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  • Facilitating Art Access for People with Visual Impairment
  • Harriet Dunn (bio)

On 8 June 2016 David Feeney, Lecturer in Disability and Education at Liverpool Hope University, organised an event for a group of German head teachers who were in the UK, which also included a visit to the Faculty of Education at Liverpool Hope University. This particular event took place in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, which proved to be a suitable environment to discuss access to art education for individuals with visual impairments (VI). A key purpose of the seminar was to focus on VI and how this can have an impact upon an individual’s ability to engage with art education.

The session began with an exploration of the practice and theory underpinning the provision of art access for gallery visitors with VI. Dr Feeney explained that during his work in Scotland, he found that when individuals with VI visited a gallery, and were given the opportunity to play a greater role in the perception and interpretative process, then they often enjoyed the experience more than when they took a backseat role and had to rely upon the descriptions provided by the gallery staff. For many individuals with VI, the reliance on gallery staff’s descriptions is undesirable, since any description may be regarded as subjective, yet individuals must accept this, alongside what they perceive with their remaining vision. However, as well as the opportunity to have the artworks described to them, there may also be the opportunity for individuals to touch artworks. The “objects which are available to touch will often be accompanied by Braille labels, specialist audio-guides or large print leaflets” (Candlin 130). Each of these formats enables the individual to take an active role in engaging in the artworks in a similar manner to their sighted peers. In essence, this allows a relationship to be developed between touch and meaning. It was interesting to learn that several of the participants in the session had not considered that it would be possible for individuals with VI to visit and engage meaningfully within the gallery setting, especially given that touch is usually forbidden within this environment. [End Page 245]

The concept of aesthetics was then discussed. Emphasis was placed upon the Aristotelian view that “beauty is a blind man’s question,” which rests upon the assumption that due to a lack of sight, individuals with VI are unable to appreciate the world around them, including works of art. This links with the notion that blind people cannot appreciate beauty in the same way as their sighted peers. Furthermore, individuals who are blind are thought to be unable to force their way into the realm of aesthetics, which suggests that the use of touch is not sufficient to appreciate works of art. This implies that individuals with VI must be prepared to use their other senses, such as touch, where the gallery permits, in order to feel the contours of sculpture or texture of a painting. Discussion took place surrounding the notion that museums are very visual places that often discourage touch, and yet the use of touch can correct the misconceptions of vision and can give individuals more accurate information by employing senses beyond sight. This particularly interested me, since in my own PhD research thus far I have found that the learning students undertake within the museum/gallery setting can influence that which takes place in the classroom. However, on a recent visit to another art gallery in Liverpool, many of the artworks consisted of paintings or objects of a two-dimensional nature. There were also a few sculptures on display, some of which had a white line in front of them, preventing people from touching the exhibits. For many individuals with VI, this would do little more than discourage them from visiting the gallery. In contrast, those sculptures with no restrictions on touching presented a great opportunity to gain a much fuller experience of the exhibit, through engaging the contours and detail, which would not have been possible using sight. This enables me to refer to the view that all senses are important for creativity, which moves away from the previously discussed view held...

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