2009 WINNERS

The 2009 Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation was awarded to Jeffrey Killebrew for his submission, "The System for Conceptualizing Spatial Concepts," also known as (SC)².

Killebrew using the device in his classroom

(SC)² is an instructional tool for individuals who are blind that provides equal access and participation in science, math and related coursework. By utilizing a system of beveled and magnetized wooden blocks affixed to a magnetic white board, (SC)² allows blind individuals to spatially arrange, manipulate, and calculate complex mathematical and scientific formulae by simply inserting 3 x 5 cards that students have brailled with values and labels of each term in a Janus slate. It allows blind individuals equal access and participation in the classroom while encouraging higher order thinking and greater scientific and mathematical literacy for blind students.

Jeffrey Killebrew is a Science Instructor at the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Alamagordo, New Mexico. In addition to being a Science Instructor, Mr. Killebrew is a licensed Special Education Teacher, a licensed Teacher of the Visually Impaired, and a certified Assistive Technology Instructor. He developed this system for his students when they were having difficulty understanding spatial math problems in his chemistry class.

2008 WINNERS

National Braille Press would like to thank all the applicants for the 2008 Louis Braille Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation. The Prize was established, with support of The Gibney Family Foundation, to identify and inspire innovation in the field of tactile literacy for blind people.

After careful deliberation, the adjudication committee has announced that no winner was chosen for 2008.

2007 WINNERS

The 2007 Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation was awarded to Karen Gourgey and Steven Landau for their submission of the Talking Tactile Tablet.

The Talking Tactile Tablet is an inexpensive and simple computer peripheral device that acts as a viewer for tactile diagrams, maps, and illustrations. Users place one of many overlay sheets on the Talking Tactile Tablet device and can explore a graphic using touch sense and/or vision. Dr. Gourgey and Mr. Landau have created a library of software programs for the Talking Tactile Table system, all promoting tactile literacy.

Click here to load the Talking Tactile Tablet Video

The recipients presented their device at a symposium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on October 25, 2007.

Dr. Karen Gourgey comes from a teaching background, having taught English at the high school level for some three years, and then served as an instructor in the Columbia Teachers' College Department of Special Education, where she received her doctorate in 1983. In that same year, she began as the Director of the Computer Center for Visually Impaired People (CCVIP) at Baruch College, City University of New York.

Steven Landau is Director of Research at Touch Graphics, Inc., a company Mr. Landau founded in 1997 for the purpose of commercializing research on audio-tactile interactive computing, to create new products for the blind and low vision markets. The company has been the recipient of numerous US government R&D grants, and has brought to market a Talking Tactile Tablet (TTT), a low-cost computer peripheral device that acts as a "viewer" for images produced in tactile (raised-line and textured) format. In 2006, the TTT won a Gold Medal in the IDEA Awards competition.