to see the ancient brown spine of a dinosaur through the murky glass catwalk below him. He clicked and then raised the camera again to capture the massive hip of an Apatosaurus, a long-necked plant eater. "I've been fascinated by dinosaurs since I was a kid," Mr. Kirkland said. "They're so amazing and so big." But unlike most of the people in the hall clicking their shutters and gawking at the prehistoric beasts, Mr. Kirkland could not see the hulking skeletons clearly because he's legally blind. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/capturing-dinosaurs-and-whales-without-seeing-them/ Photo workshop for Blind & Visually Impaired. Mexico City Soundscapes - Chico Sanchez - Blind and Visually Impaired Photo audio slide-show production: a story photographed and recorded by four blind and visually impaired photographers showcasing the sounds of Mexico City's streets related to trades that are slowly but surely disappearing. The project was proposed by Gerardo Ramirez, who worked with his fellow students from the Sight of Emotion organization, Edgar Angeles, Jose Sebastian Munoz and Miguel Fabian. I edited the audio and photos and produced the audio-slide show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fARrch9OnFw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZiA5g_n9jE Riding Blind - Blind and Visually Impaired Photo Workshop Projects http://chicosanchezphotos.blogspot.no/2012/01/riding-blind-blind-and-visually.html *Creative communication* A South-African fast food chain reaches out to the visually impaired by creating "braille burgers. " The chefs painstakingly placed individual sesame seeds on burger buns to spell out "100% Pure Beef Burgers Made For You." [/The Daily What/] http://theweek.com/article/index/223340/good-day-bad-day-january-13-2012 More Shakespeare performances accessible to deaf In 2011, OSF access coordinator Jim Amberg and audience services manager Radawna Wallace captioned 39 performances at the festival, and distributed about 10,000 assistive listening devices for patrons with moderate hearing loss. Additionally, the pair arranged for nine plays to be sign-interpreted, and audio-described about 100 performances for blind and visually impaired patrons. http://www.kval.com/news/consumertips/More-Shakespeare-performances-accessible-to-deaf-136975903.html *"Nova" Explores Hidden Elements, A Da Vinci Mystery, An Ancient U.S. Death Trap, and 3D Spies and Dambusters of WWII in New Winter 2012 Programming Line-Up* NOVA is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. The descriptive narration is available on the SAP channel or stereo TV and VCRs. To order NOVA direct from WGBH Boston Video, visit shop.wgbh.org or call 800.949.8670. call 800.949.8670. http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2012/01/04/nova-explores-hidden-elements-a-da-vinci-mystery-an-ancient-us-death-trap-and-3d-spies-and-dambusters-of-wwii-in-new-winter-2012-programming-line-up-713210/20120104pbs02/ King in our minds' eyes Jirawat Pornputtimethee, 11, has been visually impaired since birth and has never imagined being able to hold a camera, never mind take a picture. Yet today, his photo is being showcased along with those of other visually impaired youngsters in the very special exhibition "84 Photos Taken by Heart for the King". http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/The-King-in-our-minds-eyes-30172591.html Ford Taps Cambridge University Experts In Effort To Design Vehicles For Growing Number Of Visually Impaired Ford <#> has joined forces with Cambridge University to gain a better understanding of visual impairment issues that come with an ageing society and to use digital tools to better design vehicles for those with vision problems. The World Health Organisation reports that 285 million people worldwide suffer from some form of visual impairment. Of these, about 65 per cent are aged 50 and over. And with a rapidly ageing population, the number of visually impaired is expected to grow. With age, the ability to see fine details deteriorates, as does the ability to see in the dark. This means many drivers can struggle to read the instrument cluster while driving, unless they have bifocal or varifocal glasses. Other eye conditions, such as glaucoma, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are also prevalent among those 50 and older. http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2011/12/23/019157-ford-taps-cambridge-university-experts-effort-to-design-vehicles-for.html From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 17 04:38:05 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 05:38:05 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] color blind artists, Message-ID: <50CEA1AD.7080301@online.no> Jersey colour blind artist has first exhibition A colour blind artist from Jersey has opened his first exhibition as part of the 175th anniversary celebrations of a St Helier department store. Jason Gautier has been painting since he was a child but has had to adapt and "be creative" with colour. He said: "I have a strong mixture between red and green. For some pinks I can only see grey or if it is too faint I can't see it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-17311409 Visual Art for the Visually Impaired by Roy Nachum One of the most popular signs in the art industry is ''*DON'T TOUCH*''. According to our experiences, we've definitely been warned and hissed at, at least once in our lifetime by a guard at an exhibition not to