W ill i am D a ugh e rt y, S upe ri nte nd ent
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th Street
Austin, Texas 78756
www.tsbvi.edu
Voice: (512) 454-8631
TDD:
(512) 206-9451
Toll-free: (800) TSB-KARE
A center for educational services for all blind and visually impaired students in Texas
TSBVI Short-Term Programs Report
Chemistry Tools and Concepts
October 16-19, 2009
Student:
Teachers:
Date of Report:
Imaginary Student
Cary Supalo, Project Manager, Independent Laboratory Access for the Blind
Margaret C. Robinson, Special Programs Teacher
October 21, 2009
Imaginary attended a special weekend class at TSBVI designed to allow students who are braille
readers to learn a variety of concepts and skills needed to work effectively in a chemistry laboratory,
and to become familiar with new options for accessing chemistry lab equipment. The goal for
students attending this class was:
Students will increase their knowledge and skills in Chemistry, as related to visual needs, by
learning and practicing laboratory safety procedures, increasing their ability to use laboratory
equipment, including glassware and computer-interactive laboratory tools that use JAWS and
Logger-Pro software, and increasing their knowledge of the use of the Chemistry Braille Code.
The teacher for this class was Cary Supalo, Project Manager for Independent Laboratory Access for
the Blind, at Pennsylvania State University. We felt very privileged to have Cary’s leadership in this
class, because in fact, the class could not have taken place if not for work he recently completed.
Cary is blind, and as a chemist, understood the frustrations caused by lack of access to the type of
tools used in chemical laboratories today. Typically, these tools consist of various probes, such as a
temperature probe, that connect to computers, where powerful software records the data and permits
various kinds of analysis. The barrier lay in the fact that JAWS, the software that “makes a computer
speak” so the blind student has access to information presented on the monitor, would not work with
the software that operated the chemistry lab tools.
Cary’s contribution was the development of “scripts” that enable JAWS to work with the software
(Logger-Pro) that operates most of the chemistry laboratory equipment manufactured by Vernier.
The result is that now, any student with the skill to use a laptop computer equipped with JAWS has
access to dozens of laboratory tools that have never been accessible before.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES:
Parents of Persons with Visual Impairments:
Jamie Wheeler, North Richland Hills
Caroline Daley, Kingwood
Michelle Goodwin, Fort Worth
FAX:
Consumers with Visual Impairments:
Gene Brooks, Austin
Jesus Bautista, El Paso
Robert Peters, Tyler
Persons Working with the Visually Impaired:
Donna Vaden Clopton, Weatherford
Deborah Louder, President, San Angelo
Frankie D. Swift, Nacogdoches
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A typical set-up for a lab activity would consist of three parts (See illustration below). First, a laptop or
other computer must be a part of the student’s work area. The computer must be equipped with two
kinds of software: JAWS, so the computer will speak its information, and Logger-Pro, the software
that handles the data collected. Next, a Lab Pro data collection device must be attached to the
computer. The Lab Pro serves as a hub, allowing from four to six sensors to be used simultaneously.
Finally, various sensors or probes are connected to the Lab Pro. Examples include a temperature
probe, a pH sensor, and a conductivity probe.
Laptop
Temperature Probe
or other sensor
Lab Pro
During the course of this class, students were exposed to, or reviewed, numerous concepts of
chemistry that are found in the TEKS. Examples include:
The student is expected to:
 demonstrate safe practices during all investigations; including use of safety showers,
eyewash fountains, safety goggles, and fire extinguishers;
 plan and implement investigative procedures including asking questions … and selecting
equipment and technology; including graphing calculators, computers and probes, sufficient
scientific glassware such as beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks, pipettes, graduated cylinders,
volumetric flasks, safety goggles, burettes, electronic balances and an adequate supply of
consumable chemicals;
 collect data and make measurements with accuracy and precision;
 use the Periodic Table to identify and explain the properties of chemical families including
alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halogens, noble gases, and transition metals; and
 use the Periodic Table to identify and explain periodic trends including atomic and ionic
radii …
 define and utilize the concept of a mole;

define pH and use the hydrogen or hydroxide ion concentrations to calculate the pH of a
solution
Attending this Special Programs class gave students a chance to learn various unique skills they
need as a student with a visual impairment to accomplish these TEKS objectives.
