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

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

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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.

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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.



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