touch the artworks while visiting a gallery or museum. http://yatzer.com/Visual-Art-for-the-Visually-Impaired-by-Roy-Nachum The Best Film of the Year Didn't Need Talking. Do Video Games Need Graphics? The Best Film of the Year Didn't Need Talking. Do Video Games Need Graphics? Last night at the Academy Awards, a silent film won best picture. Michel Hazanavicius's /The Artist/, a movie about silent film star George Valentin, is itself a classic silent film---for the most part, it has no sound effects or dialogue, just music and on-screen action. Several new video games like the Move-enabled competitive game /Johann Sebastian Joust/ and the audio-only shooter /Swamp/ have eschewed graphics entirely. As /The Artist/ reminded us, a film does not need spoken dialogue to qualify as a film. These new games raise a similar question: Despite the "video" in the moniker, do video games really need graphics? http://kotaku.com/5888725/the-best-film-of-the-year-didnt-need-talking-do-video-games-need-graphics/ Color blind artists To all those who are color blind and paint, this is a page where you can join me to show our art and let people know that, even if we don't perceive colors the same way as others, our art is vibrant, colorful and worth showing. http://fineartamerica.com/groups/1-color-blind-artists.html Organizations for Blind Artists If you are an aspiring artist or know someone who is, there are some great resources out there for artists who are blind and visually impaired. Here are a few of them. http://www.fredshead.info/2012/08/organizations-for-blind-artists.html International collaboration project between blind photographers at Contemporary Art Exchange http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=56966 Natural Canvas: Haines City Man Uses Palm Fronds as Foundation for His Art Marc Pletcher always knew he had a knack for drawing. He had enjoyed drawing since he was a kid. But in February, he was working on a project for his wife that required not only sketching, but painting. Suddenly, the color-blind artist became a painter. http://www.newschief.com/article/20120820/NEWS/120829951 From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 17 04:53:16 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 05:53:16 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] "Can listen to a Picasso" neil harbisson Message-ID: <50CEA53C.6080609@online.no> Fasinating Ted talk! I listen to color Neil Harbisson "Can listen to a Picasso" http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.html Color Blind Artist hears Colors - TedTalk http://videosift.com/video/Color-Blind-Artist-hears-Colors Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/neilharbisson From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 17 05:09:49 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 06:09:49 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Preforming arts, potter, color blind artist Message-ID: <50CEA91D.3070609@online.no> Blind circus star earns A for attitude Precariously dangling from swathes of silk, looping through hula hoops at great heights and eating fire would be considered pretty challenging for most. Not so for Sarah Houbolt, partially sighted circus artist, among other things. http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/news/sarah-houbolt-wins-award/1458106/ Sarah's blind ambition Watching circus performer Sarah Houbolt is enthralling enough, even before you realise she can't see. A specialist in aerial work -- what she calls "dancing in the air" -- the Auckland artist relies almost solely on her sense of touch and her sharply honed intuition. "Audiences don't realise at the time that I have partial sight," she says. " I think it's an advantage -- sight plays tricks on you. Feeling never lets you down." http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/7281145/Sarahs-blind-ambition Blind magician uses vocation to ... www.concetric.com, 16 July 2012 [cached] Blind magician uses vocation to entertain, inspire Posted Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:56:00 EST Magicians often don a blindfold at some point during their shows. For Brent Gifford, aka 'The Great Blindini,' a blindfold would be redundant.Magician - Online Search Resource http://www.zoominfo.com/#!search/profile/person?personId=36369292&targetid=profile *Blind magician uses vocation to entertain, inspire? - The Salinas Californian * Magicians often don a blindfold at some point during their shows. For Brent Gifford, aka "The Great Blindini," a blindfold would be redundant. Sightless since he was 11, Gifford has been amazing and entertaining folks with his comedy magic shows across the nation for more than 40 years. Publ.Date : 2012-07-16 T00:00:00Z http://www.magictimes.com/archives/2012/2012-07_16-22.htm Vibrations let artist who sees black and white paint in color http://now.msn.com/color-blind-artist-paints-by-feeling-vibrations-of-colors Color Blind Artist 'Sees' Shades as Sound Through Surgically Implaned Device Roughly 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women are born colorblind, without the ability to fully distinguish colors. Implications could range from mildly irritating- not being able to pick out matching socks, to more serious, as in hindering an occupational aspiration http://www.psfk.com/2012/07/color-blind-artist-sees-color-as-sound.html Potter gains new artistic vision after going legally blind When Metchosin potter Ann Semple started going blind, she was devastated. The