WEBVTT 00:00:19.866 --> 00:00:20.706 Morning, Lindsay. 00:00:20.706 --> 00:00:21.526 Hey! 00:00:21.526 --> 00:00:26.106 Lindsay's a high school sophomore, but she's already thinking about career options. 00:00:26.106 --> 00:00:29.876 Science and math are probably what I would want to go into, as a, you know, 00:00:29.876 --> 00:00:31.886 a career, when I'm out of college. 00:00:31.886 --> 00:00:32.786 Let's go to work. 00:00:32.786 --> 00:00:33.946 Straight ahead, Lindsay. 00:00:33.946 --> 00:00:36.606 She likes everything about science. 00:00:36.606 --> 00:00:38.576 I've always liked medical science. 00:00:38.576 --> 00:00:40.006 I always watch medical shows. 00:00:40.006 --> 00:00:44.936 And I've always been interested in, like, prenatal development and, like, genetics. 00:00:44.936 --> 00:00:46.736 And I really like chemistry a lot. 00:00:46.736 --> 00:00:49.046 And I'm excited to be taking physics next year. 00:00:49.046 --> 00:00:51.696 And then I'm thinking I might take advanced bio. 00:00:51.696 --> 00:00:55.116 Okay, so, um, mass of copper... 00:00:55.116 --> 00:00:58.326 In fact, Lindsay is so good at science 00:00:58.326 --> 00:01:01.616 that she skipped the basic 9th grade science class completely. 00:01:01.616 --> 00:01:04.956 Which is nice 'cause then I get one more year of other science. 00:01:04.956 --> 00:01:06.956 You know, one more year to take another science class. 00:01:06.956 --> 00:01:10.436 Just kind of rough it up a little bit with the steel wool. 00:01:10.436 --> 00:01:10.966 Okay. 00:01:10.966 --> 00:01:13.966 This year, in chemistry, there's quite a bit of lab work. 00:01:13.966 --> 00:01:17.176 Lindsay's teacher is learning new things, too. 00:01:17.176 --> 00:01:20.186 It's the first time he's taught a student who is blind. 00:01:20.186 --> 00:01:24.436 I have to think ahead, like, several days, because I have to have all 00:01:24.436 --> 00:01:26.986 of my materials converted over to Braille. 00:01:26.986 --> 00:01:32.856 And then in lab, so much of chemistry labs are visual. 00:01:32.856 --> 00:01:39.846 So I've had to train the kids that she works with to describe everything. 00:01:39.846 --> 00:01:42.706 And what's happening? 00:01:42.706 --> 00:01:44.826 Uh, the nails are just rusting. 00:01:44.826 --> 00:01:45.556 Okay, nail is ..... 00:01:45.556 --> 00:01:48.846 Lindsay may have a slightly different experience from her classmates, 00:01:48.846 --> 00:01:51.496 but the knowledge she's gaining is the same. 00:01:51.496 --> 00:01:54.876 The color changes aren't just to see, "Oh, wow, it's turning blue." 00:01:54.876 --> 00:02:00.136 The point is to see, wait, copper is blue; okay, that's why it's turning blue. 00:02:00.136 --> 00:02:02.596 Here are the controls for our telescope. 00:02:02.596 --> 00:02:07.366 An interest in science or math is a great benefit to 21st century students, 00:02:07.366 --> 00:02:10.386 leading to exciting career options. 00:02:10.386 --> 00:02:14.996 And success in those fields does not depend on perfect hearing or vision. 00:02:14.996 --> 00:02:18.706 There's an amazing number of very successful scientists 00:02:18.706 --> 00:02:21.836 and researchers that are blind, totally blind. 00:02:21.836 --> 00:02:23.766 So find the Burke Museum. 00:02:23.766 --> 00:02:25.696 Richard Ladner is a computer science 00:02:25.696 --> 00:02:29.086 and engineering professor at the University of Washington. 00:02:29.086 --> 00:02:33.166 He's working with a group of graduate students on software which will be helpful 00:02:33.166 --> 00:02:35.236 to students with visual impairments. 