Sounds Like Science

“Smells like science,” said the first student through the door of a chemistry teaching lab this summer. The boy, a 9th grader dressed in a purple-patterned hoodie who introduced himself as Edge, can’t see. He was one of a dozen blind students to visit campus for a hands-on science workshop organized by chemistry graduate student Carmen Laura Velez. Safety concerns relegate blind students to the role of notetaker in most laboratory classes. That deprives them of the experience bench work is meant to provide: the chance to observe first hand the principles they read and hear about in class. Velez wanted to show that technology can help these students take a more active role. She invited Cary Supalo, a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University to demonstrate instruments, some of which he has helped to develop, that can allow blind students to conduct their own chemical experiments. Computer programs developed to help blind people in business can be refashioned to read the measurements of a scientific instrument aloud, Supalo showed. And a singing probe that can be immersed in a liquid will alter its pitch depending on the color of the solution, allowing a student who can’t see track the progress of a chemical reaction. Even simple aids, like raised bumps on the caps of reagents that safely distinguish one from another, can help students shift from bystander to participant. But the most important thing, Velez said, was the chance to meet a blind scientist. “They need inspiration,” Velez said. Watch the video to see how she and a group of volunteers provided that.