Welcome to IDATA

We greatly appreciate your taking the time to view the Innovators Developing Accessible Tools for Astronomy (IDATA) video. IDATA is a STEM+C project seeking to increase accessibility in astronomy for the blind and visually impaired (BVI) community by developing an increased understanding of computational thinking. Through user-centered design (UCD), IDATA is developing data analysis software for astronomy, and a variety of curricular resources. This video only touches on our work in computation, UCD, the software, and curricular resources. We are interested in all your questions, but especially those related to potential use in classroom and informal learning environments, how our research can benefit others, and how this new software tool and curricular resources can best be disseminated to maximize impact across the STEM enterprise. Please go to GLAS Education for a description of the visuals presented in this video.

If the video had English subtitles, it is more appealing to non-English-speaking people. The video contains impressive practice which should appeal to many countries around the globe across the language border. For non-English speaking people, the subtitle help them to translate the contents into their languages.

Thanks for the comment.  You can access subtitles by selecting CC on the pop-up toolbar at the bottom of the video screen.

What a wonderful program and thank you for posting the accessible video script. This will serve as a good example for others as we work together to make the world of STEM accessible to all learners. Where are you in the development cycle of the UCD? If it is ready for public consumption, we invite you to send us the information about your software and cirriculum and we will disseminate to our network of 1,500 and post to our website resources.

Creating tools that increase access to astronomy experiences and learning for a wide range of students is critical, and the fact that students with disabilities are at the center of the design process is impressive.  That doesn't always happen!  Could you tell us a bit more about how participating students--particularly those with visual impairments--contributed to the design and/or refinement of tools?  What new features were added? Or how were tools modified based on student challenges you observed or suggestions they made during testing?  Have you found that the tools work better for all students as a result of changes you made specifically for students with disabilities?

Great to hear about your project! Our project focuses on computational thinking about coding for elementary grades students with high-incidence disabilities, so I enjoyed learning more about how you are making astronomy, CT, and coding accessible for students with visual impairments. I look forward to learning more about the tool you have developed. Check out our video here: https://stemforall2019.videohall.com/presentations/1453.html

What a great job you are doing to make Astronomy accessible! Universal Design, of which accessibility is a part, is something we should all think about when designing our classes.

I was wondering if this video is itself accessible to the blind?

I found your project particularly interesting because as an instructor, this semester I had a visually impaired student in my lecture only astronomy course.  I wasn't informed of this ahead of time, so I struggled to modify handouts, visualizations, and demonstrations throughout the semester.  I ended up using a lot of audio, but not scientific sonification, because I'm not familiar with that.  I look forward to these resources being available.  I'm interested in how you see instructors use these in larger, lecture style courses where so much general astronomy is taught these days.  

We hear often from professors like you who suddenly find themselves in unfamiliar territory, struggling with how to make their courses accessible.  I have visions of creating an Astronomy 101 Tool Kit with all our favorite tactiles and manipulative.  How about a text box with a box of 3D models to go with the content and really good graph and image descriptions. But I digress.  We will be putting together our hands-on lessons as the grant finishes up this fall.  We will put you on our list.  

Congratulations on an outstanding project! I'm going to recommend that my colleagues in our chemistry department check out your work. They worked with a visually impaired student last year who was enrolled in a general chemistry laboratory course. It is great to see creative ideas for making scientific concepts and data accessible to all.

Great project - more projects at NSF and elsewhere need to think about students with different abilities. 

I agree. The project has helped all involved see the world differently. We have made the leap of always thinking of "How can this be made accessible?" for all we encounter. 

Involving the target community at all levels of the project is essential.  Difficult to achieve, but I personally have found that this project, in particular, is a different sort of accessibility project than I have been a part of in the past.  We are not doing accessibility for people but with people.  It's a catch 22 however.  Because astronomy and computing science have been inaccessible to the BVI (blind and visually impaired) community in the past there very few BVI professionals in these fields to lead the way. At the teacher level, there are more teachers of the visually impaired with interest but very few students who have BOTH an interest in astronomy and the base background to jump in.  As the project concludes, you will see just how many hands-on activities and support products we had to dive into to position all of our participants to contribute design ideas to the software.  There is a lot more to say about this but my mantra is "build your community"  Outreach early so when you are ready to tackle a big research project you have a pool of people from your target community who are with you from Day 1.    

