Promoting STEM Education for Students Who are Blind or Print Disabled Through the Development of the First Talking Pocket Size Scientific Data Collection Device for Classroom and F

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a system to provide text-to-speech capabilities for a vital and popular scientific device thus providing non-visual operating capacity for such a device, an essential feature for blind/print disabled students. The proposed activity is a collaborative venture between a well established educational company, a large research university, and a company that specializes in increasing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) accessibility for blind/print disabled students. The research addresses advancing state-of-the-art educational technologies and will provide insights into topical issues concerning STEM education and careers. The proposed project addresses this goal by promoting STEM to students with print disabilities via a technology that will increase hands-on accessibility during science education. Students with print disabilities are under-represented in STEM careers. Insufficient hands-on science learning experiences could underlie this under-representation and will be investigated as a possible factor. Understanding such factors could facilitate development of additional technologies and strategies for increasing STEM representation, thus furthering NSF goals. The project will result in a marketable product, and based on an analysis of competitive and alternative technologies, will be in a positive position in the competitive landscape. Commercial benefits of the project involve the creation of employment opportunities in a STEM based educational company focused on increasing accessibility. In addition, this technology can be used both in the laboratory and in the home use. Potential home applications are temperature tracking of food items, GPS navigation, and pH detection for swimming pools. Finally, the innovation will enable data collection without sight or light. Many experiments require dark or low light conditions and the innovation will be instrumental for developing technologies for these experiments and in enabling future discoveries.