astronomy for the blind?

[jnb]

I was running a session with a school yesterday and one pupil in the planetarium was vision impaired. When I asked the teacher it turned out he could see but nofurther than a few cm in front of him.

How would you help him access the session?

[ChrisLX200]

For the totally blind you could use a 3D printer to create some relief images, Moon craters, Saturn, Constellations, sunspots - all sorts of stuff. Someone that can see - even if only a short distance in front - then an iPad displaying the items of interest may help?

ChrisH

[Putaendo Patrick]

It's certainly not impossible, and there are quite a lot of useful resources on the Internet.

See for example: http://astronomerswithoutborders.org/gam2013/programs/1319-people-with-disabilities-astronomy-resources.html

and also: http://www.perkinselearning.org/scout/teaching-astronomy-students-visual-impairments

Apparently NASA have even produced a book of Hubble photos in Braile!

[Pete Presland]

Maybe some samples of meteorites,  also the live meteors radio broadcasting.  Although not sure how active this would be between showers.

http://www.livemeteors.com

[Linda]

A few cm in front of him is very limited. I have seen a person, almost blind, who could look at a big computer screen, displaying characters in supersize format and sitting 10cm from the screen. He could read a news paper that way. I think he put the item under a sort of live scanner that displayed it onto the screen.

With this boy, I guess you best bet is indeed braille for pictures and telling stories about astronomical theory. There is lots of stuff to tell about the universe that should be interesting even without the pictures. And when telling about a certain type of galaxy, you could perhaps show a picture to the class and describe it in words for the boy.

[rockettsue]

I have never heard of sites in astronomy for the visually impaired. Fantastic! My eyesight is slowly  deteriorating so its great to know I will be still able to look to the stars

[Owmuchonomy]

I have friends who have two children with Bardet Biedl syndrome.  The son is very severely sight impaired as a result.  We have tried a few times in the obsy but he cannot manage an EP but he can see screens close up.  I am therefore going to try live capture of the moon with my ASI174MM with @JamesF oaCapture and my Macbook for him.

[Putaendo Patrick]

On 19-10-2016 at 19:33, ChrisLX200 said:

For the totally blind you could use a 3D printer to create some relief images, Moon craters, Saturn, Constellations, sunspots - all sorts of stuff.

The Observatory at the University of Valencia, Spain, have produced a 20cm diameter 3D model of the Moon:

http://observatori.uv.es/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1467%3Adiscapacitados&catid=60%3Aactividades-divulgativas&Itemid=98&lang=en&limitstart=7

At the bottom of the page (in English) there's a link to Amelia Ortiz who will send you the file, which can then be apparently produced at any 3D printing service.