On NPR’s Morning Edition, I heard a story about Noreen Grice, an astronomer at Boston’s Museum of Science and President of You Can Do Astronomy. She’s been writing and illustrating astronomy books since 1990. What makes these books cool is they are written, and illustrated, for the blind. The pictures are textured, so the blind can feel them.
Her most recent book, Touch the Invisible Sky:
has images taken by telescopes that detect things like radio waves, x-rays and gamma rays — the wavelengths of light that no one can see with the naked eye.
“I think we all have the same thing in common with this book,” says Grice. “No human can see these other wavelengths so we’re all approaching it together.”
As a middle-schooler, I thought I wanted to be an astronaut, a la Sally Ride. She was the first American woman in space, aboard Challenger in 1983. And while my career plans have changed, I still have an interest in astronomy. It had never occurred to me to wonder what resources were available for people with disabilities who share that interest. Noreen’s books enable other children to dream of being astronauts.
That’s one reason why Chelsea Cook, a high school student in Newport News, Virginia, got her family to drive four hours to Baltimore for the new book’s unveiling. She says Noreen Grice’s astronomy books are “really interesting, you know, the visuals are easy to read, and they’re just cool to look at.”
Cook says she has enough vision to see a full moon, but not stars. Still, she wants to study astrochemistry and astrophysics. And she’s fascinated by the idea of space exploration.
Her ultimate career goal? To become the first “blind astronaut.” It will be “a lot to work towards,” she says, “but I think it’s possible.”
NASA is making this book available for free to schools for the blind, as well as the Library of Congress. What a wonderful way to make science accessible for everyone.
–
Video credit: STScI and NASA
