Author: Jeffrey HANNAM
Affiliation: RMIT University
Country: Australia
Title: Enhancing Accessibility through Sonification and Sound Technologies
Coming from a sound design and engineering discipline, I will discuss my research as part of a collaborative project exploring the role sound can play within astronomy and astrophysics, and the affordances a sound-based approach presents for sighted and non-sighted researchers to experience and interact with their data in ways once limited to visual only displays.
I will introduce two sonification tools — StarSound and VoxMagellan — both created in response to identified challenges facing blind and visually impaired (BVI) researchers wishing to access and interrogate astronomical data. I will discuss how design and sound engineering ideas guided the development of both tools, and how they service activities for undertaking scientific research. I will discuss the sonified environment in relation to the immediacy of sound for enhancing agency, efficient recognition of multi-layered components, spatial cues for orientation, and, how we have strengthened this connection through the integration of tactile systems ? providing users direct auditory feedback when mapped to sonified parameters within the data space. Finally, I will discuss how these tools fulfil an additional component to expand the non-visual toolkit supporting BVI researchers in their pursuit of scientific discovery.
To date, StarSound has already been used by sighted and non-sighted researchers for sonifying astronomical data across different research and outreach programs, including; the use of sound to interrogate and analyse spectral data and multi-dimensional data sets; rendering 2D plots using a combination of sound and a tactile interface; the participation of BVI researchers in real-time data acquisition and analysis; and school outreach introducing astronomy to children. The feedback thus far has been positive, but more work is needed within this space.
Looking forward, this work opens opportunities for exploring how the integration of sound may be of benefit to other areas within astronomy – such as citizen science programs. By recognising sound as an accessible medium for communication and scientific discovery, maximising its use may also lead to greater participation in the science field.
References:
[1]: Barrass, S., & Kramer, G. (1999). Using sonification. Multimedia systems, 7(1), 23-31.
[2]: Flowers, J. H. (2005). Thirteen years of reflection on auditory graphing: Promises, pitfalls, and potential new directions. Georgia Institute of Technology.
[3]: Walker, B. N., & Nees, M. A. (2005). Brief training for performance of a point estimation sonification task. Georgia Institute of Technology.