How to explain the wonders of the universe to blind and vision impaired students? Nicolas Bonne (University of Portsmouth) and his colleagues from the tactile universe project developed a beautiful method to make astronomical features like galaxies accessible to the vision impaired by using a 3D printer.
This was a talk given at the 3rd Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE, http//astro4edu.org).
Astronomy is a topic that engages and inspires a wide range of audiences around the world, but blind and vision impaired people can often find it difficult to engage with the subject due to its very visual nature. The Tactile Universe is an award winning public engagement project based at the University of Portsmouth which is opening up current topics in astrophysics research to blind and vision impaired people through accessible tactile resources based on real data. We will discuss how involving the vision impaired community in the development of these resources has made them truly unique and versatile.
About Nicolas Bonne:
Originally from Australia, Dr Nic Bonne is a vision impaired astronomer with a background in galaxy research. He currently works in the UK as a Public Engagement and Outreach Fellow at the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation. Dr Bonne is a co-founder of, and currently leads the Tactile Universe public engagement project, which is developing resources and activities to help vision impaired students across the UK and internationally access current topics in astronomy. He also consults on a number of vision impaired accessible projects both nationally and internationally.
About the 3rd Shaw-IAU Workshop:
Within the topic "What everybody should know about Astronomy Education", the 3rd Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education was held virtually from 12-15 October 2021. What are the things that, in an ideal world, all of us who are active in astronomy education should know — about teaching methods, about ways to make our events and resources equitable, about evaluation techniques, about astronomy education research? For participants who are new(-ish) to astronomy education, the workshop provided a unique opportunity to familiarise themselves with many different aspects of the field in one go — and for the rest of us, it was an opportunity to both revisit the basics and learn new things. The workshop was organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education ([ Ссылка ]). More details can be found on: [ Ссылка ]