00:02:35.236 --> 00:02:39.206 The title of the project is Tactile Graphics Project. 00:02:39.206 --> 00:02:46.496 And what we are trying to do is develop a software that can convert graphical images 00:02:46.496 --> 00:02:50.956 into tactile form as automatically as possible. 00:02:50.956 --> 00:02:54.966 Tactile drawings, or raised line drawings, are not new. 00:02:54.966 --> 00:02:59.296 Tim used them when he was a medical student at the University of Wisconsin. 00:02:59.296 --> 00:03:03.846 I use raised line drawings, which can represent things such as cross sections 00:03:03.846 --> 00:03:08.856 through the brain, or what another student might see on a microscopic slide. 00:03:08.856 --> 00:03:14.356 And this helps me understand the same material that the other students might pick up visually. 00:03:14.356 --> 00:03:18.486 It can be time consuming to convert images to a tactile format. 00:03:18.486 --> 00:03:20.606 The ideal is to make that process simple, 00:03:20.606 --> 00:03:24.206 so that any visuals can be made accessible in a timely way. 00:03:24.206 --> 00:03:30.526 The transcribers can convert the images much easier than now. 00:03:30.526 --> 00:03:34.536 Currently, it takes about four or five hours per image. 00:03:34.536 --> 00:03:42.236 But it is possible to convert and process in just a few minutes or something like that. 00:03:42.236 --> 00:03:46.606 Other accommodations vary, depending on the type of lab work being performed 00:03:46.606 --> 00:03:49.116 and the needs of individual students. 00:03:49.116 --> 00:03:52.556 Students with visual impairments may need a variety of options. 00:03:52.556 --> 00:03:53.566 Okay, now push down... 00:03:53.566 --> 00:03:58.766 For students with hearing impairments, accommodations focus on one area. 00:03:58.766 --> 00:04:01.676 The main issue there would be communication and making sure 00:04:01.676 --> 00:04:08.736 that the person has an interpreter, a sign language interpreter, and things like that 00:04:08.736 --> 00:04:11.246 so they can communicate with their colleagues. 00:04:11.246 --> 00:04:14.866 Other communication tools include captioned videos 00:04:14.866 --> 00:04:16.956 and lab instructions in writing. 00:04:16.956 --> 00:04:19.826 And for students who are hearing impaired but not deaf, 00:04:19.826 --> 00:04:23.116 an FM system allows them to hear the instructor. 00:04:23.116 --> 00:04:27.976 I've got the new digital technology right now, and what it does, 00:04:27.976 --> 00:04:32.546 it has a little boot that connects onto the hearing aid, so it's wireless. 00:04:32.546 --> 00:04:33.286 "Wireless". 00:04:33.286 --> 00:04:34.616 It's really cool. 00:04:34.616 --> 00:04:39.586 And it's basically a digital connection from the microphone box, 00:04:39.586 --> 00:04:44.126 which you connect to the speaker, and then it would transmit the information 00:04:44.126 --> 00:04:45.366 to this little boot. 00:04:45.366 --> 00:04:47.546 Gretchen, does this work okay? 00:04:47.546 --> 00:04:48.756 Yeah. 00:04:48.756 --> 00:04:51.126 What you're going to do is hook the crayon 00:04:51.126 --> 00:04:54.306 to one end of the string that you've tied. 00:04:54.306 --> 00:04:57.636 The other end is hooked to the two thumbtacks. 00:04:57.636 --> 00:05:00.116 And as tight as you can, draw an ellipse. 00:05:00.116 --> 00:05:00.796 Whoa! 00:05:00.796 --> 00:05:04.916 Alan Roth taught science at Washington State School for the Blind. 00:05:04.916 --> 00:05:08.306 His students had a wide range of visual impairments. 00:05:08.306 --> 00:05:14.216 I think you need to realize that each student's an individual, so I will read 00:05:14.216 --> 00:05:16.386 and find out about their eye condition. 