Opening the Doors to People with Blindness or Low Vision

by Shirley Confino-Rehder, cid, affil. aia

Docent, Muscarelle Museum of Art

College of William and Mary

Chair, Norfolk Mayor’s Commission For Persons

With Disabilities

Introduction

Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that public accommodations, such as museums, make reasonable modifications to ensure that their facilities, goods, programs, and services are accessible to people with disabilities. Programs must be in an integrated setting or a setting that ensures equal opportunity for participation and enjoyment, unless it is an undue burden or that a fundamental alteration to the program would result.

This guide addresses creating tactile presentations of art in museums for visitors who are blind or have low vision, within an integrated setting, with a financially and easily achieved accommodation. These presentations can be a tool to open the doors to an exciting and wonderful experience that will be positive and rewarding for both you and your visitor. It is the right of everyone to enjoy art to the fullest of one’s ability and in his or her own way. And what better venue than a museum setting to help create these experiences can you think of?

Millions of people with disabilities regularly travel and visit museums. There are almost 16 million persons who have sensory disabilities (loss of hearing or vision). This program will encourage new visitors, properly address Title III of the ADA, and enrich the museum experience

A brief history.

My name is Shirley Confino-Rehder and I am a certified interior designer (cid) in Virginia. My passion is to create ways for everyone to take part in what this wonderful world has to offer, to the best of their ability. An advocate of Universal Design and the American With Disabilities Act, I am also a firm believer that financial feasibility and simplicity are critical elements in selling an idea and having it implemented. The roots of this tactile art program actually started while I lived in Italy and noticed tactile signage and images in churches and museums. A friend in Milan, who is an architect with much experience in working with the blind and people with low vision, introduced me to several processes of creating tactile symbols and images. Returning to the States as a retired designer, I trained to be a Docent of the Muscarelle Museum on the campus of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. I very quickly realized that there was no way for someone with low vision or blindness to enjoy what our museum had to offer. I decided to do something about it.

Starting out using puff paint, I created tactile copies of a variety of paintings and gave tours to people who were blind or had low vision. Each session proved to be successful and an overwhelming experience for all of us. I realized that if this process were going to reach a larger audience, I would have to explore different mediums of reproduction and teach others about it. Gail Henrich, a teacher to blind students, introduced me to Swell Paper and a heat resolution tactile copier. The process was easy to do and is currently being used in schools and some museums around the country. The down side is the expense of purchasing the machine, the cost of the “paper”, the tactile image is not as good as it should be, and the resolution isn’t permanent. The cost is less that other methods, but when done in quantity, can be expensive. Each sheet cost about $1.00 and the small desktop machine, as of this writing, is about $1500.

The production manager at the American Printing for the Blind told me about using computer graphics. With this method, line drawings are created using a simple computer art program and then transmitted to the American Printing for the Blind, resulting in a clean tactile graphic, which can be reproduced ad infinitum, for a fraction of the cost of one on Swell Paper. Furthermore, there is no investment in a copier. This method is the one I am using now.

There are several forms of tactile images that are better, more accurate, on more durable surfaces, than the one you are about to learn, but the cost of making the molds and the copies, makes it very difficult to implement. I have included photos of other tactile examples so you will have some knowledge about them in case you are asked.

Let’s Start

Any project can be successful if it is understood, accepted, and easily learned and replicated. Training sessions for docents are approximately two hours in length, less for the artist. This guide will first review the etiquette of talking to someone who is blind or has low vision, then how to look at art in a different way. In the practice session below I have included how to describe what you see succinctly. A review on how to describe color in a way that someone who has never seen color, or has forgotten their color experience, follows the practice section, so that your new visitor can experience what the artist is trying to say, in their own way.

Tactile Images are not enough. Accompanying the tactile graphics, you must have both Braille and audio descriptions. The script is basically the same as the tour. They should be simple, concise, but with enough information to achieve a total art experience. Without this, the graphics or tactile paintings will be senseless. There are several organizations that will do both forms of descriptions for you. All you have to do is write the script and do some research in your own community for who is able, and willing to do the transcriptions. Libraries with Special Services, Independent Living Centers, and the Lighthouse are just some sources that might make the copies for you. If you are unsuccessful locally, there is a wealth of resources on the Web.

