[accessibleimage] photograpy, Bolllywood idol, making idols, exhibits, Hellen Keller statue, call for art

Hi,
A mix of articles. Title and links follows and text to articles follows after.
"Oh, now I see": Women of Vision group study, create art http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100105/met_19919999.shtml

The Joy of Being a Visually Impaired Photographer 
http://www.capacanada.ca/Visually_Impaired.html

Artist chosen to create Helen Keller statue for U.S. Capitol

Determined visually impaired artist makes idols of Durga http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=30060

News 8 Austin’s Paul Brown spoke with Gloria Bennett, the coordinator of All 
Blind Children of Texas
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=146797

Stevie Wonder http://www.blackprwire.com/display-news.asp?ID=1972

"disABLED" and ArtCenter Manatee Faculty Exhibition http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/living/health/12775875.htm

Looking for Amitabh http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2005/sep/sep30/news11.php

The Morning Read: Eye of the beholder http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9587650/


Arizona State University lab haptic glove  
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=48002

Call for art Helen Keller International Art Show
http://www.vsrc.uab.edu/deafblind/documents/Callforart2006.pdf

Regards,
Lisa





"Oh, now I see": Women of Vision group study, create art
Jacksonville.com, Florida
Saturday, October 01, 2005

"Oh, now I see," said Gloria Crawford, who is blind, as she ran her hands over 
the textured surfaces inside artist J. Seward Johnson's sculptural interpretation of 
Vincent van Gogh's painting The Bedroom.

Crawford was touring the Cummer Museum's new exhibit, Beyond The Frame: 
Impressionism Revisited, which consists of Johnson's life-size, 
three-dimensional interpretations of Impressionist paintings.

She is a member of Women of Vision, a group of visually impaired or blind women who get together at the Cummer to study art and to create their own work.

The group enthusiastically took to the exhibit.
CAPTION: A woman runs her hand along a three-dimensional replica of a van Gogh painting. BOB SELF/The Times-Union

CAPTION: Suzie Johnson (from left), Lorraine Zell and Gloria Crawford examine the Cummer Museum's latest exhibit during a special session for the Women of Vision, a group for the visually impaired or blind that gathers at the Cummer. BOB SELF/The Times-Union

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100105/met_19919999.shtml


http://www.capacanada.ca/Visually_Impaired.html
http://www3.sympatico.ca/david.becker/

The Joy of Being a Visually Impaired Photographer David Becker
Text and photos by David Becker (picture text)Canopy. The flowing shapes and strongly contrasting colours of this image were what first attracted my attention to this canopy at Ottawa’s City Hall. When I was born, my parents didn’t know whether I could see or not, because I didn’t respond to any visual stimuli. After some tests, it was determined that I could see, but just barely. When I was two years old, I was fitted with my first pair of glasses. I don’t remember the event, but I was told that I could barely contain my excitement. For months, I nearly drove my parents crazy, pointing out everything I could see. Because my glasses cannot correct my vision completely, I still operate on the edge of legal blindness. Details begin to dissolve into abstractness at about a metre. Reading things like street name signs is impossible until I am almost right under them. I cannot see small, fastmoving objects (which rules out playing or even watching many sports). I rarely recognize people until they are less than about 15 metres away. At night, lights blend into a blur of flare. Needless to say, I can’t drive a car.

Despite my disability, I have never lost my love of photography, which began at an 
early age. As a child, I played with an old box camera that I found in the basement, 
though it never had film in it, and the viewfinder was foggier than my own eyesight. I 
got my first real camera (a Brownie Starflash, as I recall) when I was a teenager. It 
was only slightly more sophisticated than the box camera (it had a built-in flash), 
but I was able to put film in it and actually take pictures. And then one day, I 
looked through an uncle’s SLR. I was hooked. When all the other students in 
their first year of university were spending their student loan money on elaborate 
stereo systems, I bought a used Miranda 35mm SLR.

