HR: 1330h
AN: ED22A-1228    [PDF]
TI: Making Astronomy and Space Science Accessible to the Blind and Visually Impaired
AU: * Beck-Winchatz, B
EM: bbeckwin@depaul.edu
AF: DePaul University NASA Center, 990 W Fullerton, Suite 4400, Chicago, IL 60614 United States
AU: Hoette, V
EM: vhoette@hale.yerkes.uchicago.edu
AF: Yerkes Observatory, 373 W. Geneva St, Williams Bay, WI 53191 United States
AU: Grice, N
EM: ngrice@mos.org
AF: Boston Museum of Science, Science Park, Boston, MA 02114 United States
AB: One of the biggest obstacles blind and visually impaired people face in science is the ubiquity of important graphical information, which is generally not made available in alternate formats accessible to them. Funded by NASA's Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science (IDEAS), we have recently formed a team of scientists and educators from universities, the SOFIA NASA mission, a science museum, an observatory, and schools for the blind. Our goal is to develop and test Braille/tactile space science activities that actively engage students from elementary grades through introductory college-level in space science. We will discuss effective strategies and low-cost technologies that can be used to make graphical information accessible. We will also demonstrate examples, such a thermal expansion graphics created from telescope images of the Moon and other celestial objects, a tactile planisphere, three-dimensional models of near-Earth asteroids and tactile diagrams of their orbits, and an infrared detector activity.
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting