[Nfb-science] STEM Accessibility Research

[Hayden Dahmm]

Hello everyone,
 
I’m a rising sophomore at Swarthmore College, where I intend to major in Environmental Engineering.  Although I’ve been legally blind from birth, I lost all functional vision only a year ago. I’m perfectly fine with this change, but I’m still developing the techniques for accessing visual content in my engineering courses.  Currently, assistants take lecture notes, create tactile diagrams, and serve as scribes for problem sets.  This has worked well enough, but I would appreciate any suggestions on how I could increase my independence.
 
Also, this summer, I’m researching in the Swarthmore Engineering Department on ways of making STEM subjects more accessible to the blind, with potential collaboration with labs at Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania.  Our work has three foci…
 
1.) Developing models specific to my fall classes.  For electrical Engineering, we will use K’NEX to illustrate circuits.  For Chemistry and Calc 3, we might use 3-D printing.
2.) Studying/applying data sonification.  We plan to use quadraphonic headphones paired with a joystick to interrogate spatial data using ChucK.
3.) Developing refreshable, tactile displays.  We might try creating embossed images with new Piezo actuators or a modernized version of the Optacon.  As a short term solution, we also plan to work on an IOS app that could take in a diagram and vibrate when the user's finger crosses a line.
 
I would love to hear any thoughts you might have on my research topics.  I would be glad to give more info if anyone is interested.
 
Best regards,
Hayden
hwdahmm at live.com
610-405-0098