[Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Help with Research in Blindness, ICT and the Arts

[simon hayhoe]

I am through to the final eight of the British Airways / London 2012 Great Britons' Award for my work with blind people, ICT and the arts. Could you please vote and publish this information around your organisations, as I need to garner votes to reach the top two. I only have 6 days of voting left and so need all of the help I can get. Please go to:
 
http://www.greatbritons.ba.com/users/2805
 
"I have been a full time teacher for 10 years now, and have a PhD and a MEd in blindness and the arts. I have even written two books and lectured internationally on this topic in my spare time. I also voluntarily advise charities supporting this subject, and this is the reason for my application for a flight ticket. I advise a charity called Art Beyond Sight, and through them I have won a three month fellowship to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to research access for blind and visually impaired people to museum collections, in the museums and on the internet. It is an area we both have considerable expertise in.
 
However, this post comes without funding for travel or living costs. This research is particularly useful for British visitors to museums, as we are hoping that the knowledge and expertise gained from this research can be applied back here at home when I have finished this fellowship, as well as making a "world class" British contribution to knowledge on the subject. It will also help with existing galleries on my website, as no similar schemes seem to have been created especially for blind and visually impaired web surfers.
 
The website I run raises awareness about art for and by blind people and those with visual impairments. It is called ECO: On Blindness and the Arts (http://www.blindnessandarts.com). The website, although highly specialised, has been going for around two and a half years, and regularly has visitors from over 35 countries each month, with up to 150 visits a day. It carries no advertising, and has material contributed by eminent professors and artists from four different continents, including Oliver Sacks, Professor John Hull, Professor John Kennedy and Esref Armagen. Although I do not have a visual impairment myself (I am partially deaf and have to wear a hearing aid, funnily enough) I have decided to run this website purely voluntarily, paying for the web-name and hosting from my own pocket."
 
Thank you for all of your help,
 
Simon Hayhoe
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