However, having a handicap that did not allow me to drive a car discouraged me from trying to make a 
career out of photography. My reasoning was that if I couldn’t drive, I wouldn’t be 
able to respond to events as a photojournalist, so that was ruled out. I couldn’t carry much 
equipment to a location shoot, so any branch of photography that required that was ruled out. And my 
rate of out-of-focus or otherwise spoiled shots was sufficiently high to make me uneasy about 
situations where a reshoot was not possible. That precluded things like weddings and other special 
events. So, I pursued a career in design-related fields instead, including architectural and 
landscape design, urban design and planning, graphic design and fine art drawing. But I have never 
abandoned photography as a serious hobby and art form.

Obviously, there are challenges that a visually impaired photographer must overcome. One of 
the biggest is the lack of mobility. As I mentioned above, I can’t simply load up the 
car with gear and go off to some wonderful, remote location when the mood strikes. I am 
limited to walking, cycling and public transit most of the time, and, occasionally, when I 
can convince her that she will not be bored to tears, I can talk my wife into driving me 
someplace for a few hours (usually with the promise of a nice dinner thrown in). This limits 
where I can go and how quickly I can get there. As a result, I do most of my photography in 
urban areas. Those shots that are taken in more rural settings are often taken hastily so as 
to accommodate another person’s schedule or impatience. I rarely have the luxury of 
time in those circumstances.


(text to photo)Lilies. This shot was taken using available light in my 
home. By placing the flowers in a black vase against a black background near a 
window, I was able to isolate them with high contrast while retaining the 
subtle tones in the flowers.
Related to limited mobility is the need to travel light. When one is walking or taking public 
transit, carrying a lot of gear can be difficult, because of both the weight and the bulk. 
Passengers on a crowded city bus generally don’t appreciate being whacked in the shins 
with a wayward tripod. Carrying a stepladder, as some photographers occasionally do, is 
definitely out of the question. In addition to public transportation, I have the option of 
cycling, which I do a lot, but again the amount of equipment that I can realistically carry 
is limited. And cycling in Ottawa’s winters can be uncomfortable to say the least.

Mobility is not the only issue though. One of the most obvious difficulties has 
always been focussing accurately. In the past ten years or so, autofocus 
cameras have saved me a lot of film, but as any good shooter knows, autofocus 
is not foolproof, and if you rely too heavily upon it, it can be limiting since 
it requires that you compose your shot to align with one of the focussing areas 
in your viewfinder.



Once I take the shot, editing the slides can be a difficult task; even with a good loupe, a slightly out-of-focus slide can be difficult for me to detect. (I have not yet switched to digital, though I will likely add it to my arsenal soon). Because I do not see at the same level of detail that most people do, flaws and imperfections sometimes go unnoticed. This is where computers and photo editing software came to the rescue a few years ago. 


(text to photo)Red and blue sculpture. It was the rich colours of this sculpture 
that originally attracted my attention. It was not until I enlarged the shots that the 
handprints and other scuff marks were revealed to me. They add a richness that kept 
the shots from being discarded, and have resulted in sales of both images.  But all of 
that is not meant to be an excuse for not getting out and shooting. In fact, in some 
ways, there are advantages to being forced to walk and cycle. For one thing, it keeps 
me fit. But more importantly, I am able to respond immediately to opportunities. I 
don’t have to worry about stopping the car and blocking traffic, or finding a 
place to park while the shifting light causes the initial opportunity to evaporate. I 
can cycle into places where a car cannot go. The very slowness of cycling affords me 
the opportunity to look around more than I could if I were behind the wheel going 80 
to 100 km/hour, so, ironically, I notice things that I would not see if my eyesight 
were good enough to drive. I have taken many very successful shots that I never would 
have seen had I been in a car.

Because I see only a limited amount of detail, I tend to be attracted by shapes 
and colours first, and often do not see some of the details, even when I am 
shooting. Because colour and overall shape often determine my choice of subject 
matter, I tend to use them as the main compositional elements in many of my 
pictures. This has had a strong influence on how I shoot as much as what I 
shoot. I tend to simplify the composition of many of my pictures, often to the 
point of abstraction. In some shots, colour and composition themselves are the 
subject matter, and occasionally some detail that I had not noticed at the time 
of shooting adds a delightful dimension to the picture. Even when the subject 
is clearly identifiable, the composition is at least as important and sometimes 
moreso.

