An interactive installation for libraries that invites the public to decipher through touch a raised-print system invented by blind educator William Moon in 1845.

An interactive installation for libraries that invites the public to decipher through touch a raised-print system invented by blind educator William Moon in 1845.

Created by Teresa, The Moon Reader is a multimedia installation that invites participants to learn to read Moon — a raised-letter writing system for the blind invented by blind educator William Moon in 1845. Designed to be accessible to every reader regardless of visual acuity or impairment, the installation includes two handmade books: one set in Moon type with embossed illustrations, and a second book of translation set in both Braille and large print.

Modeled after 19th-century primers in the Michael Zinman Collection of Printing for the Blind at the Library Company of Philadelphia, The Moon Reader opens with the Moon alphabet, a vocabulary list, and a practice page, followed by four subject lessons: geometry, geography, botany, and astronomy. Each lesson is framed by a quote on the nature of perception from Anecdotes of the Blind, by Abram V. Courtney, himself totally blind, 1835. Courtney's observations challenge many misconceptions about vision and blindness — for example, "Color, it should be remembered, is nature's dress and not nature's self" and "Darkness for the blind holds no terrors." Each lesson also includes a tactile diagram and a brief story drawn from 19th-century accounts of blind people who accomplished extraordinary things — a surveyor who built roads and bridges, a mathematician who invented an early calculator.

The tactile activity — deciphering, translating, and finally comprehending — is intended as a serene act of discovery, eliciting curiosity, humor, and empathy while challenging assumptions about perception and sight.

Since 2014, The Moon Reader has traveled to libraries in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and remains available for loan.

The Moon Reader was created with support from the Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts.

Collaborators 

Katherine Allen · Frances Osugi · Lauren Pakradooni 

Partnerships 

The Library Company of Philadelphia · Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians · Second State Press · Venture Laser

Photos 

1. and 2. William Moon, A Simplified Alphabet for the Use of the Blind (Brighton, Sussex, 1893) · 3. The Moon Reader installation with reader · 4. Detail shows alphabet pages from both books · 5. Detail of page with embossed leaf diagram · 6. Exhibition opening with readers · 7. Pulling print of embossed crescent

Photo credit: Teresa Jaynes