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<td width="100%" colspan="2" style="border-style:none;border-collapse:collapse;"><div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:15pt;color:#000000;">Hi, </font></div><br />
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:15pt;color:#000000;">Link to stonecarving site maintained by university lectures in the field of blindness and low vision at Western Michigan University.</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:15pt;color:#000000;"><a href="http://ananastonecarving.com/index.php" target="_blank">http://ananastonecarving.com/index.php</a></font></div><br />
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:15pt;color:#000000;">Paul is the most active Anana stone carver at present, primarily because he is retired from his "day" job. His carvings are somewhat unique, in that they are done completely by touch, that is, he uses no vision. An accident at age 30 left him totally blind. Ironically, his interest in stone carving came after his vision loss and resulted from the first piece of Inuit art he touched. He said, "The Sedna piece I picked up was so fantastic! Its form was so perfect, its smooth surfaces so inviting, and its beauty so overwhelming, that I knew right then and there that I had to find a way to create it." He attributes his success to Inuit stone carving's simplicity of form and texture and to touch's ability to "see" it exactly as if visually looking at it. Paul has also
published on the topic of blindness and brain plasticity, that is, the human brain's ability to substitute touch for vision following blindness.</font></div><br />
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">Film focuses on town with high vision loss</font></div><br />
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">KALAMAZOO -- In the Northwest Territories community of Behchoko, home to the native Tlicho people of sub-Arctic Canada, 25 percent of the population is either affected by vision loss or carrying the gene for it. </font></div><br />
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">One form of blindness there is 500 times more than the normal rate.</font></div><br />
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">On Thursday, some 2,600 miles away from Behchoko, Western Michigan University professor Susan Ponchillia will present the first U.S. showing of her documentary on the Tlicho people and their struggle with vision loss, "Sing Me a Fish: Tlicho People Living with Low Vision." The film will be shown for free at 6:30 p.m. at WMU's Little Theatre.</font></div><br />
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;"><a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2009/07/film_focuses_on_town_with_high.html" target="_blank">http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2009/07/film_focuses_on_town_with_high.html</a></font></div></td>
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<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;color:#000000;">Lisa Yayla</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;color:#000000;">Huseby Kompetansesenter </font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;color:#000000;">Oslo Norway</font></div>
<div align="left" style="text-align:left;"><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;color:#000000;"><a href="mailto:lisa.yayla@statped.no">lisa.yayla@statped.no</a></font></div>
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