But, I think the most important thing that my poor eyesight has taught me is 
never to take the beauty around me for granted. I look at everything and 
delight in the visual surprises that I see everywhere. The most mundane 
locations can yield some of the most exciting images if you are open to seeing 
them. Perhaps because I know that I cannot see as well as others do, I try 
harder to be aware of my surroundings and, as a result, I notice things that 
people with 20/20 vision often do not. Capturing them on film is my way of 
pointing them out, just as that excited two-year-old tried to do.



Canoes.This shot was taken when I was cycling to a meeting and noticed the canoes tied together, waiting to be rented. It is an example of a picture I never would have taken had I been driving a car. I didn’t notice the ridges in the rubber or the lovely grain in the yoke at the time the shot was taken. These were happy surprises when I got the slide back and enlarged it.

Laundry line. This combination of elements caught my eye as I walked through Ottawa’s Lowertown. The strong diagonal of the shadow creates an appealing graphic feature. The laundry provides evidence of people living where the graffiti and vacant lot might otherwise suggest neglect and abandonment. 


Article published Sep 26, 2005
Artist chosen to create Helen Keller statue for U.S. Capitol

The Associated Press

Nationally recognized sculptor Edward Hlavka has been chosen to create a statue 
of Helen Keller to be placed in National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol, 
Alabama first lady Patsy Riley announced Monday.

Hlavka was selected after a 35-member committee reviewed proposals from more 
than 30 artists. The first lady is honorary chair of the committee.

Hlavka's work can be seen at the Smithsonian Institute. Recent work includes 
statues of former President George H.W. Bush, Thomas Jefferson and Jesus with 
two children.

The Helen Keller statue will depict the blind and deaf Keller at the moment 
when she was first able to communicate with the outside world. It will show her 
as a child by the water pump at her family home in Tuscumbia.

"At this moment, when Helen Keller was a child, she showed us the power of a 
determined human spirit and reminded us all that courage and strength can exist in the 
most unlikely places," Patsy Riley said.

The completed statue is scheduled to be unveiled on June 23, 2006 at the annual 
Helen Keller Festival in Tuscumbia. The statue is expected to be installed in 
the U.S. Capitol later that summer.

http://www.blackprwire.com/display-news.asp?ID=1972
(excerpt from article Stevie Wonder to Release New Motown Album, A Time to 
Love, October 18th)
Wonder already has released a landmark single and video from the new album, "So What 
The Fuss," which contained a second, descriptive audio track on the video recorded 
by hip hop star Busta Rhymes, made accessible for people who are blind or have low 
vision. The innovative video description process was the first time a music artist 
enabled visually impaired music fans to experience key elements of a music video.


http://www.sfbg.com/39/52/x_list_art.html
San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery at City Hall City Hall, lower level, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl; 554-6080, www.sfacgallery.org. Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm; Sat, noon-4pm. "Insights 2005," works by artists who are blind or visually impaired.


http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=30060
Determined visually impaired artist makes idols of Durga By Girija Shanker Ojha, Jamshedpur: It’s been almost a decade when a sculptor in Jamshedpur lost his eyesight. But it did not deter this resilient idol-maker to go ahead making many more idols of Goddess Durga in the days to come.

Keshav Chandra Pal from Jamshedpur, a sculptor of repute and devotee of Goddess Durga is busy working on idols these days. The meticulous movement of his fingers, giving life to these clay structures, belie the fact he is blind.

Fifty-seven-year-old Pal, whose family profession is making idols refused to give up his family tradition despite loosing his eyesight. After a brief break of two years, Pal with full faith in God got back to making idols. And today his idols are sold all over the country.

“In 1996, I lost my eyesight and stopped working. After two years my brother asked me to try and I agreed. With full faith in God I started work and now, even though I cannot see, I can make idols,” says Keshav Chandra Pal.

