SBIR Phase I: Synergizing Braille and Science: Real-time Accessibility of Tactile Graphics in Laboratory Settings for Blind and Low Vision (BLV) Students

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是增加盲人和低视力（BLV）人群在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的参与。通过一种新颖的辅助技术，为盲人提供实时的多感官访问科学数据，这项技术将使盲人能够与视力正常的同龄人相提并论。与视力正常的同龄人不同，BLV的学生缺乏独立获取实时科学数据的途径，无论是在实验室还是在实地。这种不可接触性要么阻碍了他们充分参与动手科学探究，要么使他们依赖于视力正常的同龄人来获取实时数据。通过这个项目，BLV的K-12和大专院校的学生，以及BLV的科学家和其他对STEM感兴趣的人，将受益于一个工具，使他们能够在实验室环境中独立工作。这一创新将使科学实验室学习和实验室工作场所对盲人和低视力个体更加包容和公平。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的重点是开发一种二维、手持、便携式、可更新的盲文和触觉图形科学数据收集工具，该工具可用于使用无线传感器实时收集可量化的数据。盲人和低视力（BLV）学生在STEM方面的能力与视力正常的同龄人一样，但与视力正常的同龄人不同，他们缺乏独立获取实验室实时科学数据的途径。这项努力旨在通过利用盲人科学家和STEM获取技术先驱的专业知识，迭代开发新颖的交互式版本，盲人可访问的创新，这将使BLV的学生，科学家和其他人能够访问在实验室或现场收集的定量数据，从而解决这种不平等问题。通过记录可用性问题，并在现场测试之前对硬件和源代码进行必要的修改，这项创新将为BLV进行优化。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to increase the participation of the underrepresented population of blind and low vision (BLV) persons in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Through a novel assistive technology that provides BLV individuals with multisensory access to scientific data in real time, this technology will enable access on par with sighted peers. BLV students, unlike their sighted peers, lack independent access to real-time scientific data whether in the laboratory or in the field. This inaccessibility either precludes their full participation in hands-on science inquiry, or leaves them dependent on sighted peers to access real-time data. With this project, BLV students across K-12 and post-secondary institutions, as well as BLV scientists and others interested in STEM, will benefit from a tool that makes it possible for them to work independently in laboratory situations. This innovation will make science laboratory learning and laboratory workplaces more inclusive and equitable for the blind and low vision individuals.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is focused on developing a 2-dimensional, hand-held, portable, refreshable Braille and tactile graphics scientific data collection tool that can be used to collect quantifiable data in real time using wireless sensors. Blind and Low Vision (BLV) students are as capable as their sighted peers in STEM yet, unlike their sighted peers, lack independent access to real-time scientific data in the laboratory. This effort seeks to address this inequity by leveraging the expertise of blind scientists and pioneers in STEM access technology to iteratively develop a interative versions of novel, blind-accessible innovations which will give BLV students, scientists and others access to quantitative data collected in the laboratory or in the field. This innovation will be optimized for the BLV by documenting usability concerns and making the necessary modifications to hardware and source-code prior to field-testing.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.