00:05:16.386 --> 00:05:20.326 Some eye conditions, there's no central vision, but there's peripheral vision. 00:05:20.326 --> 00:05:23.176 So I have to read ahead of time and do my homework 00:05:23.176 --> 00:05:27.956 and make the modifications based on what the student's needs are. 00:05:27.956 --> 00:05:33.376 You're going to put the crayon-- and you can show Jonathan-- and circle all the way around. 00:05:33.376 --> 00:05:34.266 Oh, I get it. 00:05:34.266 --> 00:05:34.756 Okay? 00:05:34.756 --> 00:05:34.946 Cool. 00:05:34.946 --> 00:05:36.366 Whoa, that's neat. 00:05:36.366 --> 00:05:39.036 Some of those modifications are homemade. 00:05:39.036 --> 00:05:41.856 In this class, for example, students are making ellipses 00:05:41.856 --> 00:05:44.766 with a clipboard, string, and some tacks. 00:05:44.766 --> 00:05:46.096 What number is this? 00:05:46.096 --> 00:05:48.616 I use meter sticks that are Brailled. 00:05:48.616 --> 00:05:54.376 I use graduated cylinders that have flotation devices in them so you can measure liquid level. 00:05:54.376 --> 00:06:00.196 If we're studying a cell, I'll get something like a glue gun, which I use a lot. 00:06:00.196 --> 00:06:05.366 I'll use fabric paint, and I will draw it on paper and then I'll raise it 00:06:05.366 --> 00:06:09.356 up with just the lines from the glue gun or the fabric paint, 00:06:09.356 --> 00:06:14.206 and then I've got a ready model that's dry in 20 minutes and I can hand to a student. 00:06:14.206 --> 00:06:16.476 It really is easy to do. 00:06:16.476 --> 00:06:19.876 Commercial products are also available for lab work. 00:06:19.876 --> 00:06:22.356 Alan uses a number of these with his students. 00:06:22.356 --> 00:06:30.036 A talking thermometer. 00:06:30.036 --> 00:06:32.776 The indoor temperature is 23 degrees Celsius. 00:06:32.776 --> 00:06:34.266 A thermometer with enlarged numbers. 00:06:34.266 --> 00:06:36.026 And a thermometer with Braille numbers. 00:06:36.026 --> 00:06:42.206 A triple beam scale with deeply-filed notches and glue dots to mark one-gram increments. 00:06:42.206 --> 00:06:44.196 A light sensor with audio signals. 00:06:46.196 --> 00:06:48.356 or how much light is filtering through. 00:06:48.356 --> 00:06:54.126 Red , orange , yellow 00:06:54.126 --> 00:06:56.766 A graduated cylinder with large print 00:06:56.766 --> 00:07:01.106 and a notched plunger marked in 5 milliliter increments. 00:07:01.106 --> 00:07:03.636 Raised-line drawings with Braille labels. 00:07:17.466 --> 00:07:22.186 And more and more of the iron nail is flaking off. 00:07:22.186 --> 00:07:25.766 Students can take lab notes using portable Braillers 00:07:25.766 --> 00:07:29.856 or microcomputers with text-to-speech software. 00:07:29.856 --> 00:07:34.036 For Lindsay's chemistry class, she also uses a larger Perkins Brailler 00:07:34.036 --> 00:07:36.446 to make scientific notations. 00:07:36.446 --> 00:07:39.546 She takes her exams in the Student Services office. 00:07:39.546 --> 00:07:44.046 The last test that we had was on balancing chemical equations. 00:07:44.046 --> 00:07:51.896 So I write the test, they convert the test to Braille, 00:07:51.896 --> 00:07:54.076 they give her the test in Braille, 00:07:54.076 --> 00:07:57.086 then she uses the special chemical symbols Brailler. 00:07:57.086 --> 00:08:00.706 Did you have a chance to look over the lab with him, so you know what's going to happen? 00:08:00.706 --> 00:08:01.326 Yeah. 00:08:01.326 --> 00:08:04.976 Kay Adamson, in the Student Services office, offers support 00:08:04.976 --> 00:08:08.166 and assistance to both students and teachers. 