SBIR Phase I: Promoting STEM Education for Students Who are Blind or Print Disabled Through the Development of the First Talking Pocket Size Scientific Data Collection Device

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将开发一个系统，为一个重要和受欢迎的科学设备提供文本到语音的能力，从而为这种设备提供非视觉操作能力，这是盲人/印刷残疾学生的基本特征。拟议的活动是一家成熟的教育公司、一所大型研究型大学和一家专门为盲人/印刷残疾学生提高科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)可及性的公司合作开展的。这项研究致力于发展最先进的教育技术，并将提供关于STEM教育和职业的热点问题的见解。拟议的项目通过向印刷残疾学生推广STEM来实现这一目标，这项技术将增加科学教育期间的动手机会。有印刷障碍的学生在STEM职业生涯中的代表性不足。没有足够的实际科学学习经验可能是这种代表性不足的原因，并将作为可能的因素进行调查。了解这些因素可以促进开发更多的技术和战略，以增加STEM的代表性，从而促进国家科学基金的目标。该项目将产生适销对路的产品，并基于对竞争和替代技术的分析，将在竞争格局中处于积极地位。该项目的商业利益包括在一家以STEM为基础的教育公司创造就业机会，重点是提高可及性。此外，这项技术既可以在实验室使用，也可以在家庭中使用。潜在的家庭应用包括食物的温度跟踪、GPS导航和游泳池的PH值检测。最后，这项创新将使数据收集在没有视力或光线的情况下进行。许多实验需要黑暗或弱光条件，这项创新将有助于为这些实验开发技术，并使未来的发现成为可能。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a system to provide text-to-speech capabilities for a vital and popular scientific device thus providing non-visual operating capacity for such a device, an essential feature for blind/print disabled students. The proposed activity is a collaborative venture between a well established educational company, a large research university, and a company that specializes in increasing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) accessibility for blind/print disabled students. The research addresses advancing state-of-the-art educational technologies and will provide insights into topical issues concerning STEM education and careers.The proposed project addresses this goal by promoting STEM to students with print disabilities via a technology that will increase hands-on accessibility during science education. Students with print disabilities are under-represented in STEM careers. Insufficient hands-on science learning experiences could underlie this under-representation and will be investigated as a possible factor. Understanding such factors could facilitate development of additional technologies and strategies for increasing STEM representation, thus furthering NSF goals. The project will result in a marketable product, and based on an analysis of competitive and alternative technologies, will be in a positive position in the competitive landscape. Commercial benefits of the project involve the creation of employment opportunities in a STEM based educational company focused on increasing accessibility. In addition, this technology can be used both in the laboratory and in the home use. Potential home applications are temperature tracking of food items, GPS navigation, and pH detection for swimming pools. Finally, the innovation will enable data collection without sight or light. Many experiments require dark or low light conditions and the innovation will be instrumental for developing technologies for these experiments and in enabling future discoveries.