Tzipporah.Benavraham@f608.n107.z1.fidonet.org (Tzipporah Benavraham) (11/14/90)
Index Number: 11709
10/29 0736 WORLD'S FIRST ATLAS FOR BLIND COMPLETED IN
AUSTRALIA
Canberra (oct. 29) - the completion in Australia of the
world's first atlas for braille readers represents a major
breakthrough for visually impaired students, the minister for
administrative services, Nick Bolkus, said today.
Speaking at the launch of the second volume of the
"Tactual Atlas of Australia -- people and industry," Bolkus
said the world first is the result of successful cooperation
between the Australian surveying and land information
group (auslig) and the visually impaired community.
He said the second volume of the atlas is an important
reference work providing an overview of Australia's population
and industries.
Using the atlas, the braille reader can interpret the
distribution and characteristics of Australia's population,
and its agricultural, mining and manufacturing industries.
Bolkus said at a time when the debate about infrastructure
is so critical to the direction Australia is heading, he is
pleased the atlas includes information on contemporary
communication and transport.
He noted that it also includes maps of the european
exploration of Australia. based on auslig's "atlas of
australian resources," it provides the braille reader with
access to information previously only available to the sighted
public.
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