Reading by Touch: Learning from Tactile Print

About

An online symposium on the history and uses of tactile books for blind readers.

Before the widespread adoption of Braille in the early twentieth century, blind and seeing readers were exposed to a variety of tactile writing systems—embossed or raised print, touch art, and tactile maps. Offering ways to read through fingertips rather than eyes, new possibilities and expectations for literacy emerged. This virtual symposium—which brings together scholars, archivists and collectors—asks: how did blind communities envision their books in the past and what can we learn from them in our present? What new forms of critical design emerged and might continue emerging in the spirit of collective access? Presenters will attend to the ways the many iterations of tactile print inform the techniques of printing and binding, early histories of education, practices of archival preservation, and the challenges of describing and categorizing these plentiful but often unaccounted for tactile materials both in the classroom and for the larger public.

Presenters:

• Laken Brooks (Ashe County Arts Council)
• Amanda Stuckey (Central Penn College)
• Erica Fretwell (University of Albany)
• Neil Weijer (Bryn Mawr College)
• Taylor Hare (Baylor University)
• Clare Mullaney (Clemson University)
• Erika Piola (Library Company of Philadelphia)
• Jen Hale (Perkins School for the Blind)
• Susanna Coit (Perkins School for the Blind)
• Sarah Prentice
• Sari Altschuler (Northeastern University)
• David Weimer (Newberry Library)
• Vanessa Warne (University of Manitoba)

This event is organized by Neil Weijer, Clare Mullaney, and Taylor Hare.