Elena Sabbi
Hubble Science
Briefing
08/14/2014
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The Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project
o NASA supports E/PO
programs that involve the
collaboration between
astronomers and
educators.
o This project was inspired by the
Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project,
a 60 orbit ultraviolet, optical and
infrared survey of the Tarantula
Nebula, the only starburst region in
the Local Group of Galaxies.
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Reach for the Stars
o eBook aimed at middle school students, but
appropriate for many ages
o Designed to stimulate interest in STEM and
astronomy
o Fully compatible with iPad built-in accessibility
features to expose students of all abilities to
STEM content
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Reach for the Stars
“Reach for the Stars” is the result of the collaboration between:
an astronomer
a science curriculum and a blind software
engineer and
specialist
accessibility
specialist
Elena Sabbi
Ada Lopez
Ed Summers
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eBook structure
7 chapters
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Introduction
The Science of Astronomy
Tools of the Trade
Star Light
Life Cycle of Stars
Unraveling Tarantula’s Web
Your Future in Astronomy
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eBook structure
Highly interactive
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Each page has multimedia content
Interviews with astronomers
Data sonification
Multiple choice tests
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Page Structure 1
Each page starts with
a question,
followed by a short
answer.
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How to interact with a page
Each page has
multimedia content
• static images
• Interactive
images
• Multiple choice
tests
• video
Users can listen to
each page by
switching the “read
aloud” button on
and off.
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Interaction
eBooks allow users to
explore, play and
interact. Hands-on
experience makes it
easier to understand
and remember
concepts and ideas.
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Interaction
eBooks allow users to
explore, play and
interact. Hands-on
experience makes it
easier to understand
and remember
concepts and ideas.
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Careers in Astronomy & Role Models
Interviews of
astronomers are
spread throughout
the book.
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For Educators
The fun fact images open multiple choice
tests.
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For Educators
A glossary of the least common words and
concepts is available.
Students can highlight the text and
write their own notes.
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iPad accessibility features
Several built-in features make the iPad a powerful learning
tool for people with cognitive and learning disabilities:
Zoom is a built-in magnifier
Invert colors allows a higher contrast in the images
Closed Captions for video
Mono Audio
VoiceOver is a screen reader that lets you interact with your
device
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Why make an eBook fully accessible
o According to the NIH, 1
billion people world-wide
have some physical
disability: 295 million have
a visual impairment, and 1
million are totally blind.
o In 2012, more than 6
million people in the US
had visual impairment
(Cornell University).
o Educational material for
children with disabilities is
often expensive, hard to
access and/or obsolete.
It takes 36 volumes to translate one
algebra textbook into Braille
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An eBook for everybody
o The main obstacle for children with disabilities
are the low performance expectations that
teachers, relatives and friends often have.
o People with disabilities do not want separate
material.
o We propose to access the same material as
everybody else, but in a way that adapts to
individual needs.
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Field Testing
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Lesson learned
Each page must have
the same structure;
otherwise it
becomes
disorienting for
people with visual
impairments.
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How to interact with a page
Users can listen to
each page using the
“read aloud” button,
which is also helpful
for dyslexia and
other attention
disorders.
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Audio Impairment
The built in mono
audio feature helps
those with hearing
impairment in one
ear.
All videos come with
captions that can be
activated by users
with auditory
impairments.
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Blind Users
Users with visual
impairments can
read the eBook using
VoiceOver…
…and/or they can
use the Bluetooth
Braille reader.
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How to Explore Images
Most of the
illustrations are
static images whose
descriptions can be
made audible using
either the “readaloud” button or
VoiceOver.
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How to Explore an Image
Other images are
complex interactive
landscapes like the
Tarantula Nebula
…that can be
explored by touching
the screen.
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How to Explore an Image
Other images are
complex interactive
landscapes like the
Tarantula Nebula
…that can be
explored by touching
the screen.
We have audioembossed images
with short
descriptions that can
be read by
VoiceOver.
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Lesson Learned -1
Braille users explore
pages using more than
one finger, which
triggers actions on the
iPad. The first
impression can be
frustrating.
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Lesson Learned - 2
Braille users explore
pages using more than
one finger, which
triggers actions on the
iPad. The first
impression can be
frustrating.
Audioembossing can
guide the image
exploration, but totally
blind users complain
because they don’t
perceive size or
density.
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Tactile Overlays
Braille users explore
pages using more than
one finger, which
triggers actions on the
iPad. The first
impression can be
frustrating.
In collaboration with the National Braille Press we have
created tactile overlays to help users understand the size,
position, and frequency of the objects.
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/REACHSTARS.html
Audioembossing can
guide the image
exploration, but totally
blind users complain
because they don’t
perceive size or
density.
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The Importance of Sound
We combined audioembossing and
tactile overlays to
explore scatter plots
too.
Sound can be used
to express different
quantities. In the HR
diagram pitch
expresses luminosity.
3D audio is used to
alert the user if a
star is to the right or
the left (expressing
temperature).
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Sonification
Sonification is a very
powerful way to
express
correlations…
e.g. compare the
Main Sequence…
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Sonification
Sonification is a very
powerful way to
express
correlations…
e.g. compare the
Main Sequence…
… to Red Giant stars.
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Sonification
Sonification can be
used to highlight the
fact that in an image
there are groups of
objects with different
properties,
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Sonification
… to illustrate the
electromagnetic
spectrum, and
different wavelengths,
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Sonification
…or the presence of
absorption and
emission lines in a
spectrum.
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Summary
o “Reach for the Stars” is a highly interactive eBook designed to
expose middle school students to STEM content.
o It can be downloaded for free from the iBook store
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/reach-for-stars-touchlook/id763516126?mt=11
o It is fully compatible with all the accessibility features built in
to the iPad.
o We tested how to use sounds and audio-embossing to make images
and data available to students with severe visual impairment.
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