Accessible Oceans: Exploring Ocean Data through Sound

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。无障碍海洋研究将设计听觉展示，支持在博物馆、科学中心和水族馆等非正式学习环境中学习和理解海洋数据。这些空间中的大多数数据呈现使用图形、图表和计算机生成的可视化等视觉显示技术，导致视力障碍或其他与印刷有关的残疾的学习者获得不平等的机会。虽然有时会使用音乐、音效和环境声音，但这些音频方法不足以传递定量信息。该项目将使用发声(将数据转化为声音)来传达海洋科学数据的有意义的方面，以增加对海洋数据的获取和海洋扫盲。该项目将为所有有残疾和无残疾的学习者增进关于设计听觉显示器的知识，并促进在STEM正规和非正规教育中使用技术。这项研究将包括425名参与者，但将通过开发教育材料、公共报道和社交媒体达到数万人。这项研究将与史密森国家自然历史博物馆、伍兹霍尔海洋研究所海洋发现中心、佐治亚州水族馆、尤金科学中心、亚特兰大视障人士中心和珀金斯盲人学校合作。该项目将利用来自NSF资助的海洋天文台倡议的现有教育海洋数据集来产生和评估使用集成听觉显示器来传达海洋学原理的分层学习目标的可行性。集成的听觉显示将分别由数据发声和上下文设置音频介绍组成，这将有助于确保所有用户开始时都有关于该现象的相同基本信息。这些展示将通过以用户为中心的设计过程进行开发，将吸引海洋科学专家、视障学生和成年人(及其教师)以及以设计为导向的本科生和研究生。该项目将支持包容性设计的宣传技能，并将为研究生和本科生提供以人为中心的设计和无障碍方面的宝贵培训机会。该项目将在听觉显示、STEM教育、人机交互和其他学科方面具有基础性的实用价值，为表示量化信息提供新的战略，这些信息可以应用于使用类似视觉数据显示的STEM学科。该项目将产生可公开获取的资源，以促进包容性方法的研究，以激励残疾和非残疾学习者更多地了解和考虑STEM职业。这一试点和可行性研究项目得到推进非正式STEM学习计划的支持，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，在非正式环境中推进对STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及加深参与者对更深层次学习的理解。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The Accessible Oceans study will design auditory displays that support learning and understanding of ocean data in informal learning environments like museums, science centers, and aquariums. Most data presentations in these spaces use visual display techniques such as graphs, charts, and computer-generated visualizations, resulting in inequitable access for learners with vision impairment or other print-related disabilities. While music, sound effects, and environmental sounds are sometimes used, these audio methods are inadequate for conveying quantitative information. The project will use sonification (turning data into sound) to convey meaningful aspects of ocean science data to increase access to ocean data and ocean literacy. The project will advance knowledge on the design of auditory displays for all learners, with and without disabilities, as well as advance the use of technology for STEM formal and informal education. The study will include 425 participants but will reach tens of thousands through the development of education materials, public reporting, and social media. The study will partner with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Discovery Center, the Georgia Aquarium, the Eugene Science Center, the Atlanta Center for the Visually Impaired, and Perkins School for the Blind.The project will leverage existing educational ocean datasets from the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative to produce and evaluate the feasibility of using integrated auditory displays to communicate tiered learning objectives of oceanographic principles. Integrated auditory displays will each be comprised of a data sonification and a context-setting audio introduction that will help to make sure all users start with the same basic information about the phenomenon. The displays will be developed through a user-centered design process that will engage ocean science experts, visually impaired students and adults (and their teachers), and design-oriented undergraduate and graduate students. The project will support advocacy skills for inclusive design and will provide valuable training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students in human-centered design and accessibility. The project will have foundational utility in auditory display, STEM education, human-computer interaction, and other disciplines, contributing new strategies for representing quantitative information that can be applied across STEM disciplines that use similar visual data displays. The project will generate publicly accessible resources to advance studies of inclusive approaches on motivating learners with and without disabilities to learn more about and consider careers in STEM.This Pilots and Feasibility Studies project is supported by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.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.