Homepage • Forum • Contact • Website2006 • Links • Nucleus-asso.org FR

		Visual Handicap

France | Marocco | Hungary | Poland | Visual Handicap
Hearing Handicap | Motor Handicap | Socio-Educational Handicap

Marseille 2006 : ENVISAGE - autoportraits
LAS : Sculpture-Modelling Workshops
Partners : Arc-en-Ciel Regional institute for the young blind and amblyops


Marseille 2005 : ENVISAGE - autoportraits
LAS : Sculpture-Modelling Workshops / Writing Workshops
Partners : Arc-en-Ciel Regional Institute for the young blind and amblyops
Exhibition of the creations : Parcours de l'Art (Avignon)


Marseille 2004 : MAINS TENANT
LAS : Sculpture-Modelling Workshops / Writing Workshops
Partners : Arc-en-Ciel Regional Institute for the young blind and amblyops
Exhibition of the creations : Espace Culture (Marseille)

"BEING VISUALLY IMPAIRED"

by Caroline Le Sauter
Teacher of young children with special needs
ENVISAGEurope Conference - Alcazar Town Library - Marseille November 2006


"Being visually impaired does not imply not being able to see anything. It does imply a quite different way of absorbing and restoring what is around.
Fancy that, being able to see only day and night or contrasted colours (blue and red, but not orange or green), not being able to see on each side or in the middle... Looking at the world this way, produces an altered image of it and consequently involves a perception quite different from that in which we, sighted people, have built ourselves.

Being visually impaired thus requires a different perception of the world not only through the remaining vision but also through the representation of the surrounding space (just imagine going around Marseille without being frightened when a noise suddenly bursts behind you). It requires walking at a slower pace too, for the surrounding elements are mostly visual (80% of the information). As a result, more time is needed to decipher information (but where is the chemist's !?). Consequently, other senses like hearing and touch develop, and become much more important than we can imagine, to eat, dress, and walk.

Being visually impaired involves a different self-perception and self-conscience. Either at birth or at one moment or another in life, being able to see oneself in a fragmented way only results in a different apprehension of oneself (perhaps more mental than physical) and in a different presentation of oneself to the world.
Actually, the visually impaired have their own body movements, they hold their head in a specific way, and walk awkwardly sometimes. But how could it be otherwise when you do not see the steps to climb or the eyes to put make up on?

Being visually impaired involves learning 'to do differently' to be like most of us.
What the ENVISAGE project makes us see and touch, is the union between eyes and hands, a subtle mix of visual and tactile perception. It makes it possible for young people to associate an everyday gesture (touch) to an artistic approach. It gives them the opportunity to follow their own rhythm and to find themselves through clay.
Enlarging that dialogue to other perceptions, different or not - the ENVISAGE project calls to other publics too, different from the young visual impaired and amblyops - does not only help children to express themselves, but also to progress in the building of their identity and the knowing of their personality.
As a conclusion, it seems important to me to underline that the ENVISAGE project allows each person to have his place next to the other, where the young and the adults help each other and everyone's speech and gesture are equal."