The Digital Futures Consortium at Harvard invites you to the final event in the 2018–19 Digital Futures Discovery Series, highlighting an experiential exhibition about the multisensory experiences of reading.
What did the last book you read feel like? By putting 3D replicas of books for blind and low-vision readers printed in the nineteenth century into your hands, "Touch This Page" presents a story about the diverse experiences of reading, allowing you to reflect on how touch, sight, and sound contribute to experiences of reading – historically and today.
Simultaneously, the story of these tactile pages guides you through a particular slice of disability history and current barriers to access understood through the principles of universal design. David Weimer joins us Tuesday to talk about this collaborative, multi-institutional endeavor. Until then, you can learn how to visit one of the four Boston locations or print the materials yourself at touchthispage.com.
David Weimer is Librarian for Cartographic Collections and Learning at the Harvard Map Collection. He is broadly interested in material culture and the stories we can tell with the interactions between people and objects. David has published articles in this vein on maps made for students with blindness and low-vision in the nineteenth century.