(YouTube Link)
NASA worked with Braille experts to create a tactile representation of the Carina Nebula:
The 17-by-11-inch color image is embossed with lines, slashes, and other markings that correspond to objects in the giant cloud, allowing visually impaired people to feel what they cannot see and form a picture of the nebula in their minds. The image's design is also useful and intriguing for sighted people who have different learning styles.
"The Hubble image of the Carina Nebula is so beautiful, and it illustrates the entire life cycle of stars," says Mutchler, who, along with Grice, unveiled the tactile Carina image in January 2010, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. "I thought that people who are visually impaired should be able to explore it and learn from it, too."
Link via Fanboy
If only others in authority would stop purposefully hurting the disabled. This example is really horrific -- special needs and minority students were Tasered by a cop in class 'demonstrations' repeatedly for months. And the school principal and teachers watched and did nothing. The cop kept picking on the same children, who did nothing wrong. The Tasering was so bad that the cop put newspapers on the floor where the kid would fall, anticipating the student would urinate and defecate when Tasered. Unbelievable! Our vulnerable populations keep getting abused. Ethic Soup blog has a good post on this at:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2010/01/special-needs-kids-tasered-by-cop-in-class-demos-not-once-not-twice-but-three-different-times.html