The people associated with him view this as a blessing of God. “It is only God’s blessings else how is he doing it. No one can believe this until they see it for themselves,” says Subodh Chandra Gorai, assistent of Keshav Chandra Pal.

Keshav, who learnt the art from his father has been working independently for the last 10 years after the death of his father. Today he wants that the young generation should also learn the art and carry on the tradition.

“He is teaching us the art of making the idols. He is a very good teacher and is very particular about the virtuosity of the art,” says Subhash Chandra Ghatak, a student.

Today each idol made by him sells for rupees 15,000 to 18,000. So far Keshav Chandra has 20,000 idols to his credit.

Helen Kellar, the famous Americal writer, once wrote: I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a man-made world. 



http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=146797

excerpt from article
News 8 Austin’s Paul Brown spoke with Gloria Bennett, the coordinator of All Blind Children of Texas.

Q: What's the idea behind forming All Blind Children of Texas?

A: The nonprofit started because we feel that all blind children should have a sense of pride and self-worth, and our mission is to try and advance the optimal development of blind and visually impaired children. We know that many blind children get a great education, but they don’t get an opportunity to experience outside the classroom things like drama, art and music and sports. Those are the things that give a child a challenge and give the self-confidence to overcome and participate. 



http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/living/health/12775875.htm

What: "disABLED" and ArtCenter Manatee Faculty Exhibition

When: Oct. 6-29

Reception: 5-7 p.m. Oct. 7 Reception admission: Free

Where: ArtCenter Manatee, 209 9th St. W., Bradenton

Museum hours: 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays

Admission: Free

Information: 746-2862

'disABLED' art exhibit at ArtCenter Manatee 'disABLED' art exhibit

Craig Cotler precariously balanced a paintbrush slathered in blue paint in his 
right hand.

Occupational therapist Larry Henry had attached the brush to Cotler's thumb 
with a cylindrical piece of foam because Cotler has little movement in his 
hands. Henry had also cut a perfectly round hole in a big square piece of 
cardboard.

With the makeshift cardboard stencil, Henry guided Cotler's hand over a canvas 
and Cotler painted solid blue circles with his right hand. The blue circles 
alternated with red circles, creating a bold pattern.

The rest of Cotler's body remained pretty much immobile. Cotler, 45, of 
Sarasota, suffers from muscular dystrophy, a disease characterized by the 
progressive wasting away of muscle, said his mother, Carole Cotler. He has been 
in a wheelchair since age 18.

"Craig has little to no movement," Henry said. "He can turn his head a little bit. 
It's my job to come up with ways so he can paint."

Artwork by Cotler and about 45 other disabled individuals served by the Art Initiative 
program at Easter Seals of Southwest Florida, along with art created by clients of 
Manasota ARC (Association of Retarded Citizens) and ARC Jacksonville, is the centerpiece 
of an exhibit titled "disABLED," opening Oct. 6 and continuing through Oct. 29 
at ArtCenter Manatee in downtown Bradenton.

The exhibit will be complemented by another show, ArtCenter Manatee Faculty 
Exhibition, running concurrently. An opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 
7 will give the public the opportunity to meet some of the artists.

About 80 paintings, sculptures, hand-decorated pots and other artwork were 
created for the show by artists with a host of disabilities, including cerebral 
palsy, Down syndrome, seizure disorders, spinal cord injuries and brain 
injuries. Some of the artists are quadriplegics, hearing impaired and blind.

With the exception of the Jacksonville art, the pieces were created by 
residents of Manatee and Sarasota counties.

"We haven't done anything like this in recent years," said Diane Shelly, executive 
director of the ArtCenter. "It's important for the ArtCenter to serve all the citizens of 
Manatee County and to let the public know how important art is to everyone. Everyone has 
something that they want to express and it can come out in the language of art.

"It's important to have this kind of morale booster - for disabled individuals to 
see their work exhibited in a gallery," Shelly said.

Art innovation

As an occupational therapist, it is Henry's job to tap his imagination and 
skills to find ways to assist disabled individuals in making art. He works with 
art teacher Karen Davenport in classes at the Easter Seals program center, 
located near the Manatee/Sarasota county line on Braden Avenue.

