Author: NEHA DESHPANDE
Affiliation: INTER UNIVERSITY CENTRE FOR ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Country: INDIA
Co-Author(s): SAMEER DHURDE
Affiliation: INTER UNIVERSITY CENTRE FOR ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Country: INDIA
Title: Understanding perspectives and mapping a path to inclusion for students with and without visual impairment
We describe an exploration of how people with and without visual impairment perceive the Universe (in the astronomical domain) and how this leads to better understanding of the requirements of particularly the visually impaired (VI) when we seek to develop outreach resources to introduce equity and inclusion in education.
We present a small survey, of the change in outlook towards Astronomy, owing to the senses of perception. This includes some answers from young adults with varying degrees of visual impairments regarding their understanding of concepts like the sky, light, shadow, Sun, Moon, stars, seasons, motions of the Earth etc.
It is realised through our analysis that sighted persons look at the bigger picture first and then discover the details (Top-Down), whereas a VI person usually starts with the details using tactile senses and goes on building the bigger picture (Bottom-Up). This revelation, among many others, is now an integral part of our design process for any resource.
It is also found that the scope of Astronomy is limited and not everyone finds it relevant or instantly interesting. However, many times VI astronomy outreach resources are oriented towards presenting the speciality of their supporting academic groups rather than to fit into any relevant, big picture. Our interactions with our VI target group shows that the way to link astronomy with their daily life, is to connect it to Geography. We present our experiences making tactile maps and globes which serve as inclusive resources in classrooms. Once a learner is comfortable with the basics of such maps, more details, including astronomical context, can be added as layers. These are made to aid learning without much dependence on a teacher and in an enquiry based manner.