BRAILLE EXHIBITS OVERVIEW
 
A NASA-funded tactile/Braille exhibit for the visually impaired community was launched in July 2009. The exhibit is part of the global "From Earth to the Universe" (FETTU) project, a cornerstone of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The science content of the traveling tactile/Braille exhibit includes explanations of our Sun, Eta Carinae, Crab Nebula, Whirlpool Galaxy, and the electromagnetic spectrum, and was adapted from the NASA-funded tactile/Braille book "Touch the Invisible Sky." We present some of the early observations and findings on the tactile/Braille FETTU exhibit. The new exhibit opens a wider door to experiencing and understanding astronomy for the underserved and underutilized visually impaired population.
FETTU Zoom
  
FETTU Zoom
FETTU BACKGROUND

The "From Earth to the Universe" (FETTU) project is an exhibition of astronomical images that showcases the most dramatic views of our Universe, bringing the science of astronomy to a diverse and world-wide audience. The images, which represent the incredible variety of astronomical objects that are known to exist, are being exhibited in over 850 locations throughout the world in 2009 and 2010 as part of the International Year of Astronomy. In the United States, over 40 FETTU exhibits (approximately half of which are funded by NASA) are occurring in such non-traditional astronomy outreach locations such as airports, libraries, parks and college campus greens. The goal of the FETTU project—run by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC)—has been to engage the largest possible populations. In July of 2009, a NASA-funded tactile and Braille exhibit was launched for the visually impaired community as part of the FETTU program. We present some of the early observations and findings on the tactile/Braille FETTU exhibit.

View the published papers on the FETTU Braille exhibit and related programs.

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FETTU Zoom
  
FETTU Zoom
  
FETTU Zoom
FETTU EXHIBIT DESIGN & DISSEMINATION

The science content of the tactile/Braille exhibit includes explanations of our Sun, Eta Carinae, Crab Nebula, Whirlpool Galaxy, and the electromagnetic spectrum. There are four 18" x 36" tilted 4-legged aluminum stands (each about 38" high), built to Las Vegas safety standards. The "desktop faces" of the exhibit stands consist of large-print text underneath a complete overlay of Braille for the image captions and keys, as well as specially-developed textures for the images (figure 1 and 2). Four copies of this tactile/Braille exhibit were produced as the printing technology used to create it requires multiple print runs of the tactile process. The tactile/Braille content of this exhibit was adapted from the NASA-funded tactile/Braille book "Touch the Invisible Sky" written by Noreen Grice, Doris Daou, and Simon Steel, and published by Ozone Publishing Corp. Methodologies and material pilot tested at the National Federation for the Blind Summer Science camp and at the hands-on stations at the book launch were adapted by Steel, to develop accompanying educational activities for the visually impaired community and informal education providers. These activities present fundamental concepts of modern astronomy designed to put the FETTU images into a broader context of how the Universe is structured and evolves.

Multiple geographic locations and venue types were targeted for the tactile/Braille displays, including public spaces that specialize in handicapped materials, schools for the blind, as well as the same public locations the full-size traveling FETTU exhibit reaches (figure 3). The first tactile exhibit was displayed on July 18th, 2009 at the Martin Luther King Jr. library, the main branch of the DC Public Library (figure 1). The tactile/Braille FETTU exhibits have also been displayed at Yerkes Observatory (Williams Bay, Wisconsin), the Center for Science and Industry (COSI; Columbus, Ohio), the Atlanta Center for the Visually Impaired (CVI; Atlanta, Georgia), the UMass-Boston campus, the Perkins School for the Blind (Boston, Massachusetts), the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the Interamerican University at Bayamón (Bayamón, Puerto Rico), as well as the Eugene Francis Hall of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (Mayagüez, Puerto Rico).

For each of the exhibit locations, supplementary content is provided to the community, including copies of the "Touch the Invisible Sky" Braille book, audio podcasts of the material from the book, and the set of educational activities.

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Braille Zoom
  
Braille Zoom
OTHER TACTILE/BRAILLE MATERIALS

TOUCH THE INVISIBLE SKY

Multi-wavelength astronomy—the study of the universe at wavelengths beyond the visible, has revolutionized our understanding and appreciation of the cosmos. Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer are examples of powerful, space-based telescopes that complement each other in their observations spanning the electromagnetic spectrum. NASA's new Braille book "Touch the Invisible Sky" presents the first printed introduction to modern, multi-wavelength astronomy studies to the sight disabled community.

"Touch the Invisible Sky" is accessible to both visually impaired and sighted readers. The book presents celestial objects as they appear through visible-light telescopes and in different spectral regions that are invisible to the naked eye. It uses a combination of Braille and traditional text. A variety of tactile textures and symbols were chosen to represent different physical features and characteristics of the images.

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A TACTILE AND BRAILLE SOLAR SYSTEM

Additionally, supplemental funding from the Hinode XRT was sought and awarded in order to leverage the main FETTSS program and create a series of portable large-format Tactile and Braille posters for visually impaired communities[1], from networks established as part of the From Earth to the Universe programs and other programs from the Chandra X-ray Observatory outreach group.  The tactile and Braille all-weather poster series and recorded audio files (.mp3) which was tested with students in a school for the blind provided additional outreach of the FETTSS material to more diverse communities.  The supplemental project also helped situate part of the heliophysics program into NASA's larger multidisciplinary YSS program and outreach community, and enabled cross-cutting dissemination of SDO & XRT results. 8 images for the Braille/tactile poster series were mounted on still styrene and included 2 solar images (1 full sun -SDO, 1 flare- XRT), 1 lunar eclipse, 1 comet, 1 inner planet (Mars), 1 gas giant (Jupiter), 1 asteroid, and 1 Earth. One to two sets of the posters were provided to each of the FETTSS exhibit locations to be displayed during and after the exhibition.  The remaining 24 copies of the materials were disseminated to established networks for the visually impaired including:

  • The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) for their annual and regional conferences, such as the summer Youth Slam program.
  • Libraries that host activities for visually-impaired groups  (including the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in DC)
  • Schools for the blind (including the Perkins and Jernigans Institutes)

[1] Tactile Braille funding: This project was developed with funding from NASA under contract NNM07AB07C. Hinode is a Japanese mission developed and launched by ISAS/JAXA, with NAOJ as domestic partner and NASA and STFC (UK) as international partners. It is operated by these agencies in co-operation with ESA and the NSC (Norway). Additional support was provided from NASA under contract NAS8-03060. The Chandra X-ray Center is operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

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CONCLUSIONS

Millions of people in the United States are legally blind (1.3 million), have low vision (3 million) or have a degree of visual impairment that cannot be corrected by glasses (12 million) . The FETTU-tactile exhibit expands access for the blind and visually impaired to information about the universe by presenting these panels in public and non-traditional learning settings. It "opens a wider door to understanding and experiencing what sighted students have been looking at and experiencing all along, which bridges another gap in learning and levels the playing field even more." (Annie Maxwell, STARS director). Yet this is just a first step in improving the opportunities for the visually impaired community to become more involved in topics like astronomy. Additional means of accessibility such as 3-d modeling of objects and processes, and improved text-to-audio awareness, as well as a better understanding of how the visually impaired community learns science, are keys to the creation of "inclusive science learning" environments which will stimulate interest and help the community become more comfortable and confident in their relationship with science (Bell, Lewenstein, Shouse, & Feder 2009).

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