EASI congratulates Purdue for this project. Good work!
Norman Coombs nrcgsh@rit.edu
Purdue University
Title: "An Audiotactile General Chemistry Course for the Visually
Impaired"
ABSTRACT
The objective of this project is to create standard reference
materials for a freshman-level chemistry course that will be
accessible to blind and visually impaired students. The
"reference packet" will consist of braille, tactile diagrams,
audiotactile diagrams, and a tactile model kit. Standard
procedures for producing tactile and audiotactile diagrams will be
created, refined, and disseminated to educators of visually
impaired students. The project will use the latest advances in
adaptive technology for blind and visually impaired people.
Several different tactile media will be used, including high-grade
vacuum-molded plastics, the flexible tactile imaging paper produced
by Repro-Tronics, and various textured media as part of the model
kit. Hardware such as the NOMAD (TM) touch tablet and the Edmark
Touch Window (TM) will be used to display the
information contained in audiotactile graphics. The software to be
used will consist of AudioCAD (R), AudioPiCS (R), AutoCAD (R), and
some custom software developed as part of the project. The project
should provide significant assistance to blind students in several
areas. First, blind students at many institutions will have access
to standard reference materials that can be used as a supplement to
almost any General Chemistry course. Second, standards for tactile
and audiotactile diagrams will be
developed. Third, a document detailing the process by which these
diagrams can be made will be developed and disseminated.
Co-Principal Investigators:
Fred E. Lytle
Purdue University
Department of Chemistry
1393 Brown Laboratory
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1393
(765)494-5261
(765)494-0239 fax
lytle@chem.purdue.edu
David Schleppenbach
Purdue University
Department of Chemistry
1393 Brown Laboratory
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1393
(765) 494-0961
(765) 494-0239 fax
engage@purdue.edu
Michael Kress
The College of Staten Island
Department of Computer Science
2800 Victory Boulevard
Staten Island, NY 10314
(718) 982-2839
(718) 982-2856 fax
kress@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
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