Throwback Thursday Object: Perkins-Binet Intelligence Test

Our object this week is an intelligence test adapted for blind students at the Perkins School for the Blind in the 1960s and 70s and published in 1980 by Dr. Carl Davis.  Intelligence tests have been used in schools since the early 20^th century to predict aptitude.  The black box includes all sorts of blocks and small toys that go along with various tasks the test asks the student to complete.   The science behind intelligence tests is complicated, but they try to compare the abilities of the test taker to other kids of the same age, and assign a score based on that comparison.  The available pool of students that were blind or visually impaired was never really large enough to allow test designers to establish what “normal” was, so these kinds of tests fell out of fashion.  But it is a good example of how researchers try to adapt materials developed for sighted learners to the blind community.  Ralph Bartley, our former head of educational research, told me that when he was at the Kansas School for the Blind, he would routinely add 20 points to any IQ score in a blind child’s file to get an accurate idea of the student’s abilities. 
Photos:  I included pictures of the black fiberboard box that holds the test components, a bag of blue wooden beads in different shapes, a toy coffeepot with lid, and a bag holding a small box, a pair of small scissors, and a plastic dog.
 Micheal A. Hudson
Museum Director
American Printing House for the Blind

Quick Tip: Six Little Dots. The tactile book entitled Six Little Dots encourages fingertip texture discrimination and exposure to spatial concepts, while also introducing children to braille dot positions and names.

Quick Tip: Enter the Unforgettable APH Star Video Contest!

Throwback Thursday Object: Student Speech+ Calculator

I’ve been writing these Throwback Thursday articles for several years now, but I’m always amazed at the classic items I have yet to cover.  Our object this week was introduced in 1978, a joint project between APH and Telesensory Systems, a leading accessibility technology firm founded in 1970 at Stanford University. The Student Speech+ Talking Calculator could speak twenty-four words, and was the first calculator to appear in the APH catalog.  It could add, subtract, multiply, divide, and calculate square roots and percentages.  The readout was a pretty small red LED display, but the buttons were designed in large type.   By comparison to modern voice synthesis on your cell phone—I’m talking to you Siri--the voice was highly electronic.  Telesensory designed the calculator, but it was almost identical to their own version from 1976, the Speech+, which came in brown rather than APH blue. Partial assembly was performed by APH, which also distributed the calculators. They sold originally for $455 and were available until 1982.

Micheal A. Hudson
Museum Director
American Printing House for the Blind

July 2017 APH News

http://www.aph.org/news/july-2017/ 

A Few of This Month’s Headlines:

 

• Indoor Navigation: The Next Frontier
• NEW! Six Little Dots - UEB, 2018; Protein Synthesis Kit; Match-It-Up Frames; and Slapstack Math (for iOS Devices)
• Order Fall 2017 Textbooks Now!
• Field Tests and Surveys
• “A Daring Adventure Awaits” at the 2017 APH Annual Meeting of Ex Officio Trustees and Special Guests!
• The APH Unforgettable Star Contest is back!
• Braille Badges Contest Begins This September
• Deadline Approaches for Tactile Illustrated Book Competition
• Tactile Town Helps Adults Learn Orientation and Mobility
• Treasure From the Migel Library
• Social Media Spotlight
• APH Travel Calendar and more…

Throwback Thursday Object: An Arithmetic Slate

Our object this week is an arithmetic slate from the 1930s.  This is a prototype, the final version was cast in aluminum and featured pentagonal holes.  Pentagonal arithmetic frames were originally developed at the Glasgow Asylum for the Blind in Scotland around 1829.  By turning a metal peg in place, numbers 0-9 and operators were represented.  APH began experimenting with different styles of arithmetic frames in the 1930s.  The frames first entered the catalog in 1935.  By 1937, however, the pentagonal frame was no longer in the catalog, in favor of a gridded frame, often called a “Texas Slate,” which used metal type cast with raised numerals.  A year later, APH introduced its version of the Taylor arithmetic slate, which used octagonal holes, but was similar in concept to the pentagonal design.  APH called its pentagonal slate, the “Bertha Shephard Slate,” but I don’t know who Miss Shephard was.
Micheal A. Hudson
Museum Director
American Printing House for the Blind

Quick Tip: Match-It-Up Frames. Match–It-Up Frames can be used by parents and teachers to custom-design activities addressing specific learning needs of students who are blind and visually impaired, as well as those with multiple disabilities.

Throwback Thursday Object: Celebrating Helen Keller

Our objects each week run from the humble to the sublime.  This week is a bit of both.  I was looking through our collection to see what we could feature in celebration of Helen Keller’s 137^th birthday on June 27^th.  This is a zinc embossing plate that we used back in 1957 to emboss a letter from Helen promoting the “Jewish Braille Review,” a magazine that the Jewish Braille Institute of America had begun publishing in 1932.  It was a contract job the Printing House did for the Institute, but it also shows how supportive Helen Keller was of all sorts of social causes.  That was the humble part and here is the sublime.  Most American only think of little Helen at the water pump, but her adult life was so much more interesting.  She lent her name and her influence to a variety of causes, here just promoting a braille magazine.  I encourage everyone to read one of her modern biographies this week and remember her as a fighter for labor, for equal rights, and for social justice. Photo Captions:  #1, Zinc Embossing Plate used in a clamshell press to add braille to a print reproduction of a letter by Helen Keller. #2, Copy of the original letter by Helen Keller promoting the Jewish Braille Review 
Micheal A. Hudson
Museum Director
American Printing House for the Blind