[bksvol-discuss] Re: OT: NASA Unveils Cosmic Images Book in Braille for Blind Readers
- From: Grandma Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:42:35 -0800 (PST)
That sounds neat. Wouldn't it be wonderful if
picture-book publishers would do the same thing,
maybe with a key at the beginning of the book that
would relate textures to colors. Then even if a blind
child or person had never seen a color he/she could
imagine what it looked like and know that the
illustration had differences. And if someone had
synesthesia,maybe they would smell different odors
from the different textures.
Perhaps one or more of you creative people could form
a publishing company and get publishers' permission to
publish their books that way? When you make your
millions from going public you can offer me one-half
of one percent for the idea and encouragement. smile
G.Cindy
--- Carrie Karnos <ckarnos@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Since this is available through the NFB and other
> sources, and because the pages have different
> textures, it doesn't look like a good candidate for
> Bookshare, but I thought that some people might be
> interested in it. If anyone does get it, please let
> me know what you think. (I'm a big astronomy buff).
>
> Just an FYI, Carrie
>
> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> NASA UNVEILS COSMIC IMAGES BOOK IN BRAILLE FOR BLIND
> READERS
>
> BALTIMORE - At a Tuesday ceremony at the National
> Federation of the
> Blind, NASA unveiled a new book that brings majestic
> images taken by
> its Great Observatories to the fingertips of the
> blind.
>
> "Touch the Invisible Sky" is a 60-page book with
> color images of
> nebulae, stars, galaxies and some of the telescopes
> that captured the
> original pictures. Each image is embossed with
> lines, bumps and other
> textures. These raised patterns translate colors,
> shapes and other
> intricate details of the cosmic objects, allowing
> visually impaired
> people to experience them. Braille and large-print
> descriptions
> accompany each of the book's 28 photographs, making
> the book's design
> accessible to readers of all visual abilities.
>
> The book contains spectacular images from the Hubble
> Space Telescope,
> Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope
> and powerful
> ground-based telescopes. The celestial objects are
> presented as they
> appear through visible-light telescopes and
> different spectral
> regions invisible to the naked eye, from radio to
> infrared, visible,
> ultraviolet and X-ray light.
>
> The book introduces the concept of light and the
> spectrum and explains
> how the different observatories complement each
> others' findings.
> Readers take a cosmic journey beginning with images
> of the sun, and
> travel out into the galaxy to visit relics of
> exploding and dying
> stars, as well as the Whirlpool galaxy and colliding
> Antennae
> galaxies.
>
> "Touch the Invisible Sky" was written by astronomy
> educator and
> accessibility specialist Noreen Grice of You Can Do
> Astronomy LLC and
> the Museum of Science, Boston, with authors Simon
> Steel, an
> astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
> Astrophysics in
> Cambridge, Mass., and Doris Daou, an astronomer at
> NASA Headquarters,
> Washington.
>
> "About 10 million visually impaired people live in
> the United States,"
> Grice said. "I hope this book will be a unique
> resource for people
> who are sighted or blind to better understand the
> part of the
> universe that is invisible to all of us."
>
> The book will be available to the public through a
> wide variety of
> sources, including NASA libraries, the National
> Federation of the
> Blind, Library of Congress repositories, schools for
> the blind,
> libraries, museums, science centers and Ozone
> Publishing.
>
> "We wanted to show that the beauty and complexity of
> the universe goes
> far beyond what we can see with our eyes!" Daou
> said.
>
> "The study of the universe is a detective story, a
> cosmic 'CSI,' where
> clues to the inner workings of the universe are
> revealed by the
> amazing technology of modern telescopes," Steel
> said. "This book
> invites everyone to join in the quest to unlock the
> secrets of the
> cosmos."
>
> "One of the greatest challenges faced by blind
> students who are
> interested in scientific study is that certain kinds
> of information
> are not available to them in a non-visual form,"
> said Marc Maurer,
> president of the National Federation of the Blind.
> "Books like this
> one are an invaluable resource because they allow
> the blind access to
> information that is normally presented through
> visual observation and
> media. Given access to this information, blind
> students can study and
> compete in scientific fields as well as their
> sighted peers."
>
> The prototype for this book was funded by an
> education grant from the
> Chandra mission and production was a collaborative
> effort by the NASA
> space science missions, which provide the images,
> and other agency
> sources.
>
> For more information on NASA's Great Observatories,
> visit:
>
> http://www.nasa.gov
>
>
> -end-
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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