Multi-Sensory Approaches to Teaching Chemistry to Blind Students

ILAB’s Cary Supalo will present “Multi-Sensory Approaches to Teaching Chemistry to Students with Blindness or Low Vision” on Tuesday. Aug. 31 at 3:00 p.m. in room 339 Fawcett Hall at Wright State University.

The Independent Laboratory Access for the Blind (ILAB) project, based at Pennsylvania State University and sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Research in Disabilities Education program, is developing a suite of talking and audible laboratory tools to foster hands-on, independent, multi-sensory learning experiences for students with blindness or low vision. Through a partnership between ILAB and Vernier Software & Technology, most Vernier laboratory probeware is now capable of communicating information in speech or audible tones. This was achieved by interfacing Vernier’s Logger Pro data-collection software package with the Job Access for Windows with speech (JAWS) text-to-speech computer screen reader application. This interface was made possible through new JAWS script files, designed by the ILAB team. The interface utilizes a series of hot key strokes to obtain real-time probe readings, access to statistical information, data table navigation, and more. Also developed by ILAB, through the Electronics Shop in the Chemistry Department at Penn State, are several hardware devices, including a submersible audible light sensor (SALS), color analysis laboratory sensor (CALS), and scientific talking stopwatch (STS). All these tools have been field tested at 12 mainstream high schools and one residential school for the blind across the U.S.

Tools to be demonstrated at this presentation include the SALS and the JAWS/Logger Pro interface utilizing a Vernier temperature probe and motion sensor. The JAWS/Logger Pro interface recently became commercially available from Independence Science LLC. Other ILAB tools are in the commercialization process.