PHOTO BY TIMOTHY ARCHIBALD using translucent porcelain to the Chinese Tang Dynasty ; however , modern lithophanes originated in Europe in the early 1800s . These were thin , delicate engravings in porcelain or wax that appeared opaque at first glance but lit up in depth and detail when held against a light source .
Led by Bryan Shaw , Ph . D ., a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Baylor University , researchers analyzed whether sighted participants and those who are blind or have low vision were able to interpret the same lithophane data by sight and touch , respectively . Both Wedler and Minkara were collaborators in the study .
In recent years , 3D printing has given a new lease on life to lithophanes . Shaw and colleagues used it to create five different lithophanes of gel electropherograms , micrographs , electronic and mass spectra , and textbook illustrations .
They are inexpensive to produce , less than $ 10 for a full-page visual , says Wedler , and easy to create . “ Basically , we design an image , and then we use software to create the lithophane , which then gets transferred immediately to the 3D printer .”
The researchers found that participants were able to interpret the images by touch or sight at almost 80 % overall accuracy . Lithophanes can be very useful in any classroom setting that needs visual diagrams , Wedler points out . Unlike existing tactile graphics , Braille diagrams or tactile models , which tend to be lower resolution , lithophanes can be incredibly detailed , with video-like resolution . “ The amazing thing about it is that if you ’ re studying in a group , a blind student can feel the lithophane , and a sighted student can hold the same lithophane up to a light and see exactly what the blind student is feeling ,” Wedler says .
Accessible by design Hajas works at the Global Disability Innovation Hub in London , where , as innovation manager , he supports assistive technology entrepreneurs . He also collaborates with computer scientist and visual artist Jonathan Zong and his team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop accessible data visualization tools using natural language descriptions .
“ Our approach [ brings ] multidisciplinary academic expertise together with Daniel ’ s expertise and experiences as a blind researcher ,” Zong says . “ Centering the experiences of blind users in the design process helped us set accessibility as a baseline expectation , [ such as prioritizing ] the agency of blind users to do selfguided data exploration at various levels of detail and facilitate collaboration with sighted users .”
For accessibility to be mainstream , it needs to be more than an add-on : It
Above / A lithophane ’ s detail can offer videolike resolution .
must be baked into the system . This is what Julia Winter , a former high school chemistry teacher , learned when she founded Alchemie to develop interactive learning tools for young STEM learners .
She found a problem : Interactive , experiential learning tools are not necessarily accessible and can ’ t reach the market in the U . S . because the Americans with Disabilities Act requires learning tools to be accessible . “ We decided that we would look at accessibility first and develop our technology for the general audience ,” Winter says .
So Alchemie came up with Kasi , a multisensory augmented reality system that uses physical manipulatives and computer vision , Winter explains . “ And the pedagogy to help kids who are blind have their own experience that allows for independent learning .”
55