From JFreeh at nfb.org Thu Oct 8 02:06:55 2009 From: JFreeh at nfb.org (Freeh, Jessica) Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:06:55 -0500 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] National Federation of the Blind Announces Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards Message-ID: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chris Danielsen Director of Public Relations National Federation of the Blind (410) 659-9314, extension 2330 (410) 262-1281 (Cell) cdanielsen at nfb.org National Federation of the Blind Announces Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards National Federation of the Blind to Award $50,000 in 2010 Baltimore, Maryland (October 7, 2009): The National Federation of the Blind today announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2010 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Program. Each year the National Federation of the Blind presents cash awards to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions toward achieving the full integration of the blind into society on a basis of equality. Dr. Jacob Bolotin was a blind physician who lived and practiced in Chicago in the early twentieth century. He was widely known and respected in Chicago and throughout the Midwest during his career, which spanned the period from 1912 until his untimely death at the age of thirty-six in 1924. He was particularly recognized for his expertise on diseases of the heart and lungs. Bolotin used his many public speaking engagements to advocate for the employment of the blind and their full integration into society. Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "Dr. Jacob Bolotin was a pioneer who overcame low expectations and discrimination to become a renowned member of the medical profession without the benefit of the support services and civil rights protections available to blind people today. He was also a fierce advocate for greater opportunity for the blind in his time, and doubtless would have been a leader in the organized blind movement had he lived to see it come into being. The Jacob Bolotin Award Program celebrates his pioneering spirit by recognizing and supporting outstanding programs, technologies, and individual efforts that promote independence and opportunity for blind Americans." Recipients of the 2010 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards will be determined by the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee of the National Federation of the Blind. Online applications are due by April 15, 2010. Individuals or organizations are encouraged to apply on behalf of themselves or others. The award recipients will be announced at the 2010 National Federation of the Blind Convention in Dallas. A total of $50,000 will be distributed to the award recipients. The Jacob Bolotin Award Program is funded through the generosity of Dr. Bolotin's nephew and niece, Alfred and Rosalind Pearlman. In addition to establishing the Alfred and Rosalind Pearlman Trust to endow the awards, the late Mrs. Pearlman also wrote The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story. The book has been published by Blue Point Books and can be ordered directly from the publisher at www.bluepointbooks.com. Proceeds from book sales will also benefit the award program. For more information or to fill out the online application, please visit www.nfb.org. ### About the National Federation of the Blind With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind. Please visit our Web site: www.nfb.org. From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 07:52:54 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:52:54 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Art Beyond Sight Telephone Crash Course Message-ID: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Hallo, Again Art Beyond Sight hosts it's wonderful telephone course this coming Monday. So in the comfort of your own living room or office, a cup of coffee within reach Art Beyond Sight brings you stimulating speakers, conversation, ideas. Have a notepad ready. It is really a lift, I think to listen to all the speakers and those that call in. So many ideas and thoughts. And the whole thing is free. So forwarding the program sent out by AEB Regards, Lisa Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month: Alert III October 15, 2009 Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month: October 2009 Alert III Dial In and Speak Up: Here?s your chance to learn from the experts, ask questions, and network! Seventh Annual Telephone Conference Crash Course: Monday, October 19, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Art Education for the Blind?s Annual Telephone Conference Crash Course will be held from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on Monday, October 19. Callers-in pay normal long-distant phone charges, but NO additional fees. The teleconference number is (712) 432-0220. Our conference access code is 232-2009. 9 ? 9:30 a.m.: Kareem Dale, Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy, with Elisabeth Axel and Joan Pursley, Art Education for the Blind. 9:30 ? 10 a.m.: Highlights of the 2009 Art Beyond Sight International Conference Discussion Leader: Marie Clapot, Art Education for the Blind Speakers: Lotfi Merabet, Harvard Medical Center Rebecca McGinnis, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Wilford Scott, National Gallery of Art, DC 10 ? 11 a.m.: Diversity and Inclusiveness at Museums: Museums Reflecting their Communities. Discussion Leader: David Ross, Independent Curator Speakers: Connie Wolf, Contemporary Jewish Museum, CA Aaron Betsky, Cincinnati Museum of Art Lauren Schloss, Queens Museum of Art Maxwell Anderson, Indianapolis Museum of Art 11 ? noon: Perspectives from Curators and Conservators Discussion Leader: Rosalyn Driscoll, Artist/Educator Speakers: Daniel Mason, Independent Curator Lynda Zycherman, Museum of Modern Art, NYC noon ? 1 p.m.: Accessibility Programs and Visitor Studies Session Leader: Christine Reich, Museum of Science, Boston Speakers: Kirsten Ellenbogen, Science Museum of Minnesota Theano Moussouri, Audience Focus Carey Tisdal, Tisdal Consulting 1 ? 2 p.m.: Museum Practices: New Strategies and Approaches Session Leader: Marsha Semmel, Institute of Museum and Library Studies Speakers: Debra Hegstrom, Minneapolis Institute of Arts Hope McMath, The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, FL Joel Snyder, Audio Description Associates; Audio Description Project, American Council of the Blind 2 ? 3 p.m.: Small Museums, Outreach and Community Resources Discussion Leader: Lauren Silberman, Jewish Museum of Maryland Speakers: Jayne Griffin, Creative Discovery Museum, TN Judy Kirk, The Mathers Museum, IN Mary Anne Meagher & Paul Hammock, Columbus Museum of Art, OH 3 ? 4 p.m.: Re-representing Disability: Artists with Disabilities in Museums/Galleries [Marker] Discussion Leader: Marie Clapot, Art Education for the Blind Speakers: Busser Howell, Artist Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Emory University Riva Lehrer, Artist 4 ? 5 p.m.: Inclusive Education and the Role of Art and Cultural Exposure: Resources, Challenges and Strategies Discussion Leader: Nina Levent, Art Education for the Blind Speakers: Kenneth Eklindh, UNESCO Jim Modrick, VSA arts Bernadette Kappan, New York Institute for Special Education Rodrigo Mendes, The Rodrigo Mendes Institute 5 ? 5:30 p.m.: Reflections on the Day Discussion Leaders: Nina Levent & Marie Clapot Art Education for the Blind Speakers: Callers-in (Open Discussion. Participants are invited to share their views, suggest topics for future teleconferences, etc.) The fruit of partnership: news from the museums and galleries Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) formally inaugurated its new access program for people who are visually impaired on October 7th. Thanks to a grant from the Department of Education of Puerto Rico and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Museum has acquired computer equipment and assistive technology to enable the accessibility of MAPR?s Research Center. In close collaboration with Puerto Rico?s Department of Education and the Puerto Rico Assistive Technology Program (Programa de asistencia tecnol?gica para personas con impedimento, PRATP), The Research Center?s librarian, Prof. Sof?a C?nepa, was able to make this venture a truly innovative project. Javier Gonz?les (PRATP), Hugo Mardales, Sof?a C?nepa and Manolo ?lvarez (PRATP) Other programs at MAPR include: - Touch Tours of selected works from the Museum`s Sculpture Garden offered by a museum educator in collaboration with Luis Passalacqua, a blind Puerto Rican Sculptor and long time consultant for MAPR. - A collaboration with the University of Turabo, which has Puerto Rico?s only BA degree program in sign language interpretation, to assign graduate candidates to interpret public programs and events. The Charlotte Art League (CAL) partnership with the Metrolina Association for the Blind (MAB) in NC CAL opened its Art Beyond Sight 2009 exhibit on October 2nd.The exhibiti9on features tactile and multi-sensory artworks created specifically for people who are blind or visually impaired to actively explore. Many of the works were created by students participating in CAL?s art classes for the visually impaired. These classes, which are part of CAL?s Outreach Program, are held in collaboration with The Metrolina Association for the Blind, which provides the students with opportunities to experience and create art. These students work with paint, clay, mosaics, fabric, and papier mch? for a full art experience. During the exhibit opening, visitors were invited to experience low vision or blindness while creating small clay shapes (see pictures). Timmy Hord, who has been working closely with the Outreach Director at CAL, Sandra Gray, and has been involved with the project since its inception, says: ?When I first heard about CAL?s desire to hold workshops for the visually impaired, my first thought was clay. Months later I was invited by Outreach Director, Sandra Gray, to attend a ?sensitivity training? workshop with the MAB?s director, Laura Park-Leach. Being a professional photographer, painter and potter, it was a heart-opening experience for me to wear goggles simulating some form of eye disease and be led around the building ?blind.? Even though I knew the building very well, it was quite disconcerting.? Mother and son Community Participants in one of the Workshops Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) and the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired On October 1st, twenty-five students from the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired visited the IMA Following a picnic lunch, the group toured the museum?s extensive gardens. Master Gardener Sue Arnold escorted the group to the fruit and vegetable garden, where horticulturalist Geoff Von Burg passed around berries, green beans, limas, and a kohlrabi. Students guessed what the items were based on the feel/shape of each object. The berries, beans and asparagus plumes were tasted by some and felt by others. The group then discussed and touched the ?Spider Boy? and ?Mother and Child? statues, and the ?LOVE? and ?Number? sculptures (see pictures below). From there they went to the Garden for Everyone ? a garden designed for all five senses. They walked around ?Deer Zink? and past ?God's Tree? and the wall with the secret stone cowboy boots and back across the historic bridge toward the Rain Garden. They visited an area where the ginkgo fruit is falling on the road and is quite pungent and then split into smaller groups for visits to the greenhouse, Lily House, and the Cutting Gardens. Meaningful Access Programme (MAP) organized at the Iziko South African National Gallery for Students from the Athlone School for the Blind An exhibition of works by the internationally acclaimed architect Jo Noero inspired discussions about architecture at the Iziko South African National Gallery?s workshop for students from the Athlone School for the Blind. Special attention was paid to carved wooden doors that students were able to touch in the museum?s atrium, where the workshop was held. Also included were a drumming session that emphasized rhythm and balance (it attracted other visitors, who became involved and were intrigued by the MAP concept) and an. art workshop at which individual dream rooms were designed to be entered through grand doors (see pictures below). Don?t forget Display this year?s Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month poster and give brochures to the public (insert a sheet re your own programs). If you?re out of brochures and need another batch, contact Marie at: aeb at artbeyondsight.org v If you know of organizations that should be a part of this international initiative, please send contact information to aeb at artbeyondsight.org and we will get in touch with them next year. spread the word to everyone in your community! FORWARD THIS EMAIL to friends and colleagues! Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month: Alert III October 15, 2009 Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month: October 2009 Alert III Dial In and Speak Up: Here?s your chance to learn from the experts, ask questions, and network! Seventh Annual Telephone Conference Crash Course: Monday, October 19, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Art Education for the Blind?s Annual Telephone Conference Crash Course will be held from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on Monday, October 19. Callers-in pay normal long-distant phone charges, but NO additional fees. The teleconference number is (712) 432-0220. Our conference access code is 232-2009. 9 ? 9:30 a.m.: Kareem Dale, Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy, with Elisabeth Axel and Joan Pursley, Art Education for the Blind. 9:30 ? 10 a.m.: Highlights of the 2009 Art Beyond Sight International Conference Discussion Leader: Marie Clapot, Art Education for the Blind Speakers: Lotfi Merabet, Harvard Medical Center Rebecca McGinnis, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Wilford Scott, National Gallery of Art, DC 10 ? 11 a.m.: Diversity and Inclusiveness at Museums: Museums Reflecting their Communities. Discussion Leader: David Ross, Independent Curator Speakers: Connie Wolf, Contemporary Jewish Museum, CA Aaron Betsky, Cincinnati Museum of Art Lauren Schloss, Queens Museum of Art Maxwell Anderson, Indianapolis Museum of Art 11 ? noon: Perspectives from Curators and Conservators Discussion Leader: Rosalyn Driscoll, Artist/Educator Speakers: Daniel Mason, Independent Curator Lynda Zycherman, Museum of Modern Art, NYC noon ? 1 p.m.: Accessibility Programs and Visitor Studies Session Leader: Christine Reich, Museum of Science, Boston Speakers: Kirsten Ellenbogen, Science Museum of Minnesota Theano Moussouri, Audience Focus Carey Tisdal, Tisdal Consulting 1 ? 2 p.m.: Museum Practices: New Strategies and Approaches Session Leader: Marsha Semmel, Institute of Museum and Library Studies Speakers: Debra Hegstrom, Minneapolis Institute of Arts Hope McMath, The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, FL Joel Snyder, Audio Description Associates; Audio Description Project, American Council of the Blind 2 ? 3 p.m.: Small Museums, Outreach and Community Resources Discussion Leader: Lauren Silberman, Jewish Museum of Maryland Speakers: Jayne Griffin, Creative Discovery Museum, TN Judy Kirk, The Mathers Museum, IN Mary Anne Meagher & Paul Hammock, Columbus Museum of Art, OH 3 ? 4 p.m.: Re-representing Disability: Artists with Disabilities in Museums/Galleries Discussion Leader: Marie Clapot, Art Education for the Blind Speakers: Busser Howell, Artist Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Emory University Riva Lehrer, Artist 4 ? 5 p.m.: Inclusive Education and the Role of Art and Cultural Exposure: Resources, Challenges and Strategies Discussion Leader: Nina Levent, Art Education for the Blind Speakers: Kenneth Eklindh, UNESCO Jim Modrick, VSA arts Bernadette Kappan, New York Institute for Special Education Rodrigo Mendes, The Rodrigo Mendes Institute 5 ? 5:30 p.m.: Reflections on the Day Discussion Leaders: Nina Levent & Marie Clapot Art Education for the Blind Speakers: Callers-in (Open Discussion. Participants are invited to share their views, suggest topics for future teleconferences, etc.) The fruit of partnership: news from the museums and galleries Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) formally inaugurated its new access program for people who are visually impaired on October 7th. Thanks to a grant from the Department of Education of Puerto Rico and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Museum has acquired computer equipment and assistive technology to enable the accessibility of MAPR?s Research Center. In close collaboration with Puerto Rico?s Department of Education and the Puerto Rico Assistive Technology Program (Programa de asistencia tecnol?gica para personas con impedimento, PRATP), The Research Center?s librarian, Prof. Sof?a C?nepa, was able to make this venture a truly innovative project. Javier Gonz?les (PRATP), Hugo Mardales, Sof?a C?nepa and Manolo ?lvarez (PRATP) Other programs at MAPR include: - Touch Tours of selected works from the Museum`s Sculpture Garden offered by a museum educator in collaboration with Luis Passalacqua, a blind Puerto Rican Sculptor and long time consultant for MAPR. - A collaboration with the University of Turabo, which has Puerto Rico?s only BA degree program in sign language interpretation, to assign graduate candidates to interpret public programs and events. The Charlotte Art League (CAL) partnership with the Metrolina Association for the Blind (MAB) in NC CAL opened its Art Beyond Sight 2009 exhibit on October 2nd.The exhibiti9on features tactile and multi-sensory artworks created specifically for people who are blind or visually impaired to actively explore. Many of the works were created by students participating in CAL?s art classes for the visually impaired. These classes, which are part of CAL?s Outreach Program, are held in collaboration with The Metrolina Association for the Blind, which provides the students with opportunities to experience and create art. These students work with paint, clay, mosaics, fabric, and papier m?ch? for a full art experience. During the exhibit opening, visitors were invited to experience low vision or blindness while creating small clay shapes (see pictures). Timmy Hord, who has been working closely with the Outreach Director at CAL, Sandra Gray, and has been involved with the project since its inception, says: ?When I first heard about CAL?s desire to hold workshops for the visually impaired, my first thought was clay. Months later I was invited by Outreach Director, Sandra Gray, to attend a ?sensitivity training? workshop with the MAB?s director, Laura Park-Leach. Being a professional photographer, painter and potter, it was a heart-opening experience for me to wear goggles simulating some form of eye disease and be led around the building ?blind.? Even though I knew the building very well, it was quite disconcerting.? Mother and son Community Participants in one of the Workshops Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) and the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired On October 1st, twenty-five students from the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired visited the IMA Following a picnic lunch, the group toured the museum?s extensive gardens. Master Gardener Sue Arnold escorted the group to the fruit and vegetable garden, where horticulturalist Geoff Von Burg passed around berries, green beans, limas, and a kohlrabi. Students guessed what the items were based on the feel/shape of each object. The berries, beans and asparagus plumes were tasted by some and felt by others. The group then discussed and touched the ?Spider Boy? and ?Mother and Child? statues, and the ?LOVE? and ?Number? sculptures (see pictures below). From there they went to the Garden for Everyone ? a garden designed for all five senses. They walked around ?Deer Zink? and past ?God's Tree? and the wall with the secret stone cowboy boots and back across the historic bridge toward the Rain Garden. They visited an area where the ginkgo fruit is falling on the road and is quite pungent and then split into smaller groups for visits to the greenhouse, Lily House, and the Cutting Gardens. Meaningful Access Programme (MAP) organized at the Iziko South African National Gallery for Students from the Athlone School for the Blind An exhibition of works by the internationally acclaimed architect Jo Noero inspired discussions about architecture at the Iziko South African National Gallery?s workshop for students from the Athlone School for the Blind. Special attention was paid to carved wooden doors that students were able to touch in the museum?s atrium, where the workshop was held. Also included were a drumming session that emphasized rhythm and balance (it attracted other visitors, who became involved and were intrigued by the MAP concept) and an. art workshop at which individual dream rooms were designed to be entered through grand doors (see pictures below). Don?t forget Display this year?s Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month poster and give brochures to the public (insert a sheet re your own programs). If you?re out of brochures and need another batch, contact Marie at: aeb at artbeyondsight.org v If you know of organizations that should be a part of this international initiative, please send contact information to aeb at artbeyondsight.org and we will get in touch with them next year. spread the word to everyone in your community! FORWARD THIS EMAIL to friends and colleagues! From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 08:08:00 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:08:00 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] The Vision to Teach In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4AD829E0.7050402@online.no> excerpt from article The Vision to Teach Iranian artist Shahrzad Ossouli helps visually impaired students move beyond the darkness In the two decades that Iranian artist Shahrzad Ossouli has been teaching art, she has watched all kinds of people pass through her doors ? most of them disabled. Still, she has never considered her palette too full to take on yet another student. It was no different when a mother walked into her life two years ago with her blind and depressed daughter in tow. The mother only asked that her child be allowed to sit in Ossouli?s class and listen to the noises around her. Ossouli, however, offered to do more; she offered to teach the girl as well. The mother was grateful, but for Ossouli, it was the beginning of a spirited pledge to give sight ? and hope ? to her country?s blind. In a class of 16, seven students are blind while the rest retain just