In 2001, when the Art Initiative program at Easter Seals was in its infancy, 
Henry started inventing new ways for disabled individuals to make art. An 
individual with severe immobility presented him with a unique challenge.

"We didn't know what to do with him in the day program," Henry recalled. "I came up 
with the idea of letting him run a remote-control car to paint."

The car's wheels spun around on the canvas, splattering paint and creating an 
abstract artwork. The artist controlled the car, and his art, with the remote 
control.

"The only intervention is setup and ideas," Henry said. "Some of the work is 
abstract because some people only have the ability to do abstract. We want to keep it real."

The program has since blossomed and about 45 people are served in art classes 
each week.

"If you buy one of these paintings and put it in the right place in your home, it's just as 
beautiful as anything else," Henry said. "I have about six of them in my house and 
they're framed and up on the walls."

'A big show'

Davenport, the art instructor and a graduate of the Ringling School of Art and 
Design in Sarasota, doesn't significantly alter her teaching techniques for the 
Easter Seals students.

"I teach the classes the same way I would teach any other art class," Davenport said. 
"Students learn how to sketch by using real-life photos. They've done self portraits with a 
mirror attached to an easel. They choose their media - pastel, painting, watercolors. Henry and I 
guide them along the way."

Art therapy for disabled people has been used by occupational therapists for 
about 20 years, Henry said. Its benefits are cognitive, physical and emotional. 
It helps with coordination, dexterity, patience and depth perception. It 
teaches the aesthetic properties of art, such as color, shape and perspective. 
It boosts self-esteem and it puts a little money into the pockets of artists 
who sell their work.

"A few dollars goes a long way," said Henry. Because most of the Easter Seals 
clients don't have jobs, many depend on Medicaid, disability payments and parental 
support for survival.

Carole Cotler said the Art Initiative has been a blessing for her son, who has 
been involved in the program for about two years. He has sold 10 paintings, she 
added.

"He didn't want to do anything before. He was in kind of a depression," she said. 
"It's amazing how happy he is. He doesn't speak much, but he understands everything. He's 
very, very bright."

The Easter Seals artists have exhibited their work at Manatee Memorial Hospital in 
Bradenton and at the Kress Center, Michael Seery & Associates and Century 21 
Advantage, all in Sarasota.

But the ArtCenter exhibit is the first major gallery exhibit for the artists, 
who range in age from 22 to 60-plus.

"This is a big show for us," Henry said.

The pieces made by Easter Seals artists are priced from $50 to $300. They get 
about 25 percent of a sale price; the rest of the money goes back into the Art 
Initiative program.

"It's not a revenue-generating program," Henry said. "We depend on donations and on 
people to buy the art."

Cheryl and Nigel Frampton of Bradenton accidentally became patrons of the 
Easter Seals artists.

Last year, they went to an art show hosted by a developer, saw some of the 
paintings and ended up buying one.

"We didn't know they were done by people with disabilities," Cheryl Frampton said. 
"I was never a lover of abstract art, but I was so taken with the vivid colors."

The Framptons now have three paintings by Easter Seals artists hanging in their 
home and have watched the artists work in the classroom.

"Now we know that the paintings have meaning," she said. "We know the effort that 
goes into them."


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9587650/

Tuesday, October 4, 2005 The Morning Read: Eye of the beholder
O.C. photographer is curator of an exhibit by legally blind artists.

By LORI BASHEDA The Orange County Register

FROM AIDS TO ART: Kurt Weston of Huntington Beach is reflected in a self-portrait titled “Blind Vision 2003.” The Shared Visions 2005 Art Exhibition in Fullerton features work by 21 artists from around the country, including Weston, who lost his sight to AIDS.

Cindy Yamanaka, The Orange County Register MORE PHOTOS 


Before packing his belongings to leave Chicago behind and board a plane for 
California, Kurt Weston invited an astrologer to his home.

The woman, dressed in white to ward off evil spirits, spread out her charts and 
gazed into his future.