thought of losing her vision also meant losing her love of art and pottery. http://www.saanichnews.com/news/162243885.html Blind photographer's win LEGALLY blind artist Susan Oxenham recently won the Autumn Artfest Best Photo award for her picture of Uluru, Beyond Visual Spectrum, even though she could barely see what she was capturing. http://www.penrithstar.com.au/story/250204/blind-photographers-win/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 21 05:36:05 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 06:36:05 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Mumbai photographer gives the visually impaired a chance to click - Youtube Message-ID: <50D3F545.4070403@online.no> Youtube video Mumbai photographer gives the visually impaired a chance to click A Mumbai-based photographer, Partho Bhowmick, provides the visually impaired an experience in artistic expression, through the use of camera. The students at his workshops are all visually http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNl9Fp12Y2A&list=UUef1-8eOpJgud7szVPlZQAQ&index=3&feature=plcp article excerpt Hats off to their sense of direction The rallyists had to cover 45km within the given speed band. The visually impaired had Braille maps and speed charts to guide them. The drivers had to rely on inputs given by their visually impaired navigators to reach their prescribed destination in time. Clutching his Braille map, youngest participant Gangaraju Gowda, 14, was confident of winning. "Wait till the end. I will distribute sweets near the finishing line," he said. A rock concert and a food court lent festive touch to the event. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-18/bangalore/32298130_1_braille-navigators-maps article excerpt A cultural evolution ICOM Malta has always tried to promote museums to the underprivileged or to people with physical impairments. In a past International Museums? Day, we managed to organise a museum tour for the visually impaired, where they were given the opportunity to feel the artefacts and experience their beauty by touch. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120613/life-features/A-cultural-evolution.424135 article excerpt Braille flag for visually impaired unveiled in Bangalore .... City based Sankara Eye Hospital in association with Sightsavers introduced the first ever 'Braille Indian flag' in Bangalore on Thursday. The flag will allow a blind person to see the national flag through touch. The flag was unveiled by Governor Hansraj Bharadwaj at Rajbhavan in presence of some school children. The tri-colours of the flag are depicted through different textures that will enable one to appreciate the different colours. A raised chakra at the center of the flag allows the blind to feel the Ashoka Chakra with its 24 spokes. The colours and features of the flag are explained in Braille alongside the flag. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-11-15/bangalore/35134424_1_tri-colour-national-flag-blind-person From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 21 05:52:10 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 06:52:10 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] BBC - In pictures: India's blind photographers Message-ID: <50D3F90A.6050007@online.no> article excerpt Mumbai photographer gives the visually impaired a chance to click ...The students show how they use sound to gauge direction and touch to measure the object they are shooting. That's how those who have no sight can see images through their mind's eye, thanks to sound and touch. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mumbai-photographer-gives-the-visually-impaired-a-chance-to-click/302761-3.html link to article *Helping visually impaired users properly aim a camera Marynel V?zquez - Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Aaron Steinfeld - Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Proceeding ASSETS '12 Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility Pages 95-102 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2384934&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=233849497&CFTOKEN=84112571 * link to article Hope In Sight For Visually Impaired In 1921 a British photographer gone blind invented the white cane for his surroundings to recognize his impairment. Other than undergoing a slight lengthening two decades later, the technology has remained unchanged for almost one century... http://www.forbes.com/sites/nyuentrepreneurschallenge/2012/10/17/hope-in-sight-for-visually-impaired/ link to article In pictures: India's blind photographers This picture of pigeons in flight was taken by Bhavesh Patel, who was also born blind. "I followed the direction of the sound of pigeons flying and took the picture based on the audio clue, which meant some more pigeons are flying. It started raining a few moments after this picture was taken." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19754586 article excerpt Photo gallery: On World Sight Day, photography by 'Blind With Camera' Photographers say you need to have an eye to take pictures. These children, who lack some or all of their vision, have applied the same maxim to their photography. The pictures that you see below are images that I took of an exhibition by the Mumbai-based project 'Blind With Camera' . The show is on display at the Alliance Francaise in New Delhi until Oct. 18th, and I shot these images on the World Health Organization's World Sight Day . http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2012/10/13/photo-gallery-on-world-sight-day-photography-by-blind-with-camera/ article excerpt Show of photographs by visually impaired photographers in Norwich, UK http://juliacameronphotography.