CAREER: Bridging the Digital Accessibility Gap in STEM Using Multisensory Haptic Platforms

职业：使用多感官触觉平台弥合 STEM 中的数字可访问性差距

基本信息

批准号：
1845490
负责人：
Jenna Gorlewicz
金额：
$ 99.2万
依托单位：
Saint Louis University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Continuing Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2019-08-01 至 2025-07-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1845490&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
CAREER Bridging Digital Accessibility Gap

项目摘要

Consider learning visual subjects such as math, engineering, or science without being able to see. Suddenly, the graphs, charts, and diagrams that provide a quick way to gather information are no longer effective. This is a challenge that students with visual impairments face in classrooms today as educational materials are most often presented electronically. The current way that individuals with visual impairments "read" graphics is through touch, feeling raised dots and patterns on paper that represent images. Creating these touch-based graphics requires extensive time and resources, and the output provides a static, hard-copy image. Lack of access to graphics in STEM subjects is one of the most pressing challenges currently facing individuals with visual impairments. This is a concern given the low representation of students with these disabilities in STEM fields and professions.This project investigates how to use new touch technologies, like touchscreens, to create graphics and simulations that can be felt, heard, and seen. Using readily available, low-cost systems, the principal investigator will investigate how to map visual information to touch and sound. This research builds on prior research focused on representing the building blocks of graphics (points, lines, and shapes) nonvisually. In this project, the investigator will determine how to represent more challenging graphics such as charts, plots, and diagrams, nonvisually. The project will then explore the role of touch feedback in interactive simulations, which have moving elements that change with user input, making nonvisual access challenging. Finally, the projects extends the research to students with other disabilities, toward understanding the benefits and changes necessary for touch technologies to have broad impact. The project involves group and single-subject designs with approximately 65 students with visual impairments and focuses on the following outcomes of interest: students' graph literacy, percent correct on task assessments, time of exploration, response time, number of revisits to particular areas of the graphic, and number of switches between layers. Working closely with individuals with disabilities and their teachers, this work seeks to bridge the current graphical accessibility gap in STEM and raise awareness of universal design in technology use and development. The CAREER program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-wide activity that offers awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. This project is supported by NSF's Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program. DRK-12 seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.

考虑学习视觉学科，例如数学，工程或科学，而无法看到。突然，图表，图表和图表提供了一种快速收集信息的方法不再有效。这是当今教室中视觉障碍的学生面临的一个挑战，因为教育材料通常是通过电子方式提出的。视觉障碍“读”图形的当前方式是通过触摸，感觉到代表图像的纸上的凸起的点和图案。创建这些基于触摸的图形需要大量的时间和资源，并且输出提供了静态的硬拷贝图像。缺乏在STEM受试者中获得图形的是目前面临视觉障碍的人面临的最紧迫的挑战之一。考虑到这些残疾学生在STEM领域和专业中的表现较低，这是一个问题。该项目研究了如何使用诸如触摸屏之类的新触摸技术来创建可以感受到，听到和看到的图形和模拟。使用易于使用的低成本系统，主要研究人员将研究如何映射视觉信息以触摸和声音。这项研究基于先前的研究，重点是代表图形（点，线条和形状）的构件。在这个项目中，研究人员将确定如何非视觉效果地表示更具挑战性的图形，例如图表，图和图。然后，该项目将探索触摸反馈在交互式模拟中的作用，这些元素具有随着用户输入而变化的移动元素，从而使非视觉访问具有挑战性。最后，这些项目将研究扩展到其他残疾学生，以了解触摸技术产生广泛影响所必需的好处和变化。该项目涉及大约65名具有视觉障碍的学生的小组和单个受试者设计，并重点介绍了以下感兴趣的结果：学生的图形素养，正确的任务评估，探索时间，响应时间，响应时间，对图形特定领域的重新审视数量以及层之间的开关数量。这项工作与残疾人及其老师紧密合作，旨在弥合STEM中当前的图形可访问性差距，并提高对技术使用和开发中普遍设计的认识。职业计划是国家科学基金会（NSF）范围内的活动，为支持初级教师提供奖项，这些奖项通过杰出的研究，出色的教育以及在其组织任务的背景下的教育和教育和研究的整合来体现教师 - chol的作用。该项目得到了NSF的Discovery Research PreK-12（DRK-12）计划的支持。 DRK-12通过研究和开发创新的资源，模型和工具的研究和开发，旨在通过PreK-12学生和教师来显着增强科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。 DRK-12计划中的项目基于STEM教育和先前的研发工作的基础研究，为拟议项目提供了理论和经验的理由。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准通过评估来进行评估的。