"She said, 'Honey, I see you going to California and becoming a huge inspiration for 
a lot of people.' "

That's odd, Kurt mused. I thought I was going to California to die.

The doctors said he had six months left. The pills he was taking weren't working anymore. 
The AIDS was winning. "Try to enjoy the rest of your life," they told him.

Kurt'sbrother, Paul, invited him to come live with him and finish his life in Brea. 
"The weather's nice," he offered.

That was 10 years ago. The doctors, it turns out, were wrong. The astrologer 
was right.

Not only did Kurt come here, but he has indeed become an inspiration to many 
people - most recently as curator of an exhibit by legally blind and totally 
blind artists. The show, which opened last weekend at the Southern California 
College of Optometry in Fullerton, features 21 artists, Kurt among them.

His death sentence has come and gone many, many times. But AIDS has stolen his 
sight. He is blind in his left eye and has limited peripheral vision in his 
right.

For the exhibit, he photo graphed a series of self- portraits that depict his 
emotional and often frightening journey into darkness.

"I basically see the whole world as an impressionist painting," he said at his 
home in Huntington Beach. He describes a person sitting two feet away as a flesh-toned 
blur with no eyes, nose or mouth.

It was 1991 when Kurt went to the doctor with a cough and a fever. He was 
diagnosed with AIDS. After surviving a bout of pneumonia, he returned to his 
life and his work as a fashion photographer.

In 1993 he took his mother to "Tommy," the rock opera about a blind pinball 
wizard. While watching the show he realized he could see his mother, on his right, but 
not the woman seated at his left. The peripheral vision in his left eye was gone.

"I suddenly realized, 'Oh my God, I'm going blind.' "

As the year wore on, Kurt's body fell apart. Pneumonia set in, and purple lesions appeared 
everywhere to announce it. "They were on my face, my nose, the roof of mouth," he said. 
"People would look at me and say, 'Oh my God, what's wrong with him?' "

By '95, doctors told Kurt the virus attacking his eyes was resisting all drugs 
and would soon spread to other organs; he had maybe six months to live.

"I knew what they were telling me was not a lie, but something deep inside my soul didn't let 
me go there." Maybe that's why, after selling his condo and most of his belongings, he took 
his cameras to California. "I thought, 'Who knows? I'll just take them in case something great 
happens.' "

And something great did happen. Three months after arriving he learned he had 
won a lottery to get an experimental treatment with one of the first protease 
inhibitors.

By that point, he says, his left eye "was basically dead" and he was legally 
blind in his right eye. Still, his health began to turn around.

He started going to the Braille Institute in Anaheim to learn the things he needed to remain independent, like getting around with a cane. He also got involved with the Asian Pacific Crossroads, a club for Orange County gays. 

After learning Kurt was a photographer, club organizers asked him to shoot 
models for two of the months in a fund raising calendar.

"Yeah, but I'm blind," Kurt remembers telling them. 

After some thinking, he took the challenge. Realizing he could still take a picture 
"was absolutely shocking," he says. When they saw his work, he was asked to 
shoot the whole calendar.

In 1999, the Braille Institute invited Kurt to be in a show of blind artists at the Anaheim Art Museum. 

His work has since been shown at the Berkley Art Museum, San Francisco City 
Hall and a national exhibit of blind artists at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 
He recently sold several pieces to the Houston Museum of Fine Art.

This spring, Kurt went for an eye exam at the Southern California College of Optometry. 
They had just finished remodeling and the walls were bare. "I said... 'Why don't you 
have any art on the walls?' "

Rebecca Kammer told him the remodel broke the bank. Kurt suggested an exhibit 
of work by blind artists.

"Can that be done?" she asked.

And so started The Shared Visions 2005 Art Exhibition. Kurt and the staff put 
together a jury. They selected 45 paintings, photos and mosaics by 21 artists 
from around the country.

It took Kurt eight months to put together his work for the show. Five of his 
black-and-white photos are on display, depicting the psychological and 
emotional struggles of going blind. Each shows the shadow of his face pressed 
against glass, which is streaked and blurred, as darkness encroaches.

