Oceanography at Their Fingertips

Students from the Perkins School for the Blind work with WHOI Ocean Science Discovery Center staff person Megan Harrigan this past spring. WHOI physical oceanographer Amy Bower was on a research cruise at the time, retrieving and deploying deep-sea moorings in the ocean east of Greenland. The students studied the moorings using diagrams created with a Picture in a Flash (PIAF) Tactile Image Maker, which allowed them to feel the moorings’ shapes and components. Bower, herself blind, is the founder of OceanInsight, an outreach program for blind and visually impaired learners of all ages. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)