Main Line Times Thursday, December 12, 1996

Woman helps visually impaired to better appreciate art

By David Block

How does one convey the richness and the technical mastery of a Renoir painting to a blind or visually impaired person? Descriptions are helpful, but it’s a rare critic or commentator who can provide a word picture that fully captures what’s on canvas.

Denise Lasprogata of Wynnewood is offering a computerized program at the Barnes Foundation that enables the blind and the visually impaired to better appreciate art through their senses of touch and sound.

Participants touch a tactile graphic. When they feel the touch pad, the computer indicates the dimension or part of painting they are feeling; Colors are indicated by symbol system, primarily circles of different sizes.

“It allows the person to have an outline of what the painting looks like and then be able to create or re-create that image,” Lasprogata says.

Repro-Tronics Inc. of Westwood, N.J. provides software for the program.

“It allows you to put sound into a type of document so that it can be more appreciated by a blind person,” says David Skrivanek, President of Repro-Tronics. “For example, if you put a particular picture of a body on there and touch the right arm, it will say, ‘Right arm.’”

Several months ago, Lasprogata gave a demonstration of the program to Barnes Foundation President Richard Glanton. He and other members of the Barnes board gave her permission to make tactile re-creations of the foundation’s paintings.

“I think it will allow for us to make available this great art to the visually impaired in a way that we would otherwise not be able to do,” Glanton says. “I think it will heighten the appreciation of great art in the minds of people who are visually impaired beyond what we ever could have dreamed years ago. …

“This technology ensures that the visually impaired will be included in the school visitation programs as well as other programs for making the collection accessible to the public.”

Lasprogata, a 23-year-old graduate of Vanderbilt University, is fully sighted herself, yet she is sensitive to the needs of the visually impaired.

“I originally started by creating a clothing label for visually impaired persons, trying to let them understand how their colors would be working together,” she says.

With a background in art history, she eventually became interested in providing visually impaired persons with better access to art as well. Repro-Tronics provided the necessary materials.

“We haven’t seen a cure for visual impairment,” she notes. “Visual impairment, whether you’re 5 years old, 80 years old, is always a possibility, whether it be from a car accident or from a disease. We need to understand and provide for those persons because one day, that may be our own situation.”