Tuesday, February 16, 1999
Web site aids blind students of science
BY REX W. HUPPKE
The Associated Press
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Cary Supalo runs his hands across a scientific graph, taking in by touch what many take for granted.
The colorful diagrams and charts that are commonplace in science textbooks are geared for a sighted world. Mr. Supalo is blind and has relied on Braille translations of textbooks as he's worked toward a double major in chemistry and communications at Purdue University.
But for the past two years, the school has provided him more than just text. Purdue's Tactile Access to Education for Visually Impaired Students (TAEVIS) program has generated thousands of scientific diagrams to aid Mr. Supalo and others in his position. The drawings have puffy, raised lines and Braille labels, bringing visual information to those who can't see.
Those diagrams — which take countless hours to generate — have now been made available on the Internet, giving blind students everywhere a chance to visualize science in a whole new way.
The TAEVIS Web site can be found at www.taevisonline.purdue.edu.
“It's exciting, it's breaking frontiers,” said Sue Wilder, director of the TAEVIS program. “It's really challenging the system that currently exists.”
Ms. Wilder explained that until the early '80s, blind students were strongly discouraged from pursuing science careers.
Eventually, a special Braille code was developed that eased the translation of mathematical and scientific information. Textbooks could be translated, but the illustrations that filled the pages of these books were marked with a simple Braille tag: Illustration omitted.
“That information was not being transmitted to the blind student,” Ms. Wilder said.
Two years ago, a special type of paper hit the market. It's backed with a plastic and coated with a heat-sensitive chemical. A drawing is printed onto the paper in black ink, then the paper is run through a heater, what people in the TAEVIS office call “the toaster.”
The heat causes the black ink lines, Braille letters and markings to bubble up, leaving a raised image.
“It really gives the blind student, the Braille readers, equal access to the material,” Ms. Wilder said. “This way, the students get to absorb the data, analyze it and draw their own conclusions, which is a more complete learning experience.”
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