Touch Democracy at the Obama Presidential Center
The Obama Presidential Center has an impressive array of tactile exhibits! Exploring the Chicago campus fills me with hope. May more cultural centers offer touch tours for blind visitors and all of us who learn through our hands.
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The tactile model of the Obama Presidential Center covers a large table. A park surrounds a cream-colored tower, its four sides gently curving, angling into sharp corners, and forming deep recesses, giving it a sculptural appearance. Haben Girma stands beside the table studying the tower with her fingers.
Haben: Touch democracy at the Obama Presidential Center.
Hundreds of colorful buttons line a curved wall. Along the wall runs a table that has buttons enlarged so that their raised text and images are easier to feel. Each one has a Braille sign, and Haben is reading the Braille.
Haben: Buttons made for the 2008 campaign. This one says, “I’m an Obama kid!”
She reads another sign with print and Braille.
Haben: Legislative branch, U.S. Capitol. Oh, wow! This is very cool! So we have a tactile model of it, of the building.
The exhibit also has models of the Supreme Court and White House.
Next, she reads a sign near a display showing mannequins wearing dresses.
Haben: Fabric swatches. Explore the materials fashion designers used to create some of Mrs. Obama’s iconic outfits. And there are three different textures here.
She touches the swatches beside the sign: Isabel Toledo’s yellow wool lace reminiscent of delicate Braille, Jason Wu’s red silk chiffon with a smoothness that delights the fingers, and Versace’s rose-gold, stunningly light and flexible chainmail.
Comic panels line a hallway.
Haben: Bo & Sunny outside looking at a turkey!
The two adorable Portuguese Water Dogs star in all the comics, which include brief visual descriptions.
Haben: So there’s Braille, so you can read what the dogs are saying in the comic. And then there’s the texture, where you can feel the outline of the dogs and their different activities.
Haben: The Oval Office.
She reads the raised map of the room. A tall grandfather clock stands nearby.
Haben: A lot of people have seen this room on television or in photographs. I have not had that kind of visual access.
The Oval Office has a white, gold, and red color scheme. An equestrian statue on a wooden chest of drawers, a photo of the Statue of Liberty’s torch, and couches appear along the perimeter. Near one end of the oval is the Resolute Desk, a large wooden desk with intricate carvings including the Presidential Seal. The Seal also appears on the rug in front of the desk, and behind the desk are the Presidential flag and U.S. flag. Haben has her Braille computer on the desk, and she is seated in a large leather executive chair. She speaks to Ginger Stanciel, and on Haben’s other side Mary Haile types what Ginger says so Haben can read it in Braille.
Haben: It’s powerful for a blind person to be able to feel a replica of the chair the president sits on or the desk that they use.