five per cent of their eyesight. Ossouli considers it her goal to open the ?beautiful window of art? to them. ?I find working with the blind easier because they work entirely on feelings. Their world has limitations ? but they?ll let you enter that world very easily. It?s teaching people who can see but are emotionally blind that I find most difficult,? she says. She classifies her students into two groups: those born blind and those who suffered a loss of vision later in life. ?Congenital blind people have no cognition of colours, so it?s important for them to learn how colours ?feel?. For example, I tell them that the sun is beautiful, hot and fresh, so if they want to paint happiness or heat, they can use yellow. Of course, those who?ve never seen what things look like paint abstractly; they rely completely on the ?feel? of colours.? The challenges of such an undertaking are many, but Ossouli?s love for teaching allows her not to give them much thought. ?Some of the students get frustrated or depressed and most lack self-esteem. Many face problems at home as they come from poor families where their parents don?t know what to do. Art helps them feel better about themselves, increases their confidence and makes them happy,? she points out. ?With these students you have to be very patient and strong, and communicate with them in a special way.? Ossouli recalls one student in particular who came to her six years ago, aged 14. ?Both her hands were paralysed, so I began with teaching her how to use her mouth to hold the brush. She resisted a lot and cried all the time, but I kept supporting and encouraging her, telling her she was going to make a great artist some day. With all the love I gave her, she stopped resisting and started working. She?s a wonderful artist now.? While Ossouli can relate success stories numbering a good few, her students aren?t the only ones reaping all the learning benefits. The artist, who has been painting since she was 15, says, ?My experiences all these years have taught me that bodily health isn?t enough. Passion, eagerness and aptitude are mandatory, too. If you have these, absolutely nothing can stop you from becoming an artist.? link: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Displayarticle08.asp?section=diversions&xfile=data/diversions/2009/October/diversions_October24.xml From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 08:15:18 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:15:18 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] One-Eyed Artist Creates Wonderful World In-Reply-To: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> References: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Message-ID: <4AD82B96.9090502@online.no> excerpt from article One-Eyed Artist Creates Wonderful World Ludwig van Beethoven was considered a musical genius, composing symphonies in spite of the loss of his hearing. The Virgin Valley has its own artistic genius, a man who has overcome the loss of sight in one eye to produce gorgeous landscapes and paintings. They say that "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." If true, then one-eyed artist Golden Millward's kingdom would be beautiful. Millward paints stunning landscapes and western scenes on canvas, depicting the west as it was, and even as it still is in the desert frontier surrounding Mesquite. And he does it in spite of losing his eye nearly six years ago. Millward and his wife were on hand at last weekend's Mesquite Arts Festival, offering several of his breathtaking paintings to those looking to bring the great outdoors into their homes. While a patch covers his right eye, Millward's left one gleams with the joy of life and mischief as he tells his tale. "I've lived most of this," Millward said with an endless smile on Sunday, nodding toward the walls of the temporary structure covered with his work depicting cowboys, steers, and the desert. "I used to rodeo, I've raised livestock, driven trucks, and been in the meat business." After being mugged in 1972, Millward lost the sight in his right eye, but never let it stop him from working and living life to its fullest. In 2003, after years of atrophy and advancing glaucoma, doctors made the decision to remove the eye and replace it with an artificial one. link http://www.mesquitelocalnews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=3984&id=2 From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 08:23:11 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:23:11 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] A New Kind of Listening audio described In-Reply-To: References: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Message-ID: <4AD82D6F.7030704@online.no> In the Durham-Raleigh area this weekend The "A New Kind of Listening" film at the Carolina will be audio-described, so if you have blind/low-vision friends and family, invite them to attend. Audio description means that the visual activity of a theatre event -- including basic things like what a person looks like, or set design -- is described, in real time, so that ALL partons can fully enjoy the performance. It is particularly meaningful that a film like this new Dalsheimer documentary is audio-described, given its subject matter of inclusivity. Blind/low-vision patrons can request a listening device at the door. If you use this service and enjoy it, ask your local theatre to offer it more frequently. The organization providing the service is Arts Access. http://www.bullcityrising.com/2009/10/third-friday-documentary-escapism-film-fest-library-book-sale-highlight-the-weekends-fun.html The "A New Kind of Listening" film at the Carolina will be audio-described, so if you have blind/low-vision friends and family, invite them to attend. Audio description means that the visual activity of a theatre event -- including basic things like what a person looks like, or set design -- is described, in real time, so that ALL partons can fully enjoy the performance. It is particularly meaningful that a film like this new Dalsheimer documentary is audio-described, given its subject matter of inclusivity. Blind/low-vision patrons can request a listening device at the door. If you use this service and enjoy it, ask your local theatre to offer it more frequently. The organization providing the service is Arts Access. From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 08:30:01 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:30:01 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] audio tours gallery - Big Impression In-Reply-To: References: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Message-ID: <4AD82F09.3090602@online.no> Excerpt from article Big Impressions link http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3624&Itemid=147 From Syracus New York Also exciting are new audio tours that have been created to enhance the visitor?s walk through the three galleries. By dialing into the system with their cell phones, visitors can listen to Mike Tooby, director of Learning, Programs and Development at the National Museum of Wales, talk about the paintings; hear haiku written and read by Syracuse City School District children, ?which offers another glimpse of what a painting can mean to an individual,? Kern notes; or a program Kern says is unique to the Everson, one using tonalities. ?This message is slightly longer than the others,? Kern says. ?It begins with a narrative that gives a formal description of the painting, talks about how the artist deals with things like contrast, geometry and structure, and then says that if this painting were music, this is what it would sound like.? Then it plays an original composition, created by Barre Hunt O?Neill and Setnor Musicians, and recorded by Ronald Keck at Sub Cat Recording Studio, in Skaneateles. For the tonalities interpretation, museum staff worked with Aurora of Central New York, which serves clients who are blind, visually impaired, deaf or hearing impaired. ?You can?t get a more under-served constituency than those that are visually impaired in an art museum,? Kern notes. ?These tonalities are profoundly moving and truly inspirational. The description of each work is so absolutely articulate. Visual arts and music, especially when you?re talking about impressionism. The impressionists themselves truly believed in this connection, with Renoir going so far as to say ?I want my reds to sound as clearly as a trumpet.? The whole idea of color music is a very important component of 20th-century art.? From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 09:57:02 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:57:02 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Andre Campbell legally blind comic book illustrator In-Reply-To: References: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Message-ID: <4AD8436E.2010704@online.no> excerpt , links from 2 articles about Andre Campbell a visually impaired illustrator and slide show about Andre Campbell talking about his work, video showing him work slide show http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2008/12/12/GA2008121202243.html?sid=ST2008121102868 video showing Campbell at work http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2008/12/11/VI2008121100951.html?sid=ST2008121102868 characters http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/magazine/2008/comic/gallery.html?sid=ST2008121102868 Comic Book Hero Andre Campbell's vision is severely limited, but that hasn't stopped him from pursuing his dream of making it as a comic book artist. Will he ever see success? Andre Campbell, who has been legally blind since birth, let his cane glide in front of him, as Tyran Eades stepped diligently by his side with the patience of an attentive brother. They were headed toward their designated table at the 15th annual Pittsburgh Comicon. All around them at the convention were eye-popping banners and saturated displays of superheroes both ubiquitous and obscure, all designed to celebrate the unbridled joy of comic books and to encourage generous spending during the next three days by the 7,000 or so attendees. Campbell -- who says you can approximate his vision by closing one eye and squinting through the other -- could make out very little. But he had a grand vision for himself, an inner faith that his own characters would some day take their place alongside Spider-Man, Batman and Wolverine at conventions like this one. Having toiled for nearly 20 years, Campbell, 44, had produced -- with Eades's assistance -- one comic book and one graphic novel, both self-published, starring Campbell's Alpha Agents ("Earth's Mightiest Heroes"). Unlike the professional comic book artists, who had been invited to attend and who had made their names by working on some of the most beloved superhero titles of our time, Eades, 33, and Campbell had paid $150 out of their scarce resources to rent a table. But now they were focused on the significance of this day. For the first time, they had traveled to an out-of-state convention to promote their company, Heritage Comics HSQ (Heart, Soul, Quality). When they found their way to the corner of the convention center set up for small-press artists such as themselves, they settled in for eight hours of talking up characters that no one had yet heard of. Campbell and Eades had published their first Alpha Agents comic in 2007, after Campbell had written and labored over it on and off for 10 years. The new graphic novel included the first Alpha Agents story, plus two new installments. They'd had 50 copies printed for $250, and were hoping to sell them for $10 each. They'd decided to forgo having their bios listed in the convention's extensive program, which would have cost another $150. They were too low on funds for that, Campbell said. The hotel room they were sharing would set them back $300, and then there was gas money for the trip from Baltimore. Campbell estimates that, over the years, he has put $7,000 of his own money into Heritage. Eades has spent about $4,000. In all that time, their gross sales have amounted to about $500. But the goal for the convention, Campbell and Eades agreed, was to introduce their characters to a new public. "We don't expect to break even," Campbell said. "What we do expect is that people will remember us." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120501808_pf.html Whatever Happened To .... Andre Campbell? article excerpt In a scene in the story, Campbell gets to try out a closed-circuit television system that magnifies and projects printed material onto a monitor. Campbell, who had mostly stopped reading more than 25 years ago, was mesmerized, but the CCTV was out of his price range. After reading the story, a couple from Virginia offered to buy him the system, which cost about $2,500. They delivered it the day after Christmas. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/02/AR2009100204248.html From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 10:23:10 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:23:10 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Waukesha, Wisc Hand in Hand, novel, George Mendoza, teacher, filmmaker In-Reply-To: References: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Message-ID: <4AD8498E.3040101@online.no> Hi, Sending a few excerpts from different articles and links. Best, Lisa */Hand In Hand, Waukesha Civic Theatre, 10/15 to 10/19/* */The WCT is hosting an interesting, experimental drama project written and performed by Leslye Orr. It?s part of a Potawatomi Bingo And Casino Miracle On Canal Street charity award that the group received; the award allows younger audiences to travel and see theater at no charge. While several of the performances are for the school set, a handful are reserved for general audiences, too. In the play, ?audience members experience a heightened awareness of their own senses. They are seated in a spiral configuration in the Ralph North Studio Theatre, asked to close their eyes and are brought in touch with the world of Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, who was legally blind. A myriad of objects are passed around the spiral while actress Leslye Orr tells a riveting story inspired by the profound letters and witty lectures of the great educator and her spirited pupil.? Visit the WCT website or call 262-547-0708 262-547-0708 for tickets; school viewings are free but must be arranged./* Leslye Orr, who has been legally blind since birth, leads this experimental theater piece at Waukesha Civic Theater. Photo courtesy the artist. http://thirdcoastdigest.com/2009/10/on-stage-with-tcd-highlights-from-1014-to-1021/ article from book review of How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall the reason I have taken this is because it is a novel with a portrayal of an artist who is blind - novels etc are factors that create the general understanding of visual impairments and art etc .... Four chapters that recur through the book recount the lives of four artists. There are the Italians in the 1960s: Annette Tambroni, a blind florist who once harbored dreams of becoming an artist, .... http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/112328-how-to-paint-a-dead-man-by-sarah-hall/ article Jim McCarthy will present a short program on George Mendoza, a legally blind artist, athlete, painter and writer from Las Cruces. Mendoza is currently working on quilting fabrics. Meet other members of the group who are also losing their sight or are blind and have learned to live with this disability. For more information, call Pat at (575) 388-1108. http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_13541794 excerpt of article The Art of Silence He mentors young artists now, including blind children. He explained that he teaches them the concept of hot and cold palettes by running cold water over their hands or hovering their hands over a flame, depending on the color being introduced. ?The pictures of the blind children are the very best because they paint from the imagination. I do not have to teach them how to paint with feeling.? http://www.paigestringer.com/blog/?p=492 excerpt Kids with Vision - 10/8/2009 Broome Community College student Casey Coolbaugh has no trouble seeing filmmaking in his future...but sometimes the rest of his life can get a little blurry. "Without my glasses, I can't see anything. I mean, probably about four inches in front of my face is as focused as I can get," he said. Coolbaugh said his latest project made him realize his vision problems really aren't that bad. He was one of a handful of students recruited by the founder of a local non-profit organization -- Kids with Vision -- to help spread awareness about childhood blindness in developing countries. Founder Faizan Siddiqi says 500,000 children around the world go blind every year from preventable causes like malnutrition. http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=10793 From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 10:42:59 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:42:59 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Dimitri an artist who is blind In-Reply-To: References: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Message-ID: <4AD84E33.7060800@online.no> Hi, The Story of the Blind Artist He was not blind from the birth. He lost his sight during a digging operation in the forests of Ukraine, where they tried to find remains of Russian soldiers who are considered to be missing since the World War 2. He got blew up on the 50 year old German Nazi land mine and since then he couldn?t see with the both of his eyes. http://englishrussia.com/?p=2595 Blog We take so many thing for granted. Although these pictures may seem a bit crude on first look, take a look again. They are painted by a Russian artist named Dimitri....who is blind. So many times we complain of things not being fair in our world but this artist clearly overcame his disability. Painting through your heart and not through your eyes....one step at a time. Here's to a grateful Wednesday! http://boylerpf.blogspot.com/2009/10/through-your-heart.html From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 11:01:43 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:01:43 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] George Mendoza fabric line In-Reply-To: References: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Message-ID: <4AD85297.3070600@online.no> Westminster Fibers is one of the leading producers of high quality 100% cotton, flannel, fleece, poplin and other fabrics. Their talentend trendsetting artists include well known artists (and /Threads, //SewStylish / and/or /CraftStylish.com / authors) such as Kaffe Fassett , Amy Butler , and Anna Maria Horner to name just a few. Their latest fabric line was created by George Mendoza a blind artist affiliated with Art of Possibility Studios . This studio is the only for-profit art publishing and licensing brand exclusively representing physically disabled artists with the goal of providing them with recognition and income opportunities. Ketra Oberlander , founder of Art of Possibility Studios (herself a blind artist) admists that "it's incredibly rewarding to license George's fine art into practical applications, such as this fabric collection, which will touch and adorn so many lives around the world." George Mendoza is not only an award-winning artist, he's also an author, athlete, and motivational speaker who has touched the lives of many. He tells a wonderful story that inspired one of his paintings: /"What color is the Wind?" I was fifteen, and a little girl named Debbie who was born blind, who had never seen the color green or the shape of a tree, asked me a question after the wind blew through her long brown hair. "Can you tell me, what color is the wind?" That question just blew my mind because I was just losing my sight then. She woke up my creative sense by asking me that question...When I started having this eye problem, I was upset with these visions, the dazzling colors. I talked to a priest at the Holy Cross Retreat. "Paint them," he said, "Make designs, pictures out of them"./ From fnugg at online.no Fri Oct 16 11:16:39 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:16:39 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Art of Possibility Studio -art beyond limitation In-Reply-To: References: <4AD82656.20807@online.no> Message-ID: <4AD85617.6070206@online.no> Hi, Link to blind artist, Ketra Oberlander and the Art of Possibility Studio. If you click on the News link on the site you get links to a whole lot of other articles about the artists and the Art of Possibility Studio home link http://www.aopstudios.com/index.php press link http://www.aopstudios.com/press.php news program about Ketra http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/assignment_7&id=6773058 Regards, Lisa From newmanrl at cox.net Sat Oct 31 06:10:10 2009 From: newmanrl at cox.net (Robert Newman) Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:10:10 -0500 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Where The Blind work Acting/Performing Arts Message-ID: The NFB Where The Blind Work Needs acting (performing arts) Job Descriptions We need job descriptions from any of you who are blind and are acting on stage, in film or in ads. We need you to provide us with a description of what acting is like, how you entered this profession and how you do it. Your description will be added to the NFB's "Where The Blind work," a new and ever growing resource of career descriptions and how the blind compete within them. This is a great resource to assist youth to plan for future employment and for the adult who is looking to change jobs and/or careers. Your description must follow the below five question format: When completed please email them to me at newmanrl at cox.net (A * indicates a required field): 1. * Name, * Industry in which you work, * Job title, Address 1, Address 2, City, State, Zip Code, Phone number, E-mail, * 2. Please explain to us what any worker would do on this job (specialized blindness alternatives will appear below). * 3. Please tell us the cause of your blindness. Then, let us know about the alternative methods and/or techniques you use to perform your job. * 4. Please let us know of any required special training, education, certificates, experience, etc. needed for this job. * 5. Please tell us about anyone or anything that aided you to be successful. (A joint project between the Jernigan Institute and the NFB Writers' Division; for all people) Visit the "Where The Blind Work" at- http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Blind_Work.asp?SnID=28992349 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Where The Blind work acting notice form.rtf Type: application/rtf Size: 14060 bytes Desc: not available URL: From lisa.yayla at statped.no Mon Nov 2 08:22:46 2009 From: lisa.yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 10:22:46 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Newsweek article - Excellent! Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From JFreeh at nfb.org Wed Nov 4 03:09:20 2009 From: JFreeh at nfb.org (Freeh, Jessica) Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:09:20 -0600 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] National Federation of the Blind Announces 2010 Scholarship Program Message-ID: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chris Danielsen Director of Public Relations National Federation of the Blind (410) 659-9314, extension 2330 (410) 262-1281 (Cell) cdanielsen at nfb.org National Federation of the Blind Announces 2010 Scholarship Program Thirty Scholarships Available to College and Postgraduate Students Baltimore, Maryland (November 3, 2009): The National Federation of the Blind, the oldest and largest organization of blind people in the United States, announced today that applications are now being accepted for the 2010 National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Program. Thirty scholarships totaling $100,000 will be awarded to blind students from the United States and Puerto Rico. The scholarships are available to blind students who will be enrolled in college or a graduate program beginning in the fall of 2010, including incoming freshmen. Scholarships range in value from $3,000 to $12,000. Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "The National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Program is the Federation's way of recognizing outstanding academic achievement by blind students and spreading our positive philosophy of blindness to these students and to the general public. Because of the collective efforts of blind Americans, blind people today are achieving greater academic success and entering fields of study once thought closed to the blind, and celebrating their achievements is always a highlight of our national convention. I join the Scholarship Committee in inviting every eligible blind student to submit an application, and I look forward to meeting the dynamic individuals that will make up the 2010 National Federation of the Blind scholarship class." Information on the NFB scholarship program is posted online at www.nfb.org/scholarships. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2010. Questions may be directed to the NFB Scholarship Committee Chairman, Mr. Anil Lewis, by e-mail at Scholarships at nfb.org, or by phone at (410) 659 -9314, extension 2415. From lisa.yayla at statped.no Wed Nov 4 09:34:47 2009 From: lisa.yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:34:47 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Anana Carving Studio, School Consulting Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lisa.yayla at statped.no Mon Nov 9 08:45:37 2009 From: lisa.yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 10:45:37 +0200 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Drawing With Your Perkins Brailler Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dandrews at visi.com Sat Dec 5 16:23:34 2009 From: dandrews at visi.com (David Andrews) Date: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:23:34 -0600 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Last Chance to Help Braille Literacy with Coin Purchase Message-ID: Christmas Header The holiday season is upon us?a time when we turn our focus, more than any other part of the year, to giving. This year, give a gift that really counts?a future full of opportunity for a blind child! Today far too many blind children and adults in America are being refused Braille instruction by both schools and rehabilitation agencies, and many who are receiving a Braille education are given inadequate instruction. There is a way you can help. When you purchase the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar, not only will you receive the first U.S. coin to feature readable, tactile Braille, but $10 from the sale of each coin will also go to the National Federation of the Blind?s efforts to end this Braille literacy crisis. That?s a gift anyone would be proud to give. But time is running out! You have just a few days left to purchase this exceptional coin and leave your mark on this crisis. Visit the U.S. Mint?s Web site or www.braille.org, or call 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468) by December 11, 2009, to give the gift of Braille literacy today. The United States Mint guarantees delivery by December 25, 2009, on any in-stock item, anywhere in the United States on orders placed by December 7, 2009, for standard delivery, and December 11, 2009, for express delivery. Orders over $300 will receive free expedited shipping. If you've already purchased the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar, consider making a matching gift to the ?Braille Readers are Leaders? campaign. It is a great way to multiply the impact of your purchase. We at the National Federation of the Blind thank you for your devotion to America?s blind and wish you the happiest of holiday seasons! Braille Coin (Black & White) To learn more about the 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar, the Braille literacy crisis, and the Braille Readers are Leaders campaign, visit www.braille.org. National Federation of the Blind 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place Baltimore, Maryland 21230 (410) 659-9314 Fax (410) 659-5129 From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Tue Dec 8 09:19:57 2009 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 10:19:57 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] any ideas? Message-ID: Hi, Yesterday I was handed a box of, what I think, is water pipe insulation material. Ah the possibilities I thought. It is a gray spongy tube about 1 1\2 inches in circumference and has narrow channel going through out its length. I threaded a bit with steel wire and got a nice bendable line. One could make large drawings with it perhaps with or without the wire. I put a bit of Velcro on the foam tube (without wire) and seems to hold well. Perhaps could be used for quick model making? This is definitely nothing for a small child that chews on things. I was wondering if anyone else has used this material? Thanks, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Wed Dec 9 07:51:14 2009 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 08:51:14 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Movies for the blind In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Got this tip from another list http://moviesfortheblind.com/ from site What is all this? Well, this is a podcast of public-domain films where I've added something called "audio description," which is additional narration telling people who are vision-impaired important visual elements of a show as they happen, helping the film tell its story. This means everyone can listen to it like an audiobook. To learn more about the history of description and where else it is used (hint: quite a few places but not enough!), check out the wikipedia articles on the Descriptive Video Service and audio description. Have any questions or suggestions? Email valerie at moviesfortheblind.com. Regards, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Thu Dec 10 09:28:23 2009 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:28:23 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Live Describe In-Reply-To: <20091209190440.8CCE04ADB29@mail.viewplus.com> References: <20091209190440.8CCE04ADB29@mail.viewplus.com> Message-ID: Hi, Wikipedia has an Audio Description site. Link from Movies for the Blind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_description on it is a link to Live Describe.com a site with freeware to create audio description to films etc. http://www.livedescribe.com/ excerpt from Wikipedia "Recently the Center for Learning Technology has launched a new free web based video description service at (http://www.livedescribe.com). Describers can download LiveDescribe, a free video description authoring tool and create video description for video files such as avi, mov and mp4. Once the descriptions are complete, the description can be uploaded with one click to livedescribe.com. Blind or low vision audience members can then download the descriptions and play them back with the LiveDescribe Player" >From LiveDescribe site "Welcome to the homepage of LiveDescribe, video description software designed, prototyped and developed at The Center for Learning Technology by developer Carmen Branje. LiveDescribe combines the massive power of a television studio with the economy of shareware software. Now the home user as well as the studio professional can add high quality descriptions to virtual any video source. By browsing our community created video description, you can enjoy video description not available anywhere else. Due to copyright restrictions however, only the description audio is stored on our servers, meaning you must have a copy of the video you wish to have described. Each description will have a link to the original location of the video file, however please be aware, not all descriptions will have working links, meaning you may have to search for the video." Regards, Lisa -----Opprinnelig melding----- Fra: art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research-bounces at nfbnet.org] P? vegne av Mike Sivill Sendt: 9. desember 2009 20:14 Til: 'Valerie' Kopi: artbeyondsightmuseums at nfbnet.org; valerie at moviesfortheblind.com; art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org; art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org; art_beyond_sight_learning_tools at nfbnet.org; accessibleimage at freelists.org; 'Art Beyond Sight Theory and Research' Emne: Re: [Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Movies for the blind Hi all, Thanks for responding, Valerie, I see your point. You do say listening to an audio described film is like listening to an ebook, which does make sense. The act of listening is similar in any case. It just bites me when generalizations are made that imply that blind people are participating in such a different manner that we aren't even actually participating in the same event. I would say that most blind people would say that they "watch" TV or movies even though it is listening alone, but that not one blind person would ever say that they 'watched' a book. I know it seems like semantics but I feel it is important to make certain distinctions. Anyway, I'm glad the announcement was posted. I had not heard of the movies for the blind website and the descriptions there are really well done. I did enjoy "watching" some of the TV episodes and hope that category continues to expand. I also look forward to seeing further discussion. What do other people think? Are we in our right to say we're "watching?" Maybe even when the video portion is not present? I watch TV at home through the sound system without turning my TV on half the time too. Mike -----Original Message----- From: Valerie [mailto:descriptionto at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:32 AM To: Mike Sivill Cc: Art Beyond Sight Theory and Research; accessibleimage at freelists.org; art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org; art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org; art_beyond_sight_learning_tools at nfbnet.org; artbeyondsightmuseums at nfbnet.org; valerie at moviesfortheblind.com Subject: Re: [Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Movies for the