General

Blind C.E.O. proves vision has nothing to do with sight

With more than 29 years of combined experience and education in the high tech sector, Sharlyn Ayotte’s drive to make accessible materials available to the blind community resulted in the launch of her company.

Sharlyn’s Ottawa (Canada) based T-Base Communications provides companies and organisations with alternate format communication services for their blind and partially sighted customers. The company specialises in producing accessible communication materials in Braille, large print, e-Text and audio formats.

Easy passage for blind people

Under the ‘White Cane Path Project’ visually impaired people can look forward to a safer trip to the shopping mall, restaurants etc., in Penang, Malaysia.

The Rotary Club is funding a 1.5 kilometre pathway connecting ‘Saint Nicholas Home’ to One-Stop Midlands Park. The home is a centre for the care and rehabilitation of children and adults with visual or multiple sensory disabilities.

UK’s National Library for the Blind to raise funds from Marathon

Authors and publishers urged to make their work accessible

"Reading means the world to me and I can’t imagine what it would be like, to be denied this pleasure,” said children’s laureate Jacqueline Wilson. She is urging fellow writers to make their work more accessible to visually impaired persons.

Touchable' Mexican sculpture exhibition in U.S.A.

El Alma en Las Manos or ‘The Soul in the Hands’, a tactile exhibition by contemporary Mexican sculptors opened on March 9, 2006 at Zerum museum at San Francisco, U.S.A.

The exhibition seek to bring blind children closer to the world of visual art had 22 pieces of tactile sculpture from Mexico.

The exhibition was organised in collaboration with Consulate General of Mexico, the Mexican National Council for Culture and Arts, ‘Zerum’- a multimedia arts and technology museum, and non-profit organisation ‘LightHouse for the blind and visually impaired people’, U.S.A.

Those magical fingers

Penny Hall's sensitive fingers are her eyes. As a massage therapist, she uses those fingers to good advantage. "I thoroughly enjoy my work," says Hall, 63, who has been in the field since 1998.

Hall is blind but that’s no disability for her. In fact, some of her clients are thankful that she's blind because they are self-conscious about their bodies, she said. But regardless of the shape of the person on the massage table, Hall's first concern is comfort.

A Look Into Our i's

The book gives readers a glimpse into the lives of some extraordinary teenagers who share their perspectives on issues related to growing up with visual impairment.

The twelve authors are aged between 13 to 19 years. Their book is a compilation of introspective writings. It speaks about concerns that they feel are most important to them. These are, namely, independence, inclusion, intelligence, inspiration, idealism and imagination.

Accessibility programme opens U.S. museums to blind visitors

Warren Logan’s hands skim the 15-century marble bust, tracing the lifeless eyes, the slightly agape mouth, the precisely chiselled fur.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s (Kansas City, U.S.A.) new touch tour is among programmes at more than 100 museums in the country that attempt to do what once was thought impossible - making art accessible and even visible to visually impaired people.

Blind 'see' art through tactile

The Art Institute of Chicago (U.S.) offered the blind and vision-impaired people the opportunity to ‘see’ by touching replicas of a few of its most popular works.

The museum re-created a handful of its art on tactiles. The technology involves making replicas of artwork on portable, machine-etched plastic that enable visually impaired people touch and feel them.