notes made during the workshop:

• accessibility of art/museums/galleries
• how to engage multiple senses for those with different impairments and those without impairments
• tactile works- 3D? How can we make 2D works (i.e. pictures/books) more accessible?
• watch that speaks- tells you the time, watch that is tactile- you can tell the time by feeling it
• paperless braille memo pad systems- has memory and can be connected to a PC for reading or storing notes
• braille has limitations- education needs to learn it and use it
• computers have made things more accessible, but to get qualifications in other languages you still need to learn braille
• braille requires more space than text and specific printing techniques- meaning it is more costly and less accessible
• we need to make braille/sign language/deaf-blind sign languages more widely available for everyone to learn so that it is easier for impaired/disabled people to get on with their lives
• translating the visual information into tactile information can be difficult- can we do this the opposite way round or is it better to give both equal importance at every stage?
• using disability as a framework to develop better educational systems
• translation as an act of creativity, using creativity to solve communication issues- there will always be more than one interpretation or version
• when translating visual information into tactile information how to you put across the emotions/feelings?
• light as heat- rather than seeing it it can also b felt, modern lighting gives off less heat than before, and makes less noise than ol fashioned lights
• engaging other senses- not just sight and touch in artworks- this can benefit more than just disabled/impaired people
• layering sounds/smells/textures/air/temperature/light/ect

This workshop was fascinating- I have been saying all this time that I want to make my work more accessible, and it was vital for me to learn what is can be like for people with impairments different to my own, so that I can be more considerate of this in my own work going forwards. It has made me think much more critically about the choices I make in my art, and making sure that my goal is genuinely to make it as accessible as possible, rather than just pleasing token people.