Sunday, August 26, 2012 9:14 PM EDT

By ROBERT STORACE STAFF WRITER

They said the show was awful, said Grice, 49. It caught me off guard. I didnt realize astronomy was not accessible until that group pointed it out to me.

From that moment in Boston, Grice has been on a mission to make astronomy accessible to everyone including the hearing and visually impaired, those with mobile impairments and neurological disorders. She went on to write five tactile books all touchable about astronomy for the visually impaired. Her book Touch the Universe was the first book in braille ever on Amazon.com.

Last month, Grice, who was raised in Walden, Mass., published her sixth book: Everyones Universe: Second Edition as a guide for educators to better teach those with impairments and disabilities about astronomy. The book is $27.95 and as available at Barnes & Noble in Farmington and at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

The first half of her 336-page book deals with how educators can better communicate with their students. For example, there is a section on working with the visually impaired. Grice notes there are several things educators can do to help that part of the population learn about the world of astronomy, which is the study of places beyond the earth, such as stars, planets and moons.

I write about how to pictorially describe images available through the telescope and ways to provide a tactile tour of the telescope, she said. I also explain how to enlarge images from the telescope to the monitor, which will make it more accessible for someone with low vision.

She also worked with the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford in offering educators ideas on how to better teach the hearing impaired about astronomy.

The second half of the book is a guide to accessible astronomy destinations. There are none in central Connecticut and the closest one is at the Western Connecticut State University Observatory Planetarium in Danbury, she said.

They have tactile images available to accompany planetarium shows, she noted.

View original post here:

Author makes astronomy accessible to the visually and hearing impaired