Author: Nicolas Bonne
Affiliation: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth
Country: United Kingdom
Co-Author(s): Coleman Krawczyk
Affiliation: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth
Country: United Kingdom
Cordi Scott
Affiliation: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth
Country: United Kingdom
Jen Gupta
Affiliation: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth
Country: United Kingdom
Karen Masters
Affiliation: Haverford College
Country: United States of America
Title: The Tactile Universe Project – Engaging the Visually Impaired Community with Accessible Astronomy Research.
Astronomy is a topic that engages a wide range of audiences with science, yet due to the very visual nature of the subject, the visually impaired community can often find it difficult to access it through traditional means. Furthermore, it can be particularly challenging to find suitable educational resources for teaching astronomy to those who are visually impaired. These factors results in the number of visually impaired professional astronomers being extremely small. The Tactile Universe [1,2] is an on-going public engagement project based at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation. Our focus is on creating accessible activities and resources that will enable members of the visually impaired community to engage with current research topics within astrophysics and cosmology, with an emphasis on inspiring and raising the aspirations of school students. We are also changing attitudes towards and inclusion of visually impaired people in the academic and science communication sectors through consultancy and awareness raising with these groups. The current focus of the project is on creating 3D printed tactile versions of galaxy images. These can be used to explain topics related to galaxy research, such as what galaxy shape and galaxy colour can tell us about a galaxy’s past and present [2]. By allowing the audience to interact with our tactile models throughout this presentation, we will introduce you to the resources that we have developed, and talk about the project’s current national expansion in the UK, training workshops, consultancy, formation of a UK wide network of workshop presenters and our school visits. Lastly, we will discuss what we have learnt, where we have succeeded, as well as some of the mistakes that we have made along the way.
References:
[1]: https://tactileuniverse.org/
[2]: https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/59/1/1.30/4804290
[3]: https://galaxyzoo.org/