{"id":36650,"date":"2024-10-10T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=36650"},"modified":"2024-10-21T11:01:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T15:01:02","slug":"visionary-technology-exploring-eyeglasses-and-impairment-in-the-nlm-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2024\/10\/10\/visionary-technology-exploring-eyeglasses-and-impairment-in-the-nlm-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Visionary Technology: Exploring Eyeglasses and Impairment in the NLM Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachael Gillibrand, PhD, will speak <\/a>on Thursday, October 17, 2024 at 2:00 PM ET. This talk will be live-streamed<\/a> globally, and archived<\/a>, by NIH VideoCasting<\/a> and live-streamed on the NLM YouTube Channel<\/a>. <\/em>Dr. Gillibrand is a Lecturer at the University of Leeds.<\/em> Circulating Now interviewed her about her research and <\/em>upcoming <\/em>talk<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Circulating Now: <\/strong>Please tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do? What is your typical workday like?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Rachael Gillibrand: <\/strong>I\u2019m originally from Blackpool, though I moved to Leeds for university and never really left! After doing an MA in medieval studies, I completed a PhD exploring assistive technology<\/a> from 1400 to 1600. I spent a couple of years teaching at Aberystwyth University before landing my current role as a lecturer at the University of Leeds, where I split my time between the School of English and the School of History.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s really no such thing as a \u2018typical\u2019 workday for me! I juggle teaching courses on health, the body, and identity, with research into the history of bodily augmentation and technology. Coming from a working-class background myself, I\u2019m also passionate about improving access to Higher Education, so I\u2019m involved in initiatives to make university life more accessible and inclusive. It’s a balancing act, but I love the variety!<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>Your talk, \u201cVisionary Technology: Exploring Eyeglasses and Impairment in the NLM\u2019s Collections<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0explores works as early as the 13th\u00a0century. How do these texts inform our understanding of disability in the past?<\/p>\n

RG:<\/strong> When I talk to people about disability in the Middle Ages, there\u2019s usually an expectation that life must have been terrible. People often imagine the medieval period as the ‘Dark Ages’\u2014where everything was backward or stagnant\u2014and subsequently, people with disabilities must have been doomed to suffer. However, the historical sources tell a much more layered story. People\u2019s experiences of disability were just as diverse as the individuals themselves. A person\u2019s access to treatment, assistive technology, and social care could be determined by factors such as their gender, economic status, family connections, what kind of work they did, and\u2014most importantly\u2014their personal choice. It was well understood that there wasn\u2019t a \u2018one-size-fits-all\u2019 approach to disability, even back then.<\/p>\n

CN:<\/strong> You\u2019ve developed a collection of materials in the Medical Heritage Library space called Ocular Aids<\/a>. Tell us a little about this project and it came about.<\/p>\n

\"Title<\/a>
The Eye, Its Refraction and Accommodation: A Brief Description of the Mechanical Conditions Which Make Spectacles a Necessity<\/em>, 1889
National Library of Medicine #68020660R<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RG: <\/strong>The Ocular Aids<\/em> collection was something I developed during my time as the ‘Jaipreet Virdi Fellow in Disability Studies’, which was an amazing opportunity offered by the Medical Heritage Library (MHL). The goal of the fellowship was to use the MHL\u2019s digital collections to create something that would make primary source material on \u2018Disability and Technology\u2019 accessible to the public.<\/p>\n

When people think about historical assistive technology, their minds usually go straight to things like crutches, wheelchairs, or prosthetic limbs\u2014understandably, since those are the most visible. However, there\u2019s already quite a bit of literature out there on these items, so I thought, why not shift the focus to areas that don\u2019t get as much attention? That\u2019s how I ended up building collections around ocular aids (like eyeglasses), dental aids, and hearing aids. These technologies have such rich histories, but they\u2019re often overlooked in public conversations about disability.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>In developing this collection and researching your forthcoming book, is there a particular primary source you found surprising, illuminating, or moving?<\/p>\n

RG: <\/strong>One of the things that has completely fascinated me is the representation of spectacles in medieval religious imagery. You wouldn\u2019t think to see saints, apostles, or clergy members wearing eyeglasses in medieval paintings and illustrations, especially since many of these figures lived long before spectacles were even invented.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
St Mark wearing spectacles from a 15th century French book of hours
Courtesy British Library, Yates Thompson MS 5, f. 12r<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking at these images got me thinking\u2014why would artists choose to depict these figures with spectacles? Did they symbolize wisdom, learning, or something else altogether? Spectacles in these images are one of those quirky details that just stops you in your tracks when you first see it, and then opens up a whole world of questions about how we associate certain technologies with status or knowledge\u2014both in the past and today. These kinds of images show how shows how visual symbols were being used to communicate something more about the figure\u2019s authority or their role in society.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>How does exploring the history of ocular impairments and the treatments and technologies developed to address them help us understand disabilities today?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A History of Spectacles<\/em>, ca. 1890
National Library of Medicine #101312907<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RG: <\/strong>Exploring the history of ocular impairments and the treatments or technologies developed to address them really broadens how we think about what counts as a ‘disability’. Today, we don\u2019t really think of something like age-related presbyopia<\/a> (when your near vision starts to blur as you get older) as a disability because we\u2019ve got glasses, we can enlarge text on our phones or computers, we have good lighting, and there\u2019s a whole range of options like audiobooks or large-print texts that make life much easier. But when you think about someone living centuries ago, before glasses were common or affordable, the same condition could have been really limiting. Losing your ability to read or do close-up work, which was vital in many professions, could have had a huge impact on your daily life, employment, and subsequently, your independence. It makes you realize that what we classify as a ‘disability’ isn\u2019t static\u2014it changes depending on the resources and technologies and attitudes of a particular society.<\/p>\n

Watch on YouTube<\/h3>\n