Leading the blind to the stars

Press, 5 August 1980, Page 17

Leading the blind to the stars

LIONEL WARNER, of the Auckland Astronomical Society, wrote this article for the American astronomical magazine, “Sky and Telescope,” and it has been reproduced for Braille Week. A blind listener to my Radio New Zealand programme “The Southern Sky” suggested the need for a “talking book” on astronomy. Arthur Lush, aged 92, was a retired university lecturer in engineering who had almost completely lost his sight. Without delay, the Auckland Astronomical Society arranged for me to undertake the project, in co-operation with the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind. The nature of the supporting illustration would determine how to present the subject on tape. So we first asked David Sherry, manager of the Foundation’s library, if he could emboss some of the charts, diagrams, and pictures in my earlier book “Astronomy for the Southern Hemisphere.” He produced a 41-page folio. To make the “stars” for the Pleiades and the Southern Cross he glued beads of different sizes to a master. By pressing this against a sheet of “brailon” thermoplastic in a special vacuum-forming machine, he made. bumps whose sizes roughly indicated the brightness of the stars. Grains of sand instead of beads were sprinkled across a master to portray the myriads of stars in the Milky Way.

The profile of ■ a solar prominence was made from cardboard cut to the appropriate shape. Cardboard was also used for the profile of a 60 mm refracting telescope. Rather than simply reading the book on to a tape, I interviewed several blind people first to determine how to present it best. I asked a young man, sightless from birth: “What is a star?” He replied: “A bright • object in the sky.” “But what,” I asked, “do those words mean to you?” “Nothing. Just words.” A young woman, also born blind, explained a star as a hot thing high above our heads, with spikes isticking out from it. Asked why she thought there were spikes, she replied: “I’ve handled plastic stars when decorating cakes. Those stars had spikes.” However, most blind people have had some years of normal vision and can remember the sun, moon, and stars as real objects. This experience gives them a good starting point for developing an interest in the night sky. Long discussions of suitable topics brought requests for scientific explanations of astronomical phenomenal, legends from ancient times, achievements of great astronomers, modern discoveries, the nature of the atom, and the long-term influence of research and exploration on human destiny. Many of those interviewed were eager to learn about nature’s handiwork on the grand scale. The project took six

weeks, of which eight hours was spent recording the tape. Edna Walton was a critical test. She had never been able to see, but as a child had received slight visual impressions and was brought up around sighted people to “think sighted" rather than “think blind.” - During a playing of the tape, we watched her fingers accurately and unhesitatingly explore the embossed illustrations of individual planets. After a few minutes she exclaimed excitedly: “This is a wonderful experience for me. I’m thrilled that the book is bringing the planets and stars to my fingertips.” She was particularly enthusiastic that this presentation requires no Braille,' which elderly people are sometimes reluctant to learn. The talking book is a cassette player fitted with a sturdy lever for starting, stopping, and reverse. Another lever controls volume. An announcement at the end of each track tells the listener to turn the cassette over to start the next track. Registered Foundation members can receive the cassette and illustrations on free loan. The first copy was lent to Mr Lush in February, 1978. For the remaining months of his life it brought him a great deal of intellectual companionship. During Braille Week, the Foundation will be displaying its achievements in downtown Auckland. At one table a blind girl will demonstrate the talking book on astronomy to many hundreds of visitors.