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

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是增加代表不足的盲人和低视力(BLV)人群在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域的参与。通过一种新的辅助技术，为BLV患者提供实时的多感官访问科学数据，这项技术将使访问与视力正常的同龄人一样。BLV学生与视力正常的同龄人不同，无论是在实验室还是在野外，他们都无法独立获取实时科学数据。这种不可访问性要么使他们无法充分参与实际操作的科学研究，要么让他们依赖有视力的同行来获取实时数据。有了这个项目，K-12和大专院校的BLV学生以及BLV科学家和其他对STEM感兴趣的人将受益于一种使他们能够在实验室环境下独立工作的工具。这项创新将使盲人和低视力个人的科学实验室学习和实验室工作场所更加包容和公平。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目专注于开发一种二维、手持、便携、可刷新的盲文和触觉图形科学数据收集工具，可以使用无线传感器实时收集可量化的数据。在STEM中，盲人和低视力(BLV)学生与有视力的同龄人一样有能力，但与有视力的同龄人不同，他们缺乏独立获取实验室实时科学数据的能力。这一努力旨在解决这一不平等问题，方法是利用盲人科学家和STEM接入技术先驱的专业知识，反复开发新的、盲人可获得的创新的迭代版本，使BLV的学生、科学家和其他人能够获得在实验室或现场收集的定量数据。这一创新将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来针对BLV进行优化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.