[nfbmi-talk] Child in a Strange Country: Helen Keller & the History of Education for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

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Please help us spread the word about this fully accessible educational exhibit coming to AADL!


Child in a Strange Country: Helen Keller and the History of Education for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
Friday May 2 through Wednesday, June 25, 2014 -- Downtown Library Lobby And 3rd Floor



AADL is pleased to be bringing to you, Child in a Strange Country: Helen Keller and the History of Education for People Who Are 
Blind or Visually Impaired, a new traveling exhibit from the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind exploring the human 
ingenuity expressed by generations of teachers and students.



There will be an opening reception for the public at the Downtown Library on Friday, May 2 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, and there will also 
be related events throughout May and June at the Downtown Library.



In 1891, teacher Anne Sullivan wrote a report about her famous young student, Helen Keller, an Alabama girl who lost her hearing and 
sight at an early age. “For the first two years of her intellectual life she was like a child in a strange country,” wrote Sullivan, 
realizing that for her student, no learning was possible until she could overcome the communication barrier posed by blindness and 
deafness. Eventually, however, Keller became the first deaf-blind woman in America to earn her undergraduate degree, graduating from 
Radcliffe in 1904.

This was made possible by a number of educational tools developed in Europe and the United States since the late eighteenth century, 
beginning with Valentin Hauy’s invention of the tactile book in 1786 in Paris, France. Hauy’s book featured raised letters, and 
helped prove that blind people could learn to read. Louis Braille’s dot code, introduced in 1829, allowed students to both read and 
write.

“Child in a Strange Country” explores four primary subjects: Reading, Science, Math, and Geography. Using Helen Keller’s educational 
journey as a lens, the exhibit uses tactile reproductions and authentic artifacts to uncover the roots of modern education for 
children with vision loss.

The exhibit is designed to be fully accessible. Each section includes six panels mounted with tactile reproductions or touchable 
examples of real artifacts. Each concludes with a sit-down touch table with interactive games and activities which spur the sensory 
imagination. Labels are available in large-print, braille, and audio versions recorded in the APH studios on Frankfort Avenue.

Highlights of the exhibit include:

• Thirty-four artifacts, including a “washboard” slate used to write braille, similar to models developed by Louis Braille himself, 
and a giant thirty inch diameter relief model of the Earth.
• Fourteen tactile reproductions, including a page from Valentin Hauy’s original raised letter book and tactile maps by Martin Kunz 
and Harald Thilander.
• Thirty text and artifact panels with over fifty-three historic photographs, including ten images of Helen Keller.
• Four touch tables, with activities ranging from writing braille to performing math problems on both a tactile abacus and a talking 
calculator.





Thanks!


Terry



Terry Soave | 734/327-8327 | soavet at aadl.org
Manager of Outreach & Neighborhood Services



Ann Arbor District Library | 734/327-4200 | aadl.org
Washtenaw Library for the Blind & Physically Disabled
734/327-4224 | wlbpd at aadl.org | wlbpd.aadl.org
343 S. Fifth Ave. | Ann Arbor | MI | 41803 


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