blind Hello Mike and everyone. I'm sorry to be crashing, but Mike cc'd me on this, so I feel obligated to respond to everyone who read it. If there have been other responses I have not had a chance to look at yet, having just received this, please forgive me for any redundancy. My two main points to respond to Mike are that I merely say people can listen to Movies for the Blind *like* an audiobook, and that he gives my abilities too much credit. :-) The About page of Movies for the Blind is intended for people who have no prior knowledge of description and the many terms we can apply to it ("audio description", "described video", "descriptive video", etc.). While I refer to DVS because it is one of the higher-profile describers in North America, "descriptive video" is not exactly what Movies For the Blind has most of the time. With a few exceptions, MFTB is audio-only, and the audience does not experience it with video, which would have additional benefits for people who aren't totally blind, people with vision-impairments consuming media with friends or family with sight, and sighted people which include those learning a language or developing literacy. I think everybody knows what an audiobook is, so I use it as a point of comparison. Under the definition I'm suggesting (though perhaps not strongly enough), an audiobook is a book adapted into audio form so a person can listen to it without looking at text - walking along the street, driving in a car, doing household chores, or perhaps resting with eyes closed somewhere. This was the only point of comparison I wished to make: that MFTB is also an audio adaptation of another form of media (in this case, tv or movies) which can be listened to without looking at a screen. It speaks to the purpose of creating something that anyone with hearing can enjoy regardless of sight, with no special adjustments necessary. While different audiobooks have differing levels of production which assist the listener's imagination (some are just someone reading, others have readers cast for their expression consistent to the tone of the book, others have readers adopting different character voices and set in front of music), Mike is correct that Movies For the Blind does fill in more detail. However, a perennial point of discussion among those who write and listen to description is how much to describe and what to describe. There are different schools of thought on that, but no matter how much we debate it, the fact remains that each describer is limited by time (even when description is expanded outside of the original's real time) and his/her own perspective. No matter how hard we try, we will never, ever be able to describe everything, we will never evoke every visual cue for which an image is intended, and we will never look at a scene in exactly the same way. We will never be a complete substitute for the sight someone does not have. In my opinion, the describer's purpose is to help tell a story. Only tell - not show. A story is nothing without the contribution of the audience, and all the creators involved serve that audience. The words I choose are essentially lines for the listener to colour in between (or outside, if he/she wants) to give the story its ultimate life. And while I like to think I'm pretty good at what I do, the listener's imagination still has a lot of work to do (hopefully enjoyable) to make it worth anything. Thanks very much for getting through this. :-) Thanks to Lisa for mentioning MFTB, and thanks to Mike for his opinion and for bringing this to my attention. Peace, Valerie -- Movies For the Blind http://moviesfortheblind.com/ On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Mike Sivill wrote: I really don't agree that descriptive video is like an audio book. Listening to action and dialog going on is very different from reading a book and using your own imagination to form the voices and images in your head. Just my humble opinion, they are two entirely separate experiences. Mike -----Original Message----- From: art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lisa Yayla Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 11:51 PM To: 'accessibleimage at freelists.org'; 'art_beyond_sight_educators at nfbnet.org'; 'art_beyond_sight_advocacy at nfbnet.org'; 'art_beyond_sight_learning_tools at nfbnet.org'; 'artbeyondsightmuseums at nfbnet.org'; 'art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org'; 'artbeyondsightmuseums at nfbnet.org' Subject: [Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] Movies for the blind Got this tip from another list http://moviesfortheblind.com/ from site What is all this? Well, this is a podcast of public-domain films where I've added something called "audio description," which is additional narration telling people who are vision-impaired important visual elements of a show as they happen, helping the film tell its story. This means everyone can listen to it like an audiobook. To learn more about the history of description and where else it is used (hint: quite a few places but not enough!), check out the wikipedia articles on the Descriptive Video Service and audio description. Have any questions or suggestions? Email valerie at moviesfortheblind.com. Regards, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- _______________________________________________ Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research mailing list Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research_ nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research_n fbnet.org/mike.sivill%40viewplus.com _______________________________________________ Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research mailing list Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research at nfbnet.org http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research: http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research_nfbnet.org/lisa.yayla%40statped.no -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Sat Dec 12 16:07:39 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:07:39 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] The Blind Artist and the Volvo Message-ID: <4B23BFCB.8000405@online.no> Hi, Excerpt from The New York Times article link http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/automobiles/13BLIND.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/automobiles/13BLIND.html?hpw Regards, Lisa "IN September, shortly before Esref Armagan, a Turkish artist, was escorted into Volvo?s design studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he would be the first person from outside the company invited to encounter the 2011 Volvo S60 , he said, ?I promise not to look.? Then Mr. Armagan smiled ? he is, after all, blind. The moment is captured in a new promotional video ? posted on Volvo?s Facebook page and on YouTube ? documenting how the automaker commissioned a painting of the S60 by Mr. Armagan, who is filmed running his hands along the vehicle?s exterior before rendering sketches, and, finally, the painting. Filmed in a documentary style, the five-minute video ? done by the Euro RSCG 4D advertising agency in Amsterdam and the Great Guns production company in London ? is a novel approach for a teaser campaign. Automakers previewing new or overhauled models often release photographs of the cars obscured by shadows or draped in cloth. Here Volvo likewise offers tantalizing close-up glimpses of the vehicle as the artist touches it, but the video turns out to reveal less about the S60 than about Mr. Armagan. ?I didn?t start out to be an artist, I just wanted to learn about the world around me that I was living in,? Mr. Armagan says in Turkish in the subtitled video. ?Feeling around with my fingers has completely erased my blindness. It?s as if I see like anyone else.? The avuncular Mr. Armagan, who is 56 and wears Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses, was born blind and impoverished, according to a biography on his Web site. The self-taught artist?s work has been exhibited in Turkey, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. ....... ?Esref is the blind person who has the largest set of perspective drawing skills to come to light,? said John M. Kennedy, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto at Scarborough, who has done research over three decades on how the blind draw. Some blind artists have drawn from two-point perspective, capturing two surfaces of an object, which in the case of a box means being able to draw it at eye level while facing a corner. But Dr. Kennedy said Mr. Armagan was unusual in his ability to draw from a three-point perspective, capturing that same corner of a box, but from above or below." From fnugg at online.no Sat Dec 12 16:07:56 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:07:56 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Bravo Volvo, Bravo Esref Message-ID: <4B23BFDC.1040500@online.no> Hi, This is a documentary/commercial for Volvo with Esref Armagan. It is wonderful! Not texted - wish it was. Beautiful Link to it on youtube All-new Volvo S60 - Blind Preview - Documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CNx3qTI8xA Best, Lisa From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Mon Dec 21 09:05:25 2009 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:05:25 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Outline, mental states, and drawings by a blind woman Message-ID: Hi, Prof. Kennedy's paper I Perception Kennedy J M, 2009, "Outline, mental states, and drawings by a blind woman" Perception 38(10) 1481 - 1496 Outline, mental states, and drawings by a blind woman Abstract. Outline pictures depict surface edges, and via extensions from this base they can represent sensory and psychological referents. Outline drawings standing for edges of surfaces are relatively ancient, and lines for actions, sounds, and psychological states quite recent-mostly little more than a century. The novel finding here is that lines for psychological states of several kinds are invented by a blind woman, EW, who began making raised-line drawings as an adult. Notably, she invented novel devices representing thoughts and emotional impressions. If lines depict surface edges literally, they depict motion, sensory effects, impressions, and thoughts metaphorically http://www.perceptionweb.com/abstract.cgi?id=p6407 -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From Lisa.Yayla at statped.no Mon Dec 21 11:49:13 2009 From: Lisa.Yayla at statped.