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/show-of-photographs-by-visually-impaired-photographers-in-norwich-uk/ article excerpt Photographer Partho Bhowmick Teaches the Visually Impaired How to 'See' Let's attempt a quick exercise. Pick up your digital camera. Turn it on. Now, close your eyes and try to photograph the window closest to you. It isn't as easy as you think it might be. Even if you may be skilled in the art of photography, without your sight to guide you as you compose the frame, taking pictures can be a challenge. Now consider the case of the visually impaired, especially those who have no memory of sight. You probably never imagined a camera in the hands of someone who cannot see. But think again. Initiatives like *Partho Bhowmick*'s *Beyond Sight Foundation* and *Blind with Camera* are changing the way the blind perceive photography, not as a practice that is outside of their grasp but as a discipline that can empower them. http://ca.blouinartinfo.com/node/830433 article excerpt Not blinded by thought or action An exhibition which has proved that impossible is nothing! Ever imagined a 'blind person' taking a photograph? We all know that it is next to impossible for a person who is visually impaired to even take the initiative of capturing the world 'without their sight'. But, an initiative by Partho Bhowmick is changing the way the blind perceive photography, not as a practice but as a discipline that can empower them http://www.deccanherald.com/content/284179/not-blinded-thought-action.html From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 28 09:45:27 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:45:27 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] China, London, scratchadelia Message-ID: <50DD6A37.4000609@online.no> The blind's art beyond sight The opening ceremony of "Art Beyond Sight - Non Visual Photography" exhibition was held on Monday in Beijing, displaying over 30 photos taken by the visually impaired in Tibet, on International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Organized by Handicap International and sponsored by the French Embassy in China, the one-week exhibition provides an opportunity for those without or only limited sight to share their experiences with the seeing world. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90782/8047335.html Art Preview: Blind Data -- Please Do Touch @ St Leonard's Church How does a blind person go about experiencing the intricate detail of the Mona Lisa or the majesty of the ceiling of the Sistine chapel? This was the question that inspired the artistic duo known as Scratchadelia to create a show filled with art that visitors will never see. Instead their latest exhibition will involve leading both blind and sighted, but blindfolded, visitors on a guided tour of their artworks, which can only be experienced by touch. Each piece is a tribute to a famous work of art but with only one sense to work with, and imagination left to fill in the rest, it will be interesting to see the different takes of visitors on each work. http://londonist.com/2012/11/art-preview-blind-data-please-do-touch-st-leonards-church.php SCRATCH ADELIA ART FOR BLIND PEOPLE. A decade ago, Kassim Bay and Dino De La Vega had an art vision for blind people: Scratchadelia" A meditation space where you can free your mind from the daily brainwashing and let your Imagination run riot!!!!! Close your eyes and PLEASE DO TOUCH... http://we-scratch-art.blogspot.co.uk/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 28 10:00:26 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 11:00:26 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Tusnis, "Shared Visions" at the Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton Message-ID: <50DD6DBA.9090404@online.no> A book for the blind A Tunisian university professor is seeking funds to publish the Arab world's first book for blind children. Professor Raouf Alkarray said that despite the more than five million blind children in the Arab region there was no Arabic book to help them read and visualise. "I have two manuscripts, but I lack funds for publishing them," said the professor of graphic art and illustration at the University of Sfax in Tunisia, speaking at the ten-day Sharjah International Book Fair which ends today. Alkarray said he is developing books that contain illustrations that can be touched and felt, accompanied by Braille and Arabic scripts. "It costs dearly to produce. That is why I am trying to canvass support from the Arab governments and establishments," said the 60-year-old lecturer. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/entertainmentnation/2012/November/entertainmentnation_November27.xml§ion=entertainmentnation Blind artists display work in Fullerton Anthony Sanaee's eyes are dark and expressive, like the mesmerizing eyes he creates with a charcoal pencil. At his desk pushed against the window in his Laguna Hills bedroom, Sanaee hunches inches over a sheet of paper as he draws a pupil and long eyelashes. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/sanaee-377806-vision-eyes.html video http://www.ocregister.com/video/c/1125998380/news/1969178428001/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 28 11:10:05 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:10:05 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Blind Artist's Society Group Show Message-ID: <50DD7E0D.1010700@online.no> slideshow Blind artists display work in Fullerton http://www.ocregister.com/articles/sanaee-377806-vision-eyes.html?pic=2 Community Foundation announces arts grants $10,000 to the St. Augustine Art Association to expand its "Tactile Art Show" for the blind and low-vision community to include a tactile tour of selected historic statuary in downtown St. Augustine using Braille signage and descriptive audio tours. $10,000 to Flagler College to support an exhibit at the Crisp-Ellert Gallery featuring historically and culturally significant ephemera relating to the construction and early years of the Hotel Ponce de Leon as part of the 125th anniversary of the hotel's opening. http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400721/beth-cravey/2012-11-14/community-foundation-announces-arts-grants Art in the Dark Benefiting the San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind http://events.mysanantonio.com/shavano_park_tx/events/show/175733945-art-in-the-dark-benefiting-the-san-antonio-lighthouse-for-the-blind Blind Artist's Society Group Show http://www.wktv.com/community/calendar/118395919.html BLIND ARTIST'S SOCIETY http://blindartistssociety.com/Index.html Times Herald-Record Article on Joan Slocum, January 2010 http://blindartistssociety.com/JSlocum%20Times%20Herald.pdf Times Union article on Joel Foster, November 2008 http://blindartistssociety.com/Foster_Joel%20TU%20article%2011-30-08.pdf Utica Association of the Blind feature on Judith Ehrhart http://blindartistssociety.com/Judith%20Ehrhart%20Utica%20Ass%20of%20the%20Blind%20write%20up.pdf From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 28 11:24:25 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:24:25 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Gordun Gund Message-ID: <50DD8169.2020009@online.no> Gordun Gund ?Sculpting keeps me in touch with the world. I visualize the images, how they look from different angles, in motion, their visual expression.? http://www.gordongund.com/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 28 11:41:49 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:41:49 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Joseph M. Monks Message-ID: <50DD857D.5050807@online.no> Now Eye See You, Now Eye Don't http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/Events-Pics-Calendars/Calendar/index.php/name/Now-Eye-See-You-Now-Eye-Dont/event/6997/ "Blind Visual Artist" is Not an Oxymoron Pete Eckert is totally blind and he is a visual artist--a photographer. In 2008 he competed head-on with sighted photographers and won Grand Prize in the /Artist Wanted: Exposure 2008/ international photography competition. http://www.ctpberk.org/911/blind-visual-artist-is-not-an-oxymoron/ Blind Artist Paints Portraits Video **http://krankr.com/clip/showphoto.php/photo/31574/date/1300120532 Monks: Blind filmmaker teaching the world how to see http://www.examiner.com/article/joe-monks-blind-filmmaker-teaching-the-world-how-to-see Joseph M. Monks The Bunker http://sightunseenpictures.com/thebunker/director.htm From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 28 11:53:35 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:53:35 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Joan Sortini Message-ID: <50DD883F.7020000@online.no> Joan Sortini After college, she worked at the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, where she has been credited with developing the first tactile art curriculum for blind and blind-deaf children. http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/10/27/2616310/community-leader-joan-sortini.html Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/10/27/2616310/community-leader-joan-sortini.html#storylink=cpy From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 28 12:16:13 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:16:13 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Art of apps to help blind in galleries. antiquities Message-ID: <50DD8D8D.5010106@online.no> Blind students get to touch antiquities at Penn Museum Elizabeth Messaros beamed as she ran her hands over Egyptian relics thousands of years old at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The sightless teen, a student at the Overbrook School for the Blind, had a similar experience once at an art museum - but had to wear gloves. http://articles.philly.com/2012-10-23/news/34655145_1_blind-students-blind-children-touch-tour Art of apps to help blind in galleries GROUNDBREAKING iPad application to enable partially sighted or blind people to enjoy art exhibitions and displays has been shortlisted for an award. Students from the Visually Impaired Centre at The Charles Dickens School, Broadstairs helped develop the app with the University of Kent at Canterbury. .... The iPad programme gives vivid descriptions of each picture in the gallery and importantly it adds sounds like the sea or the wind or birdsong to conjure up the atmosphere of the work." http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Art-apps-help-blind-galleries/story-17124713-detail/story.html iPad App for Visually Impaired Visitors to Turner Contemporary Young people from the Visual Impairment unit at the Charles Dickens School, Broadstairs, worked with final year Multimedia Technology and Design (MTD) students from the School of Engineering