Visually impaired people rely mainly on written and oral linguistic resources for information and learning. It is true that digitisation provides a much wider wider access to texts, but the difficulty relating to " verbalism " remains and is a constraint upon the delivery of pertinent information to people with severe sight loss. Physical, social and cultural barriers limit close contacts with elements of form in everyday and out-of-the-ordinary contexts relating to both the present and the past. However, skills for spatial organisation have been widely evidenced also in the absence of sight. This has led the " Centre National d'Etude et de Formation pour l'enfance inadaptée (or "National Learning Centre for Children with Special Needs") and the " Cité des Sciences" (the French Science Museum) to develop a cognitive, educational and technical reflection on tactile images.
The museum, which has 30000 m² of exhibition space, opened in 1986. Its mission statement clearly indicates that it should be accessible to all types of audiences, including disabled people. This why, since nearly 20 years, the Accessibility Unit raises awareness of, develops and integrates inclusive solutions to each project and event for all types of impairment: mobility difficulty, learning difficulty, hearing impairment, as well as visual impairment.. Two and three dimensional tactile elements complement audio and gestural presentations. They are integrated into the exhibition design, with the objective of ensuring that visually impaired visitors can access content in a coherent way.
The CNEFEI: applied research into tactile imagesThe Centre National d'Etude et de Formation pour l'Enfance Inadaptée ("National Learning Centre for Children with Special Needs") is responsible for the pedagogical and technical training of teachers in France who specialise in "special needs education". Applied research has been carried out into tactile images for fifteen years, among others :
Workshop Level 1 (two days) : understanding codes of representation
Three dimensional representation, using technical drawing : this projective mode works as follows :
1) A technical drawing of an orinary cup or mobile phone allows everybody to form a mental representation of its volume and associate with it the geometrical aspects modelled by the combination of the 3 views. The shapes and and the proportions articulate among themselves and the volume is accurately perceived.
2) Three views or projections are necessary to express all geometric features of an object. The thre views of a house are being clearly related to a three dimensional model of it. All major elements are being represented and explored: the proportion, the prismatic shape of the roof, the gable, the positions and forms of the openings and the chimney.
This is followed by a number of exercises with lego pieces. By undertaking various architectural compositions, an understanding of architectural rotations is facilitated. An understanding of the orthogonal projections provides a visually impaired person with an unequalled source of knowledge. It offers the possibility of representing every type of object, real, imagined, past, present and futuristic with a high level of structural reliability.
Workshop Level 2 (two days) : representation of the human body
The possibilities of technical drawing can be widely exploited through a number of supports and activities. Frontal views and profiles of female and male bodies are being related with three dimensional articulated puppets, then with two dimensional representations. The axes of rotation and the articulations are represented with small circles on the drawing.
Jiggsaw puzzles of body parts, faces and profiles are being used by every participant to construct immobile and moving characters. Participants freely mime their constructions and those of others.
Once these preliminaries have been practiced, Cyril Gouyette, Accessibility Officer at the Louvre Museum very effectively shows some Egyptian scenes. The classical Egyptian representation - frontal view of the body; profile of head and feet; become concrete reality for the participants.
This is followed by the exploration of scenes from the Olympic games depicted on Greek vases in a tactile book published by the Louvre - they represent athletes performing various sports activities, their postures and their props. The hands explore this book with interest!
After a detailed exploration of sculptures which represent a wide variety of bodies and body postures, the students draw those of their choice. This exercise involves the participant in a process of transposing a volume into two dimensions, this raises questions and leads to solutions. Most participants have never previously had an experience of representational drawing. Their drawings usually shows a understading of body shapes (or "morpholigical logic") and a concern for representing detail according to one way of projection.
Workshop Level 3 (two days) : the expressions of the face
Again, technical drawings are used as a structuring principle for representation in this thematic progression:
Phase 1 : looking at typical faces: they are drawn in frontal view and profile.
Phase 2 : The 6 universal expressions of Eckman are represented and the relation is established with the muscles needed for the movements of the different parts of the face. Each set of drawings shows a specific expression of the face and the muscle that provokes it, both in frontal view and profile. Personal tactile explorations which are extéro et proprioceptives corroborate the reading. Exercises for constructing faces with magnetic pieces make it possible to combine the eyes that correspond to the mouth that expresses joy, terror, disgust, anger or sadness.
At this stage, the Louvre museum introduces the classical academic rules of Lebrun, which marked the Western sculpture and painting until the 20th century.
After having explored a great number of sculptures representing various expressions and ages, each participant is provided with a proportional tactile tactile grid borrowed from Durer (famous German Renaissance painter) and pratice representational drawing.
As the workshop introduces tactile caricatures, with examples drawn from Leonardo da Vinci and classic French cartoons, there is surprise and smiles abound.
Our training in tactile graphic communication is aimed at promoting a tool for knowledge and descriptive enquiry for people with severe sight loss. This method of global analysis of the space allows users to build three dimensional mental representations, sequentially using two and/or threedimensional tactile explorations. The use and dissemination of tactile graphics which take into account a potential of graphical skills opens up access to a quality of pertinent knowledge which words only cannot transmit.
This is why a few cultural institutions are developping editions for sight and touch in France. The " MONUM ", the organisation in charge of the historical monuments has just published a tactile book on the " Sainte-Chapelle " (a great gem of Gothic art in Paris), the Louvre museum has published 4 works in the collection " Un autre Regard " (" Another way of Seeing) and the " Cité des Sciences " has published its 7th tactile book in the series " A voir et à toucher " (" For sight and Touch ") in 2004. Four of these works are bilingual French / English. We are keen to work with partners internationally on the the joint publication and distribution of similar books.
In 2006, we will publish a tactile and colour contrasted version (for partially sighted people) of public transportations map of Paris and the region. The "Institut de la Ville en Mouvement" - a reaserch on urban mobility - has just launched visitor information panels representing an accessible cultural place in Paris.