1. Training the Docents and the Artists

“We tend to think of art experience in a visual way. We can see

parts of an art object, which are facing us, at the same time.

We see how the parts are related to each other and to the whole.

Though we tend to think of art in this spatial way, art also has a

temporal aspect. This is most obvious when we view large pieces

of sculpture or beautiful buildings. As we walk around the sculpture

or through the building, the parts reveal themselves sequentially,

as we move. Then the flow of the parts, one into the next, becomes

an important part of the art experience. There is both a static spatial,

and a flowing, temporal, aspect. For sighted people, the spatial

aspect of art seems to dominate the temporal aspect.

For blind people it is the other way around. The art object is

experienced as the hands and finger tips move over it, so

experiencing tactual art objects is primarily a temporal, sequential

one, and only secondarily spatial.”

Martha Pamperin

Hadley School for the Blind

A. Etiquette

Learning how to talk to people who are blind or have low vision will eliminate any barrier of discomfort or fear you may have conversing with someone who is unable to see. Below are some guidelines for your review. They are based on common sense and courtesy. I encourage you to read it several time until it becomes a natural instinct.

Asking the guest if they ever experienced color, or if they have any memory of images is not out of line or invading their privacy. You want to fill their need for a rich aesthetic experience. That is why they are in the museum. Allowing the guest to ask more questions allows the docent to give more detail. And, as professional docents, you will be prepared. Learning to listen to the cues of the guest who is blind or has low vision is an important part of the tactile experience. This open discussion creates a comfortable relationship between the docent and the visitor.

B. Selection of Painting and looking at it with a different perspective

Select a painting that will be a part of your tour and prepare your research as you would for any tour. It could be of any period, school of art, medium, or technique. You are going to learn a different way to experience the artwork, so you can discuss it differently. Experiencing your selected piece by using other senses than sight will add to your enjoyment and enable you to describe the painting in a comprehensible way to someone who may never have experienced color or has little depth perception. Learning how to look and describe, succinctly, a painting’s composition and emotion to reach senses other than sight is a challenge for most docents and takes practice. We, as teachers, know a lot and want to teach it. But sometimes, telling less is teaching more.

Identify the main theme/object of the artwork. Mentally separate the “fillers and staffage”, from the main object, subject, character. This requires practice but once you learn to see the main points, it is quite easy.

Think of sounds and smells that are in the artwork. Using musical notes, instruments, smell and sound effects also helps to reinforce the theme, location, unique scents of what we experience in the work of art. I dry freshly brewed tealeaves, and keep them in a closed container, using the incense when I think it will enhance the visitor’s perception of flowers and fruit. Start collecting other items that will enhance the experience of the art work you selected, such as velvet, fur, leaves, bark and grain.

Feel any movement in the brush strokes, color, space, composition, and line that the artist has given us to experience. Using musical rhythms, moving the arms and legs of your guest, with permission, will enhance the understanding of the movement you see and feel.

C. Describing Color

Color can be experienced when you describe it in music, emotion, temperature, and movement. Describing a color as “white as milk” doesn’t mean anything to some one who has never seen milk. Instead of identifying color by its name, like red or blue, using descriptive words and phrases, such as describing white as “cool” or a pause in a musical composition, red as “active, hot, or passionate”, blue as cool, passive, or quiet. I have included below hints on how Wassily Kandinsky associated color with music. This can serve as a springboard for your own language.

The following exercise will help you focus on the main object, and to describe it so your guest gains the experience and has the freedom to ask questions. You will need a pencil, paper, and if you can get it, some puff paint. This is usually sold for about $1.00 in craft stores and located in the section of fabric painting.

D. Practice Exercise:

  • Select a painting, look carefully at it and identify the important lines, images and details. Lightly pencil sketch out those main details on a large paper. Experience in drawing is not necessary. As an alternative, you may make a tracing from a photograph of the painting, if one is available. Allow yourself no more than 20 minutes
  • Return to your workspace and trace over the main lines of your pencil sketch with puff paint and let dry. Voila! You have a tactile drawing. Below I show my sketch of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa as an example because it is so recognizable by most everyone in the world. Note the simple detail of her hair, her facial features. I do not know if you can tell from this sketch, but I exaggerated her pupils and her lips to show that she is not looking directly at the viewer, and her expression is still a controversy. The diagonal line in the background was included because it shows that there is a landscape behind her. I could have eliminated it without losing its integrity as a tactile painting.
  • You do not have to be accurate in size or scale. Exaggerating major elements, such as her smile and pupil focus helps to tactically identify the critical features of the painting and understand the whole.