Kurt works in his garage, which he has turned into a makeshift studio and darkroom, using sheets and lighting and sinks. 

To see what he is doing he must hold a specially made magnifying glass thicker 
than a slab of steak up to his eye and then lean in to practically touch the 
image he wants to see.

"They're visually intriguing," he says of his work, "but they're not happy subject 
matter."

His portfolio won him one of only 10 spots this fall in Cal State Fullerton's 
graduate program for fine arts. His partner Terry Roberts, a former Wells Fargo 
vice president who also has AIDS, drives him to class.

Kurt, 47, is determined to earn his master's. He hasn't had infections for years. But his 
"good" eye continues to fail and will eventually go dark.

"I have a very deep respect for what I have left," Kurt says. 

"As I look through this distorted diminished vision, I can't escape it."


Shared Visions 2005, funded by Very Special Arts California, will be on 
exhibit for one year at the Eye Care Center at Southern California College of 
Optometry at 2575 Yorba Linda Blvd., in Fullerton. For more information visit 
www.letsgoexpo.com/art.cfm


http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=48002
(excerpt)
An Arizona State University lab aims to help the blind do something even the sighted 
can’t. Scientists at the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing, or CUbiC, 
are developing a pair of gloves that would take just seconds to create a virtual 
object for the wearer to feel after a spoken or gestured command.


http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2005/sep/sep30/news11.php
(excerpt from article)
Looking for Amitabh

A film by Meenakshi Shedde will be screened at the Hall B at 3.30 p.m. Amitabh Bachchan is the biggest superstar of India's Bollywood cinema, with millions of fans around the world. But how is the idol of such a visual medium received by the blind? It is an unusual film that evokes Amitabh through senses other than vision – such as hearing, smell, touch, and instinct – through the testimony of his blind fans. One person interviewed explains that "Even before Amitabh speaks, I can recognize his shoe voice," while another identifies him by "the unique sound of his breath, as in Agneepath and Shaenshah." The film is not only the presentation of these fascinating interviews, but also an invitation into the world of the blind. 

It employs techniques such as speckled darkness or blurred shots as distinctive 
visual signatures for individual blind people to convey the visually 
paradoxical notion of darkness being alive.


(perhaps off subject, but thought it would intrest some)
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/oct32005/state194932005102.asp
A blind-folded peek into a special world 


http://www.vsrc.uab.edu/deafblind/documents/Callforart2006.pdf

DIVISION ON VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS A Division of the Council for
Exceptional Children UAB Vision Science Research Center Worrell Building #110 C 924 South
18th Street Birmingham, Alabama 35294 1-866-975-0624 - Fax 205-934-6722
e-mail Rsanspree@xxxxxxx TO: Superintendents of Residential Schools
Special Education Coordinators Deaf-Blind Project Directors Teachers of
the Visually Impaired FROM: Rachel Sanspree Coordinator, Helen Keller
International Art Show Committee Carol Allison Chair, Helen Keller
International Art Show Committee DATE: August 2005 RE: 2006 Helen
Keller International Art Show Salt Lake City Edition This is a call for
the Helen Keller International Art Show sponsored by the Council for
Exceptional Children Division on Visual Impairments and the University
of Alabama at Birmingham Vision Science Research Center. This
invitation is for youth who are visually impaired, blind, or deafblind
to submit artwork. Students may select the preferred art medium. The
contest is open to students of all ages. Each school system may submit
up to seven pieces of art. The winning entries from the international
contest will be exhibited, beginning with the CEC International
Conference in Salt Lake City, April of 2006. The purpose is to promote
an awareness of the abilities of persons who are visually impaired,
blind or deafblind. Please submit art work by January 14, 2006 along
with the student information form that can be downloaded from the
website Pathfindersofal.org. Helen Keller International Art Show “Salt
Lake City Edition” Rachel Sanspree UAB Vision Science Research Center
Worrell Building #110 C 924 South 18th Street Birmingham, Alabama 35294



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