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:49:13 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Talks Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds Message-ID: Hi, On TED lecture with Oliver Sacks Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnett syndrome -- when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He describes the experiences of his patients in heartwarming detail and walks us through the biology of this under-reported phenomenon. http://www.ted.com/talks/oliver_sacks_what_hallucination_reveals_about_our_minds.html Regards, Lisa -Scanned by Exchange Hosted Services- From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 28 09:22:55 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:22:55 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Blind Photographers Use Gadgets to Realize Artistic Vision Message-ID: <4B3878EF.6040409@online.no> Blind Photographers http://blog.tysonwilliams.com/2009/12/27/blind-photographers/ Blind Photographers Use Gadgets to Realize Artistic Vision http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/blind-photographers/ 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. The new iPhone has a feature called VoiceOver, which reads back anything a user places his finger over on the screen: e-mail, web pages, system preferences and so on. Beyond that, photo-editing applications such as CameraBag and Tilt-Shift perform automated editing tasks that blind users like Dejong could not otherwise do on their own. From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 28 09:52:52 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:52:52 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience Message-ID: <4B387FF4.8070506@online.no> article about the book, The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience by Jennifer M. Barker http://www.rorotoko.com/index.php/article/jennifer_barker_book_interview_tactile_eye_touch_cinematic_experience/ excerpt In a nutshell In Michel Gondry?s /The Science of Sleep/ (2006), Gael Garc?a Bernal plays a frustrated artist with a penchant for quirky handmade objects and stop-motion animation who falls in love with an artsy woman. He explains, ?I love her because she makes things with her hands. It?s as if her synapses were married directly to her fingers. Like this,? he says, staring at his own waggling fingers in amazement, ?in this way.? That line perfectly describes the spectator?not just of this film but also of moving pictures in general. I argue that synapses and fingers /are/ married (as are mind and body, and vision and touch more generally) in the experience of cinema. I also argue that to think, to speak, to feel, to love, to perceive the world and to express one?s perception of that world are not solely cognitive or emotional acts taken up by viewers and films, but always already embodied ones that are enabled, inflected, and shaped by an intimate, tactile engagement with and orientation toward others?things, bodies, objects, subjects?in the world. If these things are married in the experience of cinema, then this book describes exactly how so: ?like this, in this way.? That the film experience is a tactile one is without doubt; one need only chat up one?s fellow audience members to hear an action film described as a ?visceral rush,? or an art film described as ?lush? or ?sensuous.? But how does one reconcile sensuous film experience with film theory? My answer was to design a book that is itself a tactile experience. I employ a descriptive vocabulary and method, infused with the sensuousness of the everyday, embodied film experience, in a study organized not around historical periods, genres, or modes of production, but around bodily dimensions, sensations, rhythms, and gestures. excerpt Where Are We In This Picture? When we watch a film, we experience it with eyes and ears, but also connect with it in a way that awakens our senses of touch, movement, and emotion, says Jennifer M. Barker, author of The Tactile Eye . In her interview on ROROTOKO last week, Barker illustrates how a film invites us to see and feel the world through its eyes, as if the film had a body of its own. Barker explores the three areas of touch?skin, musculature, and viscera?that are engaged between cinema and spectator, and illustrates how watching a film is a kind of mutual possession. Film and viewer are not entirely separate entities, but engulf one another for a time and then emerge again, http://www.ucpress.edu/blog/?p=1425 From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 28 10:23:43 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:23:43 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] European projects, comic strip Message-ID: <4B38872F.6060900@online.no> Compo and Foggy star in comic strip; American fan draws Summer Wine excerpt VETERAN comedy Last Of The Summer Wine has inspired a blind American artist to draw a comic strip featuring its well-loved characters. Despite living 6,000 miles away in North Carolina ? and having never ventured outside the USA ? Claye Hodge has taken his inspiration from the famous Holmfirth sitcom. And his hope now is that one day he will visit the Holme Valley. The 35-year-old is registered blind and only has limited sight in one eye. But he?s able to watch DVDs of the hit comedy show if he sits close-up to the TV. The art graduate then draws the cartoon strips on an art tablet linked up to his computer. He dreams of visiting Holmfirth to see where his favourite show was filmed. http://www.songsmusicvideos.com/movies/love_ilms/compo-and-foggy-star-in-comic-strip-american-fan-draws-summer-wine some links to articles about projects from ICT -http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=home&tpl=about Graphical world opens for visually-impaired people http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&BrowsingType=Features&ID=81443 Linear Access to Mathematics for Braille Devices and Audio-synthesis An innovative and integrated system to manage scientific documents with Braille devices and vocal synthesis http://www.lambdaproject.org/Default.asp?langid=14 Multimedia format to integrate Braille music Braille music notation is about to get easier, thanks to the emerging music XML format. Based on code developed under the Play2 project, this format will lead to better integration of music notation in the common MPEG multimedia standard. http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&BrowsingType=Features&ID=55515 Visually-challenged computer users can now explore technical drawings http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&BrowsingType=Features&ID=77845 An added dimension for virtual museums http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&BrowsingType=Features&ID=73130 Bringing computer gaming to the visually impaired http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&BrowsingType=Features&ID=59373 From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 28 11:33:44 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:33:44 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Design Meets Disability Message-ID: <4B389798.2090304@online.no> book review of Design Meets Disability by Graham Pullin Even the sighted often suffer from a sort of blindness. When another human being walks into their visual field with an "impairment," the immediate reaction is frequently either to stare or to look away. Whether witnessing genetic, geriatric or accidental injuries, healthy people have an aversion to being reminded just how fragile their bodies are. Consequently, a book called /Design Meets Disability/ <%20http://www.amazon.com/Design-Meets-Disability-Graham-Pullin/dp/0262162555/?tag=core77-20> isn't the first thing that a "fashionable" designer might pick up off the shelf no matter how sexy amputee/paraplegic Aimee Mullins happens to be, nor how gorgeous Cutler and Gross's eyewear advertisements appear ... and that, um, short-sightedness is rather unfortunate. Although it was released a while ago, Pullin's book is worth a look. http://www.core77.com/blog/book_reviews/book_review_design_meets_disability_by_graham_pullin_15597.asp Design Meets Disability http://www.amazon.com/Design-Meets-Disability-Graham-Pullin/dp/0262162555/?tag=core77-20#noop A talk with Graham Pullin excerpt A WHEELCHAIR CAPE is a large, tent-like piece of waterproof clothing used by the wheelchair-bound to keep dry in the rain. A cross between a giant bib and a barber's smock, it's functional, but not much else. In some ways, says designer and researcher Graham Pullin, it further reinforces the disability of its wearer. "It's certainly not streetwear," he says. But what would happen if, say, an underground fashion company for bike messengers took on such a design? And what if the result not only lent some mainstream cool to the person using it, but sparked new ways of thinking about waterproof design and technology? Those unlikely marriages are the kind Pullin wants to inspire with his new book, "Design Meets Disability." Pullin, a lecturer in interactive media design at the University of Dundee in Scotland who trained as a medical engineer, makes a strong case that better design for disabled people could pay off in unexpected and important ways, not only for users but for society overall. (Andrew Cook) "Disability could actually be a source of incredible inspiration for design." http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/03/15/a_talk_with_graham_pullin/ garden http://candaceroserardon.blogspot.com/2009/12/tale-of-two-cities.html Small towns need unique features, and this park featured a scented cottage garden designed for the visually impaired by a gift from a certain Myrtle Currie. It was an interesting request on Mrs. Currie?s part, one which I could appreciate and remember. From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 28 12:10:05 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:10:05 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] artist articles Message-ID: <4B38A01D.50000@online.no> excerpt blog There are many areas of the art world where lack of sight or limited vision quite obviously need not be a great impediment to development and success. Andrea Bocelli, the famous and popular tenor whose voice is beloved around the world, completely lost his sight at age twelve after an accident during a soccer game. Twenty year old Nobuyuki Tsujii, the Japanese pianist whose playing captured hearts and delighted ears at an international piano competition this year, has been blind since birth. As in the wider world, there are many aids that can be used to get around potential problems, and no one has difficulty understanding how a blind person can be a talented musician, for example. It is perhaps more surprising to discover the relationship between sculpture and the visually impaired ? after all, much of our ordinary experience of a sculpture is visual, both in the making and in appreciating it afterwards. Yet a few moments? thought would be sufficient for one to realize that there is a very natural connection there ? a sculpture has an obvious tactile as well as visual element. Visually impaired sculptor Didier Roule suggested that not focusing on the visual aspect of sculpture actually gives him an advantage, because it allows him to be more attentive to other details, to feel things through the materials that others might not notice. New York?s MoMA usually arranges tours for the visually impaired on Tuesdays, and their sculpture garden of course provides an unusual but appropriate place to appreciate art ? with one?s fingertips. The Louvre actually has a special area designed for appreciation by the visually impaired ? the Tactile Gallery , a favorite with all visitors and ages. http://agoraartgalleryblog.com/visual-art-and-the-visually-impaired/ Please touch: Louvre opens room for blind and visually impaired PARIS ? Signs ask visitors to keep their hands off the art in the Louvre Museum. But one special sculpture gallery invites art lovers to indulge. The Louvre's Tactile Gallery, targeted to the blind and visually impaired, is the only space in the museum where visitors can touch the sculptures, with no guards or alarms to stop them. Its latest exhibit is a crowd-pleaser: a menagerie of sculpted lions, snakes, horses and eagles. The 15 bronze, plaster and terra-cotta animals are reproductions of famous works found elsewhere in the Louvre. Called "Animals, Symbols of Power," the exhibit focuses on animals that were used by kings, emperors and pharaohs throughout history to symbolize the greatness of their reigns..." http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/accent/226231.php excerpt NY Times article The Vision to Depict It Their Way BY the time the effects of Susan Kitazawa?s glaucoma crossed into legal blindness in February, they had already cost her a nursing career and countless freedoms. But they had also sparked a seize-the-day resolve in her and revived a long-buried, if now unlikely, ambition: to make visual art. She had enrolled in a life drawing class near her home here but was frustrated that it took a narrower view of drawing, and of vision, than she was seeking. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/arts/design/29blind.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1259578803-bCFCG6Scq eotphWSxk6mA slide show NY Times Art by the Blind Now in its 20th year, "Insights" is the country's pre-eminent selected exhibition of paintings, photographs and mixed-media pieces by legally blind artists. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/29/arts/20091129-blind_index.html http://creativehandicap.free.fr/ Giving you something to see, to touch, to listen to, to taste, to feel, to understand? Isn?t that the ultimate ambition of Art: offering in a communion of senses? For the last fifteen years, Sylvie Sanchez, sculptor and founder of the association Cr?ative Handicap, has devoted her talent to the development of cultural projects involving people who, despite their handicap, wish to express themselves and share their experience with others. Through this association, her aim has been to unite artists, handicapped and valid and to encourage them to exchange their ideas. All artists? potential deserves to be known and recognised as such. Mastering different artistic disciplines and learning jointly elaborated training tools make it possible for them altogether to weave the bonds in order that each one can rebuild one?s self and build together. A few words about the members (you will be able to discover their works on the site of Creative Handicap: http://creativehandicap.free.fr ). http://creativehandicap.free.fr/activites_ch/activites_english.pdf From fnugg at online.no Mon Dec 28 12:10:15 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:10:15 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Tamar Solomon Message-ID: <4B38A027.70007@online.no> Tamar Solomon- illustrator http://www.tamarsolomon.com/ LIGHTHOUSE FOR THE BLIND http://www.artbusiness.com/1open/091906.html From fnugg at online.no Tue Dec 29 10:02:41 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:02:41 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Maps of Canada Message-ID: <4B39D3C1.1060307@online.no> Hi, Links to maps of Canada, gif pdf and Corel Draw files plus procedures. NATURAL RESOURCES CANADA TACTILE MAPS OF CANADA http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/geogratis/en/collection/metadata.do;jsessionid=9481852728BA4D6608B1BB128F698288?id=36865 Index of /download/tactile http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/download/tactile/ http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/geogratis/en/collection/metadata.do;jsessionid=9481852728BA4D6608B1BB128F698288?id=36865 Regards, Lisa From fnugg at online.no Tue Dec 29 10:52:30 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:52:30 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] maps, wayfinding, British museum Message-ID: <4B39DF6E.5010406@online.no> links about maps at Perkins http://www.perkins.org/resources/scout/geography/tactile-maps.html BlindAid stylus MIT?s Touch Lab has developed a device called the BlindAid system to enable the visually impaired to feel their way around a virtual model of a room or building. Mandayam Srinivasan, Director of the MIT Touch Lab and affiliated with the Research Laboratory of Electronics and the Department of Mechanical Engineering is working on this project with the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton Massachusetts..... In the long term, he believes the device could be used to help blind people not only preview public spaces but to also use the device to travel by public transportation by using virtual route maps and then be able to interact with the virtual map through touch. http://telemedicinenews.blogspot.com/2009/12/help-for-visually-impaired.html article Sparrows in the Station Q. Every time I wait in the Long Island Rail Road section of Pennsylvania Station, I hear chirping, tweeting birds. The sound is louder near overhead speakers, so I?m assuming it?s a recording. Is it supposed to make passengers calmer, like Muzak? A. You are hearing a ?talking kiosk,? designed to help visually impaired passengers and others navigate the confusion of the station. The kiosk is in the Long Island Rail Road?s main concourse, between the entrances to Tracks 14 and 15. ?To help visually impaired customers locate the kiosk, it emits the song of the lark sparrow (Chondestes grammacus), a bird species native to the American West, that is found by audiologists to have a unique set of phonetic properties considered effective for directional way-finding,? said Susan McGowan, a spokeswoman for the railroad. The current model was installed in December 2008, replacing an older one that also chirped. This one features a touch-activated tactile map of the station, visual displays for the partially sighted, and a voice designed for phonetic clarity, Ms. McGowan said in an e-mail message. As a customer touches different parts of the map, the kiosk describes the location and gives directions. It also offers general information about Penn Station and the Long Island Rail Road. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/nyregion/13fyi.html?_r=1 link to book excerpt link to excerpt of book on Google Books Access to mass transit for blind and visually impaired travelers By Mark M. Uslan, American Foundation for the Blind, Alec F. Peck, William R. Wiener http://books.google.com/books?id=ISZ7VnncEUQC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=%22visually+impaired%22+map&source=bl&ots=Ej4urtX5hX&sig=KQY1Isdw9tu8Q-7ervCnECcz4-M&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22visually%20impaired%22%20map&f=false excerpt of article British Museum Launches Multimedia Guides in 11 Languages *LONDON.-* A new set of handheld guides launches at the British Museum , designed to allow visitors to learn more about the British Museum?s collections. This includes: ? A Multimedia Guide available in 11 different languages, including British Sign Language (BSL) ? An Audio Description Guide (in English only) ? A Children?s Multimedia Guide (in English only) With an international audience of six million visitors each year, the British Museum is always seeking to find new ways to engage visitors from around the world with the collection. The new Multimedia Guide, made possible by sponsorship from Korean Air, will be available in eleven languages (English, Korean, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish, and a separate guide for British Sign Language) ? the most comprehensive coverage of any museum multimedia guide. The guides will provide a state-of-the-art means for audiences to learn about the Museum?s unparalleled collection and make the most of their visit. Taking in over 220 objects from the Museum?s collection, the Multimedia Guides will feature in-depth audio-visual commentaries. It will also include three guided tours to allow audiences different ways to explore the Museum?s collection: The Parthenon sculptures, Highlights of Ancient Egypt and The Korean Gallery. The tours will include directions to help the user find their way from one object to the next. The guide will also feature an interactive map to help visitors orient themselves and easily find objects and galleries. The Children?s Guide (recommended for ages 5?11, in English only) will include seven guided micro-tours focusing on different parts of the world (ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, early Britain, Africa, Americas and Oceania, Asia, and Middle East), accompanied by activity suggestions and small interactive games around some of the objects. The Audio Description Guide has in-depth descriptive audio commentaries of each of the 220 objects for visually impaired people (English only), while the British Sign Language Guide will launch with signed videos of about 120 objects. Videos will be added so as to include the full 220 objects on the BSL Multimedia Guide by mid-January 2010. http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=34823 From fnugg at online.no Tue Dec 29 11:51:48 2009 From: fnugg at online.no (Lisa Yayla) Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:51:48 +0100 Subject: [Artbeyondsightmuseums] Science Poster Feedback Message-ID: <4B39ED54.4020506@online.no> Hi, Forwarding news from Fredshead - APH Regards, Lisa Science Poster Feedback APH is considering adapting commercially available classroom science posters to make them accessible to tactile readers. The posters, in their current presentation, are already ideal for low vision students. Each poster would be adapted with a permanently-affixed clear braille/tactile overlay. Posters under consideration include the human skeleton, eye, heart, ear, digestive system, skin, etc. For a full list of possibilities, visit http://www.chartstudio.com/secondary-phase/human-anatomy-posters.html We would like to hear from Teachers of the Visually Impaired with regard to the following: 1) the need for tactile classroom science posters and 2) the types of posters most needed. Please email your thoughts/ideas/comments to Karen Poppe, Tactile Graphics Project Leader, at kpoppe at aph.org by December 15. Thank you! --------------- NEW! Flip-Over Concept Book: LINE PATHS The first in a planned series of print/tactile books, uniquely designed by APH, that provides interactive and independent learning for young children as they build basic concepts and develop early tactile skills. The format of Flip-Over Concept Books includes print and tactile panels that can be turned freely until the child finds adjacent panels that match each other, continue a line or pattern, complete a sequence, build an image, and so on. With LINE PATHS, Introduce and practice: ?Directional, spatial, and descriptive vocabulary such as curved, straight, zigzag, down, up, stair-step, wavy, diagonal, wide, narrow, etc. ?Familiarization with many types of tactile lines that will later be encountered in tactile displays (graphs, maps, etc.) ?Tactile discrimination and line-tracking ?Visual discrimination and line-tracking ---------------- Math Teachers Love the Geometro More than 4,000 math teachers from around the region attended the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference and Exposition in Nashville, TN, November 18-20, and they loved the new APH Geometro! Geometro materials first appeared in an APH product in May of 2008 when MathBuilders, Unit 6: Geometry was introduced. In September 2009 Geometro Sets became available for sale in the APH catalog. Geometro materials provide hands-on experiences with manipulatives that aid in teaching 3-D geometry. APH Field Services Representatives Cathy Johnson and Sandi Baker exhibited the Geometro and other APH products of interest including MathBuilders Units 1, 6 and 8, Stack-Ups, and the Transparent CCTV Rulers. http://www.fredshead.info/2009/12/aph-news-december-2009.html#P5