00:08:08.166 --> 00:08:12.506 Before Lindsay started chemistry class, Kay offered advice to her teacher. 00:08:12.506 --> 00:08:16.756 Just sort of teaching him a little bit about blindness, 00:08:16.756 --> 00:08:19.746 like what kinds of things he might need to pay attention to in his class. 00:08:19.746 --> 00:08:25.416 For example, when he writes something on the white board, to say what he's written. 00:08:25.416 --> 00:08:27.836 Or to just kind of check with Lindsay. 00:08:27.836 --> 00:08:32.446 When he's giving a demonstration, we've tried to adapt some of them 00:08:32.446 --> 00:08:38.436 so that Lindsay can see all the pieces when he does the demonstration. 00:08:38.436 --> 00:08:41.666 He tries to stand in front of her 00:08:41.666 --> 00:08:46.396 when he's talking about...when he has a model, for example. 00:08:46.396 --> 00:08:47.076 Why do you think it's green? 00:08:47.076 --> 00:08:48.806 It was blue before. 00:08:48.806 --> 00:08:50.376 Because of the... 00:08:50.376 --> 00:08:50.646 The iron? 00:08:50.646 --> 00:08:52.236 Ah, the iron, that's right. 00:08:52.236 --> 00:08:55.386 And, of course, Lindsay herself is a good resource for teachers. 00:08:55.386 --> 00:08:57.216 She's been doing this a long time. 00:08:57.216 --> 00:09:03.916 She's been accommodating to school longer than I've been accommodating my classroom to her, 00:09:03.916 --> 00:09:06.596 so she knows a lot of things that she needs. 00:09:06.596 --> 00:09:10.026 Yeah, that's what's nice about an eyepiece, there's the focus right here, 00:09:10.026 --> 00:09:13.016 you can focus it for your eyesight. 00:09:13.016 --> 00:09:13.116 Okay. 00:09:13.116 --> 00:09:16.886 Shaun, another student who loves science, would agree with that. 00:09:16.886 --> 00:09:20.246 He's learned how to accommodate his visual impairment during lab work. 00:09:20.246 --> 00:09:23.126 Microscopes were a particular challenge. 00:09:23.126 --> 00:09:25.096 Microscopes are generally pretty small, 00:09:25.096 --> 00:09:29.706 and then even when you have something smaller underneath it, I can't see details sometimes. 00:09:29.706 --> 00:09:34.156 So I have to use a television, like a television link with the microscope. 00:09:34.156 --> 00:09:37.196 Shaun's done his own frog dissection, 00:09:37.196 --> 00:09:40.836 but relied on his lab partner for assistance with a fetal pig. 00:09:40.836 --> 00:09:42.636 He told me what he was doing cutting-wise. 00:09:42.636 --> 00:09:47.106 I can, basically, you know, cutting from...cutting the parts open, 00:09:47.106 --> 00:09:52.046 cutting the cavity open, you know, opening it all up and then tell me what he was pointing to, 00:09:52.046 --> 00:09:56.836 or how he was doing something, because I couldn't see well enough to do it myself. 00:09:56.836 --> 00:10:00.816 Shaun uses beakers with enlarged marks, materials with large print 00:10:00.816 --> 00:10:04.226 and high contrast, and sometimes enlarged drawings of organs 00:10:04.226 --> 00:10:07.486 for things he can't see during dissection. 00:10:07.486 --> 00:10:11.456 And besides working with a partner, he collaborates with his teacher on accommodations. 00:10:11.456 --> 00:10:15.006 Best thing I can recommend to anybody is just talk to your teacher 00:10:15.006 --> 00:10:17.676 and modify your experiments, because a lot of stuff was too dangerous for me 00:10:17.676 --> 00:10:19.876 to do without a partner, by myself. 00:10:19.876 --> 00:10:22.626 Just have the teacher help you, either after school or before school, 00:10:22.626 --> 00:10:25.906 just find a way to do it, because it's really fun when you can do the experiments. 