Collaborative Research: An AudioTactile Data System for Blind or Low Vision Faculty, Staff, Postdocs, and Graduate Students in Chemistry, Math, Computer and Information Sciences

Researchers at NewHaptics Corporation and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are developing and testing software and hardware tools for faculty, staff, postdoctoral research fellows, and graduate students who are blind or have low vision, and who are working in college and university Chemistry, Mathematics, and Computer Science and Engineering and Information Sciences employment settings. These tools, which use a combination of hearing and touch technologies, are making it possible for people who are blind or have low vision to generate, identify, and manipulate digital data patterns and trends. Given the scarcity of STEM scientists, researchers, and educators in our country, opportunities to increase knowledge about better data use technologies is essential to the retention and advancement of students and professionals who are blind or have low vision. The research being conducted aims to: 1) Develop new hardware interaction components and firmware/drivers; 2) Develop new interaction software, and 3) Evaluate the system and conduct workshops for users. The project activities are addressing the following key research questions: 1) How can the addition of spatial information, realized through multiline braille and large array tactile graphics hardware, coupled with interactive software tools, break down barriers to data use? 2) What design considerations contribute to multi-modal data, that is, verbal, sonification, and tactile data representations that go beyond a single perceptual modality? Answers to these questions have the potential to contribute to research about STEM postsecondary workplace solutions for people with disabilities. This award has been made in response to the NSF solicitation “Workplace Equity for Persons with Disabilities in STEM and STEM Education” (NSF 23-593). The project is funded by the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.