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CORVALLIS - John Gardner, a professor of physics at Oregon State University, was awarded the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division Award at the annual conference of the Special Libraries Association.

The award recognizes Gardner's significant contribution to accessing the literature of physics, astronomy, and mathematics, through his work in development of technologies in the Science Access Project at OSU. Gardner has developed technologies that promote accessibility of electronic information by people with print disabilities, including low vision, blindness, and dyslexia.

The Special Libraries Association, headquartered in Washington, D.C, is the international association representing the interests of thousands of information professionals in 60 countries. It offers a variety of programs and services to help its members serve their customers more effectively and succeed in an increasingly challenging global information arena.

Products developed through Gardner's program include the Triangle, a computer program for reading and doing science and mathematics; the accessible graphing calculator, which can display graphs or other sets of data both visually and audibly as a tone graph; and the Tiger printer, which prints computer text in Braille and can also emboss graphics. This technology substantially expands the availability of scientific information to researchers and students with visual and learning disabilities.

Gardner, an internationally recognized physicist, began the Science Access Project at OSU after losing his eyesight in mid-career due to complications from glaucoma.