Guide Entry to 25.04.08
When my sighted students imagine a life without vision, they are filled with pity and fear, imagining a life where they can’t travel, can’t make art. But this is not accurate to the life of blind people, and this perception is fueled by ignorance about blind artists and blind wayfinding. Accident, illness, or age is likely to visit disability on all of us; this curriculum seeks to help students understand disability as part of the vast array of human experience.
Students will learn about how blind people navigate space, and will be exposed to the work of artist Carmen Papalia. Students will understand this space to be the product of design, which can be re-designed to be made more accessible using Universal Design Philosophy. Students will explore this design process by making their own tactile maps that reflect their understanding of space in a non-visual way. Students will relate the concept of maps to blind wayfinding to understand that every one of us has a relationship to space and a relationship to art, regardless of ability.
(Developed for Art I, grades 9-12; recommended for Art I-IV, grades 9-12)
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