Kate and Co-Presenters, congratulations on this terrific project and thank you for taking the time to create and share a video on the Showcase. Your visitors are making it clear how much so many of us yearn for more options to widen accessibility for STEM in particular. Fantastic that you open your project description focused on the content ("...project that works to advance knowledge of best practices in teaching and learning related to computation and computational thinking in astronomy"). I also love how this project is, as you say above, with rather than for those who are differently enabled.

You offered at the start that we are invited to ask, "how this new software tool and the curricular resources can best be disseminated to maximize impact across the STEM enterprise" and further down you share some exciting ideas - "an Astronomy 101 Tool Kit with all our favorite tactiles and manipulatives...and a text box with a box of 3D models to go with the content and really good graph and image descriptions..." Brilliant!! My son is a Down Syndrome adult and LOVES space. He is not BVI but he would be engrossed all the same with access to 3D models, tactiles and manipulatives for thinking kinesthetically about his favorite subject. Don't sell yourself short on who would benefit from all the great work you are doing. I'd love your thoughts on how the tools you are developing may not be so specialized but also leaning toward universal designs for learning? Also, don't you think science museum shops would be selling such products like hotcakes? 

Thank you for the great thoughts on making all that has been done so far available to a wider audience than just BVI. I also believe the activities would be beneficial for all. As we get ready to make all the "products" available, I will remind the group of this important point.

Working with BVI, instead of for BVI, has personally been very enlightening!

Thank you for the great work that you are doing to bring astronomy to differently abled audiences.

And I look forward to learning more about your project next spring at Lake Geneva! 

My students have benefited from this program.  It is an amazing experience for all.

This was the first time I have worked on a project like this.  It's been a great learning experience for me and my students.  I think projects like this also help our future scientists see and experience first hand what may be in store for their future as they prepare to collaborate with a richer and more diverse world.

I'm wondering if IDATA Teachers/students, UG Mentors, and those on the Leadership Team could describe one of their most significant ah ha moments or inspirational experiences with the project?  

Mine was when one of our BVI Undergraduate Mentors, Chris Mathews, was first testing the software tool (sonification of an image). Standing over his shoulder I could clearly see a beautiful globular cluster in the image he was working with. Chris listened to it once and said, "I think it's something big near the center of the image, maybe a galaxy or a star cluster." He listened to it a second time and thought for a few seconds and said, "I'm going to go with a globular cluster near the center of the image." A rush came over me, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I even got a tear in my eye, thinking to myself, "I'm part of a team that is making the impossible possible, creating a tool that will allow an individual without sight to experience the beauty of the universe in a way not previously accessible." Chris did have some experience in astronomy so he knew the difference between a globular cluster and a galaxy, etc. but this was new. The Afterglow Access software will allow him to sit at a telescope or somewhere 1000's of miles away and "see" his data immediately. There's no need for a 3-d printer, no added costs, he and and people who share his visual impairment will now be able to have a comparable experience to mine, and that was such a powerful emotional and intellectual experience for me. 

It also made me realize that we do not have people with disabilities, we simply have people with varying levels of ability. If a BVI individual and I were to have the same experience, we would have different experiences. I will see things with my eyes, but they will hear things with their ears that I can not. In this case, which of us has the disability? My experience with IDATA has taught me that the answer is neither, we each simply have different abilities. If we can focus on this, and ensure the tools are available for those with different abilities, we can build more diverse and impactful teams/projects across society, making the planet a better place for all.

I really enjoyed your video and learning more about your project. Your approach to involving users in the design of solutions is a great and inspiring example of universal design combined with human-centered design.

Thanks Leanne! This has been a really interesting project from many different angles, computational thinking, BVI, and user-centered design. Thinking of these pieces holistically has been very rewarding.

Wow, what an interesting project!

Great video.  Think it's awesome we have programs like this available for our students.  Another creative way to educate and inspire learning. 

Thanks Jason ... I hope you can be a participating teacher in the future!

I'm so proud of Barbara Stachelski for bringing this amazing program to our students here at Columbus Tustin Middle School. I love the program and how it is able to help students explore the wonders of the universe! Way to shoot for the STARS!

I know I learned more than the students did.  It's a wonderful project.  I love how the curriculum is very straightforward and easy to follow.  

From watching the video clip, IDATA seems to be a technology program that is truly Student-Based. IDATA listens to their student's input and utilizes that input to make improvements to their program!  Going to the source,  "student/clients," for feedback is genius!   Cheers to Barbara Stachelski, our Columbus Tustin "Super Star" teacher who has brought this technology to our students in Tustin, CA!