ARSAD 2019

“Describe the
Moon to Me”
Describing science for the blind and
visually impaired
 Ivan Borshchevsky
Accessibility Division Manager in RuFilms, LLC
Ivan.borsh@gmail.com
 Astronomy for the blind
• Access to the information available to the sighted
people
• Curiosity (how do planets look like?)
• Professional blind and visually impaired astronomers
 Solutions
• Sonification or how to listen to the Music of Spheres
(Musica Universalis)
 More solutions
• Tactile star charts
The last but not the least…
• Audio description
 International experience
• Audio description of documentaries, sci-fi films, etc.
• Live audio description of the solar eclipse in the USA
 Our experience
• Audio description of documentaries, sci-fi films, etc.
• Live audio description of the full lunar eclipse and
favourable opposition of Mars on June 27, 2018
• “Astronomy for the Blind” project at astrotime.ru
 First challenges
• AD guidelines say, “Describe what you see”

But what do you actually see?

 Shakespeare was right
• O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circle orb…
 Solutions
Describe the object from different points of view
• Naked-eye observation
• Aided-eye observation
• “Visitor’s” observation
 Example
• The moon is the second brightest object in the
earth's sky after the Sun. Many details of the lunar
surface are clearly visible to the naked eye, that is,
without the use of magnifying devices such as a
telescope and binoculars.
• The colour of the moon surface mainly depends on
the content of iron and titanium. Its surface has a
brownish-gray or blackish-brown colour.
 What else?
• While describing planets, include description of
different phases (exception: live events)
 Example
• The moon looks different on different days of the
month. Its appearance depends on the phase: for
example, the new moon is not visible in the sky; the
young moon and the old moon is visible in the form
of a narrow sickle; first and last: a half of the moon is
seen (looks like a semicircle).
Use metaphors and similes
• Fairy tales say that the Moon is made of cheese.
Indeed, the surface of the satellite resembles
cheese with "holes" of craters.
More metaphors and similes
• Face on the Moon
 Face on the Moon
• The left" eye " of the moon is a Sea of Tranquility
(Mare Tranquilitatis). The right " eye " is the Sea of
Rains (Mare Imbrium), and the nose between them
is formed by the Sea of Serenity (Mare Sereniatis)
and the Sea of Vapors (Mare Vaporum).
 Live audio description of
lunar eclipse
• Live audio description (in text) on our Facebook
page
• The text was shared by a dozen of readers
• 30% of the readers
didn’t have any visual
impairment
• Positive comments
What’s next?
Thank you for your kind
attention