and Digital Arts to create an interactive iPad app for use by blind and visually impaired visitors alongside Turner Contemporary's first major Turner exhibition, 'Turner and the Elements'. At the start of the project, students and teachers alike found it hard to imagine how a blind person might use an interactive touchscreen device, let alone enjoy an exhibition made up entirely of paintings http://www-chronos.eda.kent.ac.uk/research/theme_project.aspx?pid=180 Turner and the Elements This app was designed for Turner Contemporary art gallery. It contains the selection of artworks from "Turner and the Elements" exhibition which ran at Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, UK from 28 January 2012 to 13 May 2012. The app was developed by students from the University of Kent in cooperation with Visually Impaired unit from Charles Dickens School, Broadstairs. The app is designed with the visually impaired and blind users in mind but will be suitable for anyone who wants to check some of the Britain's most loved artist's paintings, find out some background information about them and listen to the soundscapes representing the artworks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/turner-and-the-elements/id547941112?mt=8 Turner and the Elements iPad app The app was designed and developed as a prototype for Turner Contemporary art gallery. The main idea of the project was to make the art more appealing and accessible to the visually impaired and blind visitors. We worked closely with visually impaired children who had no previous experience in using touch screen devices. Although iOS has some great accessibility features for the blind, it is not easy to learn and we wanted to create something very simple that could be quickly picked up by anyone without previous touch-screen experience. The app contains the selection of artworks from "Turner and the Elements" exhibition which ran at Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, UK from 28 January 2012 to 13 May 2012. The artworks are described for the visually impaired and contain some sound effects and music by Arms and Sleepers. Although the app is designed with the visually impaired and blind users in mind, we built a separate menu and navigation for the sighted users so anyone can check out some of Britain's most loved painter's artworks and find out a bit more about them. http://kamatom.com/turnerapp/ From fnugg at online.no Fri Dec 28 12:53:36 2012 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:53:36 +0100 Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] BlindArt, exhibitions Message-ID: <50DD9650.8020500@online.no> Works for blind on show at Moorfields Eye Hospital A PERMANENT collection of tactile art was unveiled at Moorfields Eye Hospital in Bunhill last Thursday to celebrate World Sight Day. The collection, donated by charity BlindArt, is the first of its kind to be housed in a hospital. http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2012/oct/works-blind-show-moorfields-eye-hospital Touchable art for the blind exhibit opens Touchable art for the blind exhibit opens October 16, 2012 10:31 PM EDT Copyright 2012 St. Augustine Record. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. <#license-50dd8f6e27738> The St. Augustine Art Association celebrated the opening of the 11th Annual Tactile Art Show on Oct. 5 with the presentation of artistic achievement awards by show sponsor representative Mary Cay Brock. http://staugustine.com/living/community/2012-10-16/touchable-art-blind-exhibit-opens Chaffee art on exhibit at Webster http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121017/GJENTERTAINMENT_01/121019822 http://www.thedp.com/article/2012/10/insights-into-ancient-egypt-allows-the-blind-to-experience-prized-artifacts Sewing up Daphne history Fiber artist Dianne Williams, right, offers a lollipop to Provie Musso, left, and blind artist Ricky Trione as they work on a square depicting Jubilee. http://www.gulfcoastnewstoday.com/the_courier/article_82d27c12-1794-11e2-b836-001a4bcf887a.html Loss of eyesight doesn't stop Bayou City Art Festival featured artist Charlie Hardwick This combination of big-brand graphic design and big-band concert posters continued until Hardwick became ill in 2003, when a misdiagnosis and a series of other medical errors left him with irreversible ocular nerve damage. He was deemed legally blind in 2007. "It was such a slow, degenerative progression that it was hard for me to grasp the severity of it," Hardwick told CultureMap. Now with approximately 30 percent of his vision left, he likens his eyesight to that of tunnel vision --- only where the tunnel isn't exactly in the center. 10-10-12-12-00-bcaf-featured-artist-charlie-hardwick-may-be-blind http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/10-10-12-12-00-bcaf-featured-artist-charlie-hardwick-may-be-blind/ Hardwick has changed his technique since his loss of sight and, because he can't see color, he bases his hues off of memorized CMYK combinations and slight variations in the tonality of the final piece. Visually Impaired Artists Exhibit Opens A juried art show featuring visually impaired artists opens Thursday at the Galt House Hotel. Sponsored by the American Printing House for the Blind, APH Insights 2012 features 82 works (out of more than 400 submitted) by artists from across the country, ranging from professional artists to senior citizens and students. http://www.wfpl.org/post/visually-impaired-artists-exhibit-opens