Figure 1: Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa (scr - Copy)

  • Practice describing the painting, in no more than five or six sentences. For example, when describing the painting in Figure 1, after identifying the name and date, medium, artist, and size, (and acquisition information) you can start by saying:

“In the center of the canvas is a female figure, in a triangular (pyramid) design, sitting calmly, upright, in a chair. The arm of the chair is visible

and is a dividing element between the Mona Lisa and the viewer. Her

folded hands form the front corner of the pyramid, symbolizing her virtue

and faithfulness, replacing a wedding ring. Her breast, neck, face and hands glow in light, creating a harmony of a circular visual sensation, framed by the darker elements of her clothing and hair. Only her gaze is fixed on the observer sideways, welcoming the viewer with a silent communication. This mysterious woman is painted as if she is a divine creature with a mysterious “smile”, causing speculation as to whether her mouth is forming a smile or frown.”

  • Starting to explore the piece of art with your visitor requires a very simple procedure. People who are blind are used to patterns. Their plate filled with food follows a pattern. I use the hands of the clock for the pattern of the tour. Asking your visitor what he/she is comfortable with will be your guide. Using the hands of a clock, the initial contact with the tactile piece will be to have your visitor place their hands at 12 o’clock, which is the center top of the canvas. From there, you can assist in the exploration by describing the lines they are touching as you go around to 3 o’clock, six o’clock, nine o’clock, etc. Your line might be complete or broken. As the visitor’s hands explore, you verbally direct the viewers hands and describe what the painting is about and what parts of the painting are being felt. You may, after asking permission, place the hands on the graphic tactile lines, explaining what you are doing and why.
  • After the initial description, you can elaborate and talk about the time of day, the setting, the historical content of the story, the artist, the gossip and the technique. Asking the visitor if there is any questions he/she might want to ask will give you more opportunities to add to the experience. Of course, as in any tour, you have to be prepared to answer the questions that might be asked.

People remember gossip, oddities, minute details that are not readily seen in the painting. It’s fun, captivating and creative. For instance, did you know that Leonardo did not name the painting, carried it wherever he went, and had it in France when he died? An Italian artist stole it out of France and gave it to Italy, where it remained for three years, and then it was returned and remains in the Louvre. Vasari named the painting fifty years after the artist’s death. Da Vinci painted with secrets surrounding his work. It was discovered that the veil, that is barely seen with the naked eye, and the size of her hands tell us that the seated figure was pregnant. There is still research being done on the painting. There is usually something very interesting to add to enrich your program.

Docent goals are to achieve a memorable experience. Now you know that there is more than one way to see a painting. Learning to describe differently is a challenge, but when learned, it becomes another great experience that you can share. Everyone wins. The description above did not describe color, only characteristics, shape, stance of the sitter, color description follows below.

E. Training the computer graphic artist.

A simple graphic art program will work. I use ArtRage. The artist must also learn to look at a painting as described above for the docent, eliminating all of the lines that are not the main theme of the painting, exaggerating lines that are important. Using the same example in Figure 1, the artist must remember that lines cannot be close together, and can be exaggerated to achieve the main characteristics. All lines must be clean; variation in density, pressure and dimension will give a variation to the line in the final product. I am working with the American Printing for the Blind. They will be glad to walk you through the process to meet their own requirements.

You might also have access to the Reprographic Machine that requires Swell Paper. This is a slightly different process, requires hand drawing over your line with a grease pencil. After doing your line graphic, whether free hand or fromthe computer, print out on Swell Paper. Then go over it carefully with a grease pencil, like a laundry pencil. You could use color. You then feed it into the special heat printer. The greased line expands when put through giving you a tactile copy. With both processes, all lines must be separated by at least ¼”.

2. The Tactile Image