Allow me to extend a warm thank you to you for selecting this mini-course! Whether you are an art educator, artist, patron of the arts, and/or someone stepping into art for the first time, Teaching Visual Art to the Visually Impaired is for you.
Visual art — painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, fiber art, mosaic, and more — need not be for sighted individuals alone. And, if an artist is visually impaired, this does not mean that artist can only work in sculpture or other 3-dimensional, hands-on media.
When we expand art beyond the visual — also bringing in sound, smell, tactility, and as many senses as we can — art can become more accessible, regardless of vision status.
Upon completing this mini-course, you’ll gain key strategies and doable action steps to improve BVI (blind, visually impaired) accessibility in your visual art classroom and/or studio.
Teaching Visual Art to the Visually Impaired has been designed for two major audiences (which may overlap):
#1: Professional Visual Arts educators who are seeking to better support BVI (blind, visually impaired) students and/or artists striving to take visual arts classes and improve their artistic skills. Content provided in this course can be applied to students in K-12, higher education (HE), and adult continuing education settings.
#2: Individuals with visual impairments wanting to learn more about adaptive art materials and studio practices. This course also provides information on accessible, tactile-focused art materials, studio modifications, and famous and successful artists who experienced vision loss.
Learning Objectives – Teaching Visual Art to the Visually Impaired, Strategies for Creative Classrooms:
1. Understand different degrees of vision loss or visual ability (totally blind, legally blind, low vision, sighted), and strategies for taking each unique vision situation into account.
2. Gain a greater understanding of famous artists with vision loss, including figures from art history (Picasso, Rembrandt, etc.) and contemporary artists with vision loss or total blindness.
3. Learn how to provide detailed verbal descriptions of artworks and adaptations of visual art techniques.
4. Gain understanding of strategies for setting up accessible visual arts classroom and studio spaces.
5. Learn techniques for addressing limiting beliefs that may be held by students and teachers by broadening the scope of artistic disciplines and definitions.
6. Explore examples of artworks by student artists who are blind or visually impaired; learn different types of art materials, techniques, and modifications that focus on multi-sensory aspects of art beyond vision.