[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Wireless Signage, photography, color blindness - artist and director, Sense & Sensuality exhibition

[Lisa Yayla]

Hi,
Articles with links about Remote Infrared Audible Signage, Senxe and 
Sensuality exhibition,
colorblind artists.
Anyone familiar with the book *The Journey: Color Photography for the 
Blind and Visually Impaired (Hardcover) *
by Michael J. Minardi 
</exec/obidos/search-handle-url/702-8324506-2024861?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-ca&field-author=Michael%20J.%20Minardi> 


Links
http://www.govtech.net/localgovt/story.php?id=100952

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newEAST01090406.htm

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/city/3_1_EL08_A3MURAL_S10908.htm

http://society.guardian.co.uk/offdiary/story/0,,1870570,00.html


http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0903biz-informatics0903.html#
talking signs
http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2006/09/11/daily7.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060911/dam022.html?.v=64

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/Entertainment/2006/09/12/1829459-sun.html


Wireless Signage Project for Visually Impaired Seattle Travelers
Sep 12, 2006 By Gina M. Scott

Sound Transit, Seattle, has been selected for a pilot wireless program 
to provide orientation for people with visual, cognitive and learning 
disabilities. The first of its kind $1.98 million grant from the Federal 
Transit authority and approved by Congress will make Seattle a host city 
for the Remote Infrared Audible Signage (RIAS) Model Accessibility 
Project (MAP).

RIAS is an infrared wireless communications system that provides remote 
directional human voice messages making travel possible for people with 
disabilities. Permanently installed transmitters send out signals which 
are picked up by hand held receivers when the area is scanned. When 
signals are received, users hear specific messages such as "women's 
restroom" or "stairway." In addition, RIAS/Talking Signs, Inc. crosswalk 
audible "walk" and "wait" systems will also be installed. This will 
allow visually impaired travelers to identify landmarks, signs and other 
places of interest, as well as increase confidence and independence.


One visually disabled traveler in Colorado Springs, where Talking Signs 
has a similar project on the public transit buses, said: "It was really 
remarkable. It cuts us loose of all the strings of co-dependence. Just 
knowing which bus is where, and you can zero in on the door, walk on and 
find a seat."

Although RIAS have been installed before, this grant will make Seattle 
the first to have RIAS technology on a regional scale. "This is an 
important and exciting project for Sound Transit and our customers who 
will benefit from the Talking Signs technology," said Marty Minkoff, 
Sound Transit's director of transportation services. The project will 
provide a seamless signage path for travel between buses, trams, trains 
and transit stations for the Puget Sound area.

As part of the 2005 Federal Public Transportation Act, a three-year 
evaluation of the effects of RIAS on work life, education, community 
integration and improvement of independence and quality of life for 
people who have visual, cognitive and learning disabilities was 
mandated. The Secretary of Transportation will make a report of the 
results to Congress in October 2009. Congressman Richard Baker, who was 
a sponsor of the legislation, said of the RIAS MAP this week: "If the 
Federal Transit Administration brands the project as successful and 
meaningful in three years, doors could be opened for much broader 
funding in the next transportation bill."

excerpt

Warren Davis of Clearwater knows from experience.

At age 16 he was injured in a train accident. For about three years, he 
was a "basket case," rarely leaving his Bronx home. Bowling and other 
activities, such as karate and photography, helped him resume his life.

On Sunday, blind in his

excerpt

As artist in residence, he talks to schoolchildren about what art is and 
what it can be, how he got into art, and everything he had to overcome 
to become successful at it.

Etters shouldn't be an artist — at least, that's what one art school 
professor told him. Etters is partially color blind — he can't 
distinguish shades of red or green.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hands-on art links blind and sighted

Gallery: highlights from the BlindArt exhibition

Annie Kelly
Wednesday September 13, 2006
The Guardian

The organisers of most exhibitions go out of their way to ensure that 
punters keep their grubby fingers off the artwork. The BlindArt charity 
is now hoping to turn this concept on its head and break down taboos 
about blindness with a new exhibition that asks visitors to interact 
with a series of artworks themed around the sense of touch.
The Sense & Sensuality exhibition, launched in London tomorrow, displays 
work by visually impaired and sighted artists without letting visitors 
distinguish between the two.

Sheri Khayami, the founder of BlindArt, says that not telling people 
whether a piece of art has been created by a sighted or non-sighted 
person will force people to challenge their preconceptions about visual 
impairment.

"The only stipulation we gave submitting artists is that they must allow 
their work to be touched," she says. "We wanted to break through 
traditional hierarchies and barriers in the art world and destroy the 
notion that sight is intrinsic to the experience and enjoyment of art." 
All the works on display are meant to be touched and handled and the 
materials and textures help people explore their sense of touch. Each 
piece has a description in audio, large-font type and braille.

"Visually impaired people are cut out of many public art events because 
of the perception that art shouldn't be touched and you shouldn't get 
too close," Khayami says. "Most artists want to create a barrier between 
their art and the people who view it, and that excludes those without 
good sight. What we're saying is that art should be a personal 
experience, be inclusive to all."

Jenny Cordy, a sighted artist featured in the exhibition, says her work 
has always revolved around her childhood fear of the dark, which led her 
to explore the experience of blindness in her artwork: "My piece 
featured in the exhibition is a light-box in the shape of a huge braille 
dot that people can immerse their whole head in. The intensity of the 
light inside means that even if you don't have much vision, you'll be 
able to experience a sensation of light."

All artists in the exhibition are taking part in a competition run by 
BlindArt, with a judging panel that includes the artists Marc Quinn and 
Gary Sargeant.

· The exhibition will run from September 14 to October 8 at the Bankside 
Gallery, London SE1.

excerpt ASU on informatics cutting edge

Another device is a television camera, mounted on a pair of glasses, 
that interprets what it sees and conveys information to blind people in 
the form of an audible message or an image that can be touched.

excerpt

Beal secondary school, where Haggis studied photography in 1970.

"I found out I was colour-blind but everything I learned here I've used 
in my work," said Haggis who co-produced and wrote the Oscar-nominated 
script for Million Dollar Baby, last year's best picture Academy Award 
winner.