Low vision and blindness education students collaborate with CeMaST to create accessible Smart Grid for All kit
Braille writers, screen readers, and tactile graphic makers are important tools for low vision and blindness teachers—as are power drills, soldering irons, and rolls of duct tape, according to students in Assistant Professor of Special Education Dr. Natalie Shaheen’s advanced assistive technology course.
“I remember in one of our intro classes, our professor told us, ’You are teachers, but you are also now problem solvers, because that is what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life,’” said senior special education major Jennifer Cousineau, an aspiring teacher for the visually impaired.
The challenge facing Cousineau and her seven classmates in Shaheen’s semester-long course involved retrofitting Smart Grid for All curriculum to be nonvisually accessible. Created by the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology (CeMaST) at Illinois State University, the Smart Grid program teaches K-12 students about the electrical grid through hands-on interactives and digital resources.
“We had been asked by a special ed teacher in Illinois if we could modify the Smart Grid for All educational materials for a blind student,” said CeMaST Director Dr. Rebekka Darner. “It seemed like an obvious collaboration to engage Natalie and her students in adapting these educational materials.”
Each Smart Grid for All kit contains scale models of power plants, transmission towers, substations, factories, and houses. Students learn how electricity is generated, transmitted, and used by connecting color coded wires to electrify, and as a result, illuminate the miniature town. For a blind student, however, color coded wires are meaningless, and lights are ineffective in signaling operational electricity. Darner contacted Shaheen—a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) accessibility expert—for assistance.
At the beginning of the spring 2022 semester, Shaheen presented her class with the problem and facilitated a brainstorming session. “I definitely did not tell them what I thought the answers were,” said Shaheen, a blind faculty member. “I certainly, of course, provided support.”
Shaheen divided the eight-person class into three groups: the instructional materials team that created an accessible digital student handbook using headings, alternative text, and Braille; the inquiry team that collaborated with CeMaST experts, including sponsored project research assistant Matthew Hagaman, to ensure all materials for the hands-on activities were nonvisually accessible; and the communications team that created support materials for educators describing how to teach the unit in an accessible way.
“I really wanted the students to be able to develop a level of skill where they felt competent, and that requires extensive engagement,” Shaheen said. “I felt they could get that better if we each developed expertise in an area in order to solve that piece of the puzzle, and then as a whole, solve the whole thing.”
Senior special education major Addison Graham was a member of the inquiry team. “The hardest part was trying to tackle the actual construction aspect of the project,” he said. “At first I didn’t realize how much we were going to be involved. And I’m glad that we were—but it wasn’t easy.”
Shaheen’s students identified the need to create a nonvisually accessible indicator of flowing electricity throughout the grid. Instead of lights, the students considered using audible bells, buzzers, vibrational motors, or fans. “We tried several ideas,” said Cousineau, noting that bells were too loud and potentially distracting for other students. “The ‘trial and error’ and problem-solving phase was difficult.”
Graham said vibrating ringers for smartphones and small motorized fans proved most effective. With assistance from CeMaST collaborators, Graham and his classmates installed the devices using a drill and soldering iron. Duct tape and wire cutters were also useful during the process, Graham said. To differentiate color coded wires, Shaheen’s students developed a knot system.
“If, for example, the red wire has one knot in it, a student would feel the wire. ‘It’s got one knot. OK, I know this is red,’” Graham said.
The students also applied Braille labels to the kit, they made the curriculum’s online electronic materials accessible, and they created an appendix for teachers describing how to teach the adapted material.
“We’re very proud of the accessible materials that we’ve made,” Graham said. “A lot of times when it comes to science, kids with low vision or blindness are essentially told ‘Oh, just don’t get involved.’ By doing this, we’re definitely hoping to get more blind kids involved in their STEM projects and science classes instead of them having to do some kind of alternative research report while everyone else works on this.
“This is a good opportunity for our blind and low vision kids to explore science and do so in a way that they can fully participate. No one’s next to them saying, ‘All right, do this, and do that.’ They can pick up some wires, string them together, and then the house starts to vibrate when they make connections.”
Shaheen estimates that less than 1 percent of K-12 STEM materials are nonvisually accessible—a problem identified by the federal government and the National Science Foundation. She said STEM curriculum is typically developed with the assumption that all students are sighted.
“We could totally change that, and we could develop the stuff—as I do in the work that I do with scientists and engineers—to be inherently accessible,” Shaheen said. “There’s lots of work to do to get blind kids equitable access to STEM, and I’m glad my class was able to engage in that work and get excited about it.”
Darner said collaborating with Shaheen and her students to make the Smart Grid for All program accessible fulfilled one of CeMaST’s primary goals—to foster a sense of belonging among groups underrepresented in STEM education.
“Natalie’s students were super enthusiastic about making these STEM curricular materials accessible,” Darner said. “I love engaging with educators who are passionate about fostering interest in STEM fields, especially when it comes to fostering interest among students who belong to groups that are underrepresented in the STEM fields.”
Along with introducing her class to the process of adapting curriculum, Shaheen said her students also developed an understanding of the equivalence between nonvisual STEM learning and visual learning.
“Beyond knowing that Braille is equivalent to reading—knowing that in a science classroom, where things are complicated and can be dangerous, nonvisual ways of learning are equivalent to visual learning—that might be the most important thing they can take away from this experience,” Shaheen said. “It’s key to them in supporting their low vision and blind students.”
Shaheen acknowledged that change in education related to improving accessibility is slow, but teachers can directly influence change one student and one classroom at a time.
“Teachers care a lot about kids. That’s why they get into the business,” Shaheen said. “Teaching these future teachers is a big key to making STEM more accessible to our kids. It will take time. It won’t be a miracle cure. But teachers can, and do, have a huge impact on how education changes over time.”
As soon-to-be low vision and blindness educators, Graham and Cousineau said they are eager to use accessible Smart Grid for All materials with their future students.
“It’s so rewarding, just knowing that our students will be able to use this curriculum,” Cousineau said. “When we’re teachers, we can come back and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to use our curriculum that we made.’ Being able to use the Smart Grid for All program with our actual students—I think that’ll be awesome.”
