TEIRESIÁS: 
Kevin Carey, chair of RNIB, visits Masaryk University
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The Teiresias Centre at Masaryk University is honoured to announce that Mr. Kevin Carey, chair of the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and an adviser to the UK government, is coming to the University on 9–16 April, 2012. Invited on the initiative of the director of the Teiresias Centre, Mr. Carey is coming as a guest of the Rector, who will meet him on 10 April. During his visit, he will deliver a series of lectures called "Postmodernism and Blindness: From Conforming to Creating". |
Anybody interested is cordially invited to attend Mr. Carey's lectures.
The topics of the individual lectures:
1. To Create is Divine: Blind Children in a Postmodern World
(April 11 at 11.30 AM, aula no. 1, Faculty of Education of Masaryk University)
The ranking of the three curricula for blind children which are, in descending order, the standard school curriculum, the 'additional curriculum' of orientation and mobility and communications skills and the 'hidden curriculum' of social skills should be inverted. All children need to learn to create in a postmodern environment but In the education system there is too much emphasis on transformational or disruptive creativity and this particularly disadvantages blind children whose limited creative scope results from limited access to data.
2. The Art of Life: :The Training and Rehabilitation of Blind Adults in a Postmodern World
(April 13 at 9 AM, aula, Faculty of Education of Charles University)
The training and rehabilitation of blind adults in the modernist era concentrated on conforming to life and work patterns but the postmodernist era requires much more flexibility and creativity so that people can be normatively self-identifying but this requires a high degree of self-understanding.
3. Nice Work: Employment for Blind People in a Postmodern World
(April 12 at 3 PM, classroom S5, Teiresias Center of Masaryk University)
The employment rate of blind people in the modernist era, where the chief requirement was conforming to predictable systems, was never more than 33% in any country. Yet the crisis of unemployment will deepen in the postmodern era, which is much less predictable and relies upon flexibility, fluidity and creativity.
4. Virtual Powers: Information Technology and Blind People in a Postmodern World
(April 10 at 2 PM, classroom D2, Faculty of Informatics of Masaryk University)
The emergence of mass information and communications technology have presented blind people with a significant absolute advantage but a massive comparative disadvantage with their peers in the ability to access, process and create information; there is a particular problem with access to graphics in an increasingly image-dominated world.
5. Beauty and the Beast: Personal : Reflections on being Blind
(April 10 at 10 AM, aula, Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University)
Even if a blind person can achieve great results in his personal and economic life, there are terrible gaps which cannot be filled.
The language of the lectures will be English. The lecture "To Create is Divine: Blind Children in a Postmodern World" will be interpreted into Czech.
The Teiresias Centre is also organizing an accompanying programme which will include a city tour, concerts, a public reading from Mr. Careys works in the congress hall of the theatre Husa na provázku (Goose on String Theatre; in cooperation with the publishing house Větrné mlýny), a special tour of the Moravian Karst, and other activities.
About Kevin Carey:
Kevin Carey, blind from birth, graduated from Cambridge and Harvard. He is the founder director of humanlTy, a UK charity focusing on information and communication technologies, and social inclusion encompassing computing, telecommunications, and broadcasting. He is a member of the Ofcom Content Board, which regulates broadcasting, a National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts Fellow in accessible broadcasting, a strategic adviser to FutureLab, and an adviser to the UK government and the EU on accessibility policy. He is the chair of the Royal National Institute of the Blind and has been a trustee of the National Library for the Blind, participating in the Exlib and TestLab projects. A prolific writer (with more than 100 published papers) and lecturer, Carey edited the British Journal of Visual Impairment from 1995 to 2001 and currently writes for Managing Information and Ability Magazine. His interest in the questions of religion led him to studying theology: he is a licensed reader in the Church of England. He is a published poet, drama producer, chorister, and former classical music critic.
The visit is part of the project Operational Program Education for Competitiveness (Network of Expert Centres Providing Inclusion in Tertiary Education ExpIn; CZ.1.07/2.2.00/29.0010) and its main aim is starting an expert cooperation between the Teiresias Centre and the RNIB with regard to providing services for blind university students and general accessibility of study and research environments.
For further information please contact the event manager Lenka Juřenová (jurenova@teiresias.muni.cz).
Česky