TED Talks: How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars - Wanda Diaz Merced

Description from the TED Talks Youtube site for this video published on Jul 13, 2016:


"Wanda Diaz Merced studies the light emitted by gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic events in the universe. When she lost her sight and was left without a way to do her science, she had a revelatory insight: the light curves she could no longer see could be translated into sound. Through sonification, she regained mastery over her work, and now she's advocating for a more inclusive scientific community. "Science is for everyone," she says. "It has to be available to everyone, because we are all natural explorers."

Video Source URL - https://youtu.be/-hY9QSdaReY

Original TED Talks Article 

Astronomical kit for the visually impaired

The IAU Office of Astronomy for Development recently posted an article regarding an astronomical kit for the visually impaired that will be of interest to followers of this blog.

Below is a synopsis of the project:

"The goal is to develop a kit with different astronomical activities to help communicators and teachers in reaching children with visual impairments. The kit will consist of: (a) “The sky in your hands“, a planetarium program with original soundtrack in various languages and a half-sphere with constellations engraved in it, (b) a booklet of activities to be carried out with the planetarium half-sphere, (c) a tactile 3D Moon specifically designed for the visually impaired, along with a booklet of Moon activities, (d) one set of the FETTU braille sheets with an activity guide, and (e) a book on tactile astronomy."

The complete article can be found here - http://www.astro4dev.org/blog/category/tf2/visually-impaired/

You can follow the project here: http://astrokit.uv.es/

Hubble Images Become Tactile 3-D Experience for the Blind

Below is some of the text from an article posted on the NASA Hubble Space Telescope site on the use of 3-D printing to produce tactile 3-D astronomical images for the blind and visually impaired:

"Three-dimensional printers are transforming the business, medical, and consumer landscape by creating a vast variety of objects, including airplane parts, football cleats, lamps, jewelry, and even artificial human bones."

"Now astronomers Carol Christian and Antonella Nota of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., are experimenting with the innovative technology to transform astronomy education by turning images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope into tactile 3-D pictures for people who cannot explore celestial wonders by sight. The 3-D print design is also useful and intriguing for sighted people who have different learning styles, said the researchers. Christian and Nota admit their task is a challenge because astronomers really can't see space objects in three dimensions."

You can read the complete article here: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-images-become-tactile-3-d-experience-for-the-blind/#.Us91WfSrweo