Gaia Squarci. Broken Screen

Fotografie di Gaia Squarci

“Quando stai perdendo la vista, il mondo inizia ad apparire frammentato come attraverso uno schermo rotto”

Dale Layne

In the hall of the Whitney museum for the Verbal Description and Touch Tour of the Biennial 2012. The tour allows the blind and visually impaired to experience art pieces using senses other than sight. Tours for the blind are organized in many museums in New York, but there’s room for improvement. Suggestions from those on the tour included audio-tour radios that can be used with no need to push the numbers, and more contrasty and bigger wall texts placed at eye-level that are easier to read for someone who is visually impaired. New York, NY. April 27, 2012

I ciechi vivono in un mondo che vede. Operano in un sistema costruito sulle regole del vedere.

Molti di loro hanno potuto vedere, ma dopo essere diventati ciechi sono stati costretti a reinventarsi e la loro qualità di vita ha iniziato ad essere profondamente condizionata dalle norme sulla disabilità, dal necessario sostegno nella sfera privata e dal livello di consapevolezza che la società che li circonda ha della loro condizione.

New York, 23a strada. Visions è un’agenzia no profit che offre aiuto e riabilitazione alle persone cieche o ipovedenti.

Esiste dal lontano 1923, anno in cui sei donne compresero per la prima volta la necessità di dare aiuto concreto a chi, perdendo la vista, ha la necessità di reimpostare da zero la propria vita.

Oggi è una realtà di riferimento che collabora con enti e istituzioni.

Nel 2012 ha inaugurato il primo senior centre degli Stati Uniti per anziani ciechi o affetti da patologie visive.

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Michael Faillace, a blind lawyer, swims daily in Asphalt Green, a swimming-pool in the Upper East Side. He says the contact with the water helps drain the stress of his job. New York, NY. October 19, 2012

Robert Brown, Dale Layne and Cynda Bellamy at the movie theater before the beginning of Cloud Atlas. Robert recently became visually impaired, Dale , (on the phone) is completely blind, and Cynda, sighted, is the recreational specialist at World Services for the Blind. Although few movie theaters are equipped with bluetooth devices providing a description of the scenes for the blind, most of them are not, and they rely on the audio input from the movie and hints from the ones who are sitting with them. Action movies can be especially frustrating, for the presence of long action scenes with no dialogue and a powerful music, that necessarily require visual preception for spectators to follow the thread. Little Rock, Arkansas, January 5, 2013

Harold, who doesn’t want his last name to be public, is pictured sitting in his living room. New York, NY. July 3, 2013

Students enrolled in the Older Blind Program at the World Services for the Blind (WSB) learn how to use an iPad. The WSB is a rehabilitation center for the blind and visually impaired which offers life skills and career training programs designed to help students achieve sustainable independence. Little Rock, AR. January 5, 2013