Outreach

INAOE and the Laboratory of the Invisible sign a collaboration agreement

Santa María Tonantzintla, Puebla, May 26, 2023. With the aim of working together on the development of projects that bring science closer to people with blindness and low vision and the deaf community, on this day the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electrónica (INAOE) and the Laboratorio de lo Invisible collective signed a collaboration agreement.
Present at the protocol ceremony were doctors Edmundo Antonio Gutiérrez Domínguez, General Director, and Francisco Javier Renero Carrillo, Director of Academic Training, on behalf of the INAOE, and on behalf of the Laboratory of the Invisible, the social anthropologist and visual director Moisés García Rojas and the photographer and visual director Dana Albicker Mendiola.

Also present at the signing of the agreement were Dr. Bertha Patricia Guzmán Velázquez, head of the Project Liaison and Management Office; Lic. Miriam Verónica Cuevas Cortés, in charge of the Office of Educational Innovation and Teacher Training, and Lic. David Méndez Munive, head of Teacher Training at INAOE, as well as Mtra. Janina Nava Ariza, from the Project Liaison and Management Office.
Dr. Edmundo Antonio Gutiérrez Domínguez highlighted the relevance of this type of agreement, which allows scientists to work in favor of communities with disabilities in our country.
For his part, Dr. Francisco Renero Carrillo reported that a few months ago, INAOE's Office of Educational Innovation and Teacher Training began to develop training strategies for the visually impaired community. This agreement, he indicated, is in fact the formalization of a previous rapprochement with the Laboratory of the Invisible.

Lic. Miriam Verónica Cuevas pointed out that the origin of this effort dates back several months, from the concern to bring the issue of the eclipses of 2023 and 2024 closer to blind people. She said that the Laboratory of the Invisible has a broad perspective on how to approach the work with the materials based on the needs of the community. Likewise, she stressed that in recent weeks some activities at the INAOE were organized with the Laboratory, such as a visit to the Schmidt Chamber, the narration of a story with sign language and the exhibition of a film. Finally, she announced that the INAOE will soon publish a magazine in braille and video capsules.

For her part, Dana Albicker commented that the Laboratorio de lo Invisible has its origins in the Cine para Imaginar project, created by Jorge Lanzagorta (who is also the founder of Topos FC), as his thesis project at Ibero to make cinema accessible to People with disabilities. “At Cine para Imaginar we have worked for more than ten years for accessibility in Mexican cinema. We have screened films in many countries and in most states and there we realized that we organized the shows and blind people did not come. That is why we started working on public training. We generated a series of workshops in which there was an approach to cinema and art and photography and from there the Laboratory was born. The Laboratory is this project in which people can tell their stories using audiovisual tools such as cell phones and cameras that we all have, and we began to collaborate alongside the deaf community by making films in sign language. There have always been people with disabilities working on this and based on their needs we began to build the projects. Many networks have been generated in Puebla”.
To conclude, it was agreed to integrate these activities into events that are scheduled in the city of Puebla in June.