00:10:25.906 --> 00:10:29.416 First I'll send around the skull of a man.... 00:10:29.416 --> 00:10:32.786 Marsha Ogilvie has seen the classroom from both sides. 00:10:32.786 --> 00:10:36.676 She was in college, taking science classes, when she became blind. 00:10:36.676 --> 00:10:44.636 In human genetics class I used pipe cleaners to build strands of DNA, human DNA. 00:10:44.636 --> 00:10:49.776 And they worked perfectly because it's basically a ladder-like structure, 00:10:49.776 --> 00:10:53.946 and you could do random mutations and stuff like that by taking rungs out of the ladder, 00:10:53.946 --> 00:10:57.766 or putting different size rungs back in the ladders 00:10:57.766 --> 00:11:00.546 that connected the two strands of pipe cleaners. 00:11:00.546 --> 00:11:02.906 And so it worked real well. 00:11:02.906 --> 00:11:07.446 Marsha went on to study biological anthropology in graduate school. 00:11:07.446 --> 00:11:11.676 She found that studying bones worked well as a tactile experience. 00:11:11.676 --> 00:11:14.926 If you know the structure of a bone, 00:11:14.926 --> 00:11:18.626 then if there's an abnormality there it jumps at you instantly. 00:11:18.626 --> 00:11:24.656 So that's how you can get at disease processes that have affected bones. 00:11:24.656 --> 00:11:27.026 For right now, we're going to tell the police, "Well, 00:11:27.026 --> 00:11:31.026 that doesn't look like it could be hers; it might be someone else." 00:11:31.026 --> 00:11:33.206 Marsha's business is analyzing bones 00:11:33.206 --> 00:11:36.386 to determine whether they're prehistoric or modern. 00:11:36.386 --> 00:11:40.276 And if modern, she looks for medical or legal significance. 00:11:40.276 --> 00:11:43.056 She has advice for students who plan careers in science. 00:11:43.056 --> 00:11:45.706 They need to take major responsibility. 00:11:45.706 --> 00:11:52.406 And you just have to, by your example, show people what you're capable of. 00:11:52.406 --> 00:11:55.906 Because if they haven't tried it, they don't know. 00:11:55.906 --> 00:11:56.126 Go. 00:11:56.126 --> 00:12:01.076 For teachers and professors, the most important element for success may be attitude. 00:12:01.076 --> 00:12:01.726 Okay. 00:12:01.726 --> 00:12:06.646 Expect participation, listen to your student, and be willing to make accommodations. 00:12:06.646 --> 00:12:09.376 You're going to encounter all kinds of different people in your life 00:12:09.376 --> 00:12:12.836 and you just can't go along the way you normally do in some situations. 00:12:12.836 --> 00:12:15.786 And you have to give a little and you will actually get a lot out of it. 00:12:15.786 --> 00:12:20.506 You know, my advice to faculty members is just adapt a little bit. 00:12:20.506 --> 00:12:23.266 After all, this blind person has to adapt a lot. 00:12:23.266 --> 00:12:27.766 Seek advice from disability services staff at your school and work with the student 00:12:27.766 --> 00:12:31.476 to determine what, if any, accommodations are necessary. 00:12:31.476 --> 00:12:36.796 And allow students with sensory impairments to achieve their own success in the classroom. 00:12:36.796 --> 00:12:39.036 There's always ways you can work around the labs, you know; 00:12:39.036 --> 00:12:42.426 there's always ways you can...for blind people to do science, 00:12:42.426 --> 00:12:46.416 and as long as you develop good communicative skills, and just being able 00:12:46.416 --> 00:12:49.896 to develop the skills in order to get it done. 00:12:49.896 --> 00:12:50.956 It's definitely doable.