Development of tactile lithophane makes real-world science available to blind students

A first-of-its-kind tactile learning device developed by Baylor University chemistry professors to make science accessible to students who are blind or visually impaired (BLV) has opened up the possibility of transferring scientific data or images for sighted students towards functional applications, complete formats for blind students. The work is published in the journal Scientists progress.

The latest research by Bryan F. Shaw, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Baylor, focused on developing a codex using lithophane, an ancient art form, to convert textbook images science in tactile formats for students with BLV. . The study, in collaboration with John L. Wood, Ph.D., the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Baylor, documents the experiences of students at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI), who partners with Shaw on a variety of in-person learning opportunities and research projects.

“This is the first example we know of in which blind high school students are able to view nanoscopic and microscopic images with touch detection at exactly the same resolution as their sighted peers,” Shaw said. “That’s the goal of this article: to get the material into the hands of high school students and see the results.”

The study, which involved TSBVI students, demonstrated that blind or visually impaired students could accurately describe, recall and distinguish high-resolution data and images with an average accuracy of 88%, comparable to their peers indicator lights.

For Shaw, the rise of research into accessible science stems from the experiences of her 15-year-old son, Noah, who was diagnosed as an infant with retinoblastoma, an aggressive pediatric eye cancer. Today, Noah thrives despite the loss of an eye and limited vision in his remaining eye, and Shaw has developed a combination of approaches to make scientific data and scientific laboratories accessible to blind and visually impaired people. Shaw’s latest article is the fourth in Scientists progress.

Touch detection through an ancient medium

TSBVI students were able to visualize this data through the use of lithophanes. Probably created in China as early as the 7th century and popularized in Europe in the 1800s, lithophanes are fine engravings made from translucent materials, now 3D printed with relief images suitable for tactile learning. Through the use of lithophanes, blind students can feel what their sighted counterparts can see. The study suggests that beginning students can view, understand and discern high-resolution nanoscopic or microscopic images as well as a sighted person.

A proof-of-concept study carried out in 2022 Scientists progress demonstrated the effectiveness of lithophanes. The study found that the average test accuracy for the five lithophanes was:

• 96.7% for tactile interpretation by blind adults,
• 92.2% for the showy interpretation of backlit lithophanes, and
• 79.8% for tactile interpretation by blindfolded students with normal vision.

Sighted participants were able to accurately interpret digital images on a computer screen 88.4% by sight. For 80% of questions, the blind chemists’ tactile accuracy was equal to or better than the visual interpretation of lithophanes, suggesting that lithophanes could function as a shareable data format. In fact, Shaw said some of the blind chemists in the study had such tactile sensitivity that they could feel tactile features of the data that sighted people could barely see themselves.

The latest study tracked TSBVI students in their ability to visualize changes in images from high-resolution, nanoscopic, and microscopic images through touch. Students involved in the study received their first high-resolution tactile codex (or book) of real-world microscopic and nanoscopic images, which can also be found in science books aimed at sighted students.

“Lithophane codices are as simple as that: lithophane books,” Shaw said. “But this is the first example of a lithophane book that we know of and the first time it’s been put into the hands of high school students.”

For example, students used a tactile codex depicting a butterfly at different degrees of magnification under an electron microscope. Using the image of a butterfly as a basis, students could delve deeper into the inner workings of the insect. They started with the shape of a butterfly, which many students had never experienced.

From there, students experienced the image of a butterfly wing viewed through a microscope, with images resembling fish scales making the complexity of the butterfly wing accessible. Magnified even further under a microscope, a third image featured a single scale, with the final image showing the chemical structures that make up a butterfly’s scaled wings.

Students were tested on their understanding of the layers of scales and cells on each lithophane, with students demonstrating their mastery of the images through touch.

“When you develop a new drug, you do all the science necessary to create a drug, but when you give it to a person and it works, that testing period is over,” Shaw said. “That’s what we have here through these images and the lithophane codex.”

The study also brought TSBVI students into research labs at Baylor and introduced them to universal chemical graphics. These graphs allowed students to feel the structures of molecules that were reactants and products in chemical reactions. In real time, students felt different molecule structures as the molecules reacted in front of them by graduate students in the Baylor Synthesis and Drug-Lead Discovery Lab, co-led by Wood.

Equality and accessibility

To help educators caring for these students, Shaw’s team developed an equation to determine the number of pages a codex can hold based on the diameter of the binding. As an example, the 1,000 images found in a standard biochemistry textbook would require four pounds of lithophane measuring 10 centimeters wide.

“Lithophanes make serious, high-resolution science data 100 percent accessible to blind students. They won’t miss a thing,” Shaw said. That’s what’s beautiful about it. It is equality and equivalence. We can sit down with sighted and blind people and talk about accurate data, and it’s beautiful.”

Blind and visually impaired (BLV) students have long faced barriers to the study and discipline of chemistry, often due to the long-standing inaccessibility of science laboratories to individuals with disabilities, lack of educational materials and visual and technologies not yet available. optimized for people with visual impairments. Shaw’s lab will continue to focus on methods to eradicate these barriers for students with blindness and other disabilities in the future.

“It is essential to show students at secondary school and even earlier that they have a place in science – it is open to them if they wish to join – regardless of their various abilities, or their so-called disability,” Shaw said. “When I think about my son or other children with disabilities, what they do in their 30s and 40s depends on what we do for them now. And many scientists are too busy for that. But at Baylor, It’s not like that. There’s an ethos here.”