In addition to working on these targeted skills, students practiced skills in independent living, selfdetermination, and socialization as part of their daily routine. These skills may be difficult to
specifically address in a regular school program, but have been determined by the federal Office of
Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to be an essential component of an appropriate
education (FAPE) for students with visual impairments.
Program Activities
Laboratory Safety Procedures
On Saturday morning, our class began with an explanation of our expectation that each student was
to be a “full participant” in all lab activities. Our class this weekend was “barrier-free,” with
instructions provided in braille and the Chemistry Braille Code, and all equipment tactually or
auditorially accessible. This made it appropriate to expect every student to carry out lab procedures
and use the computer software themselves.
Ready, set, go …
Our lab, early Saturday
morning.
Next, students were oriented to the laboratory and its equipment, including safety equipment such as
the eyewash. Some students said that their chemistry labs in their regular schools had an eyewash
or a safety shower—but they also said they had never explored these and did not know how to use
them. Several students weren’t sure where those devices were in their classrooms.
Safety procedures followed in our lab were discussed, including:


Goggles and lab aprons are required attire in our class during all lab procedures.
Gloves are to be worn by any student with a cut or abrasion on their hands, and by any
student who simply prefers to wear them as a precaution.
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Dangly earrings, bracelets, open-toed shoes, and shorts are all prohibited.
Mousse and hair spray should be avoided on lab day, because they are highly flammable!
Food, beverages, and even chewing gum are not permitted in the chemistry lab.
Large trays (e.g., cafeteria trays) are recommended to define the student’s work space.
Equipment returned to the tray is easier to locate during a procedure, when this method is
followed.
Safe handling of all chemicals is stressed, as are proper methods of disposal of chemicals.
Students are advised to use their canes for mobility around the lab.
Laptops are always placed on lifters, small stands that supported the laptop a few inches
above the work surface. In the event of a spill, the laptop is safer when not on the work
surface.
Laboratory Equipment
Students enjoyed tactually exploring the laboratory equipment. Some of the items students
examined or used in their lab activities included 100-, 250-, and 400-mL beakers, 10- and 50-mL
graduated cylinders, test tubes, syringes adapted to provide tactual indicators of volume, glass
stirring rods, dropper bottles, pipettes, Erlenmeyer flasks, volumetric flasks, ring stands, burette
clamps, and wash bottles.
Students learned to set up their own lab equipment. For example, they learned to mount burette
clamps on ring stands, then to loosen and tighten the clamps to support various items such as test
tubes, pH probes, and conductivity probes. Students learned to use adapted syringes to measure
precise quantities of solutions. Most students benefitted from direct instruction in use of glass
dropper bottles and plastic wash bottles.
Computer-Interactive Laboratory Equipment
Our lab was equipped with a selection of laboratory tools, including temperature probes, conductivity
sensors, and pH sensors. Each work station had a PC laptop running Logger-Pro , the software from
Vernier (the manufacturer of the tools) that collects data, permits statistical analysis of data, and
presents data in both table form and a standard x-y graph. The computers were also equipped with
JAWS (speech access software), and the scripts that allow JAWS to function with Logger-Pro .
These newly-developed scripts are the key to giving blind students access to powerful chemistry lab
equipment for the first time*, since they allow JAWS to speak aloud any information presented on the
monitor.
Students were given instruction in the keyboard commands used to navigate within the Logger-Pro
environment, and to prompt JAWS to provide various bits of information. A prerequisite for this class
was some degree of skill with JAWS and computer keyboard commands, so students would be better
able to access the data presented by Logger-Pro . Students entered our class with varying degrees
of computer skills, and naturally varied in the ease with which they developed skill with Logger-Pro.
However, all students made progress and agreed that additional experience with Logger-Pro would
result in increased skills.
Once all of the necessary orientation, exploration, and instruction was completed, students were
finally able to begin lab activities. Students set up their own workstations for each lab, including
*
Each student took home a CD catalog from Independence Science, LLC., which includes the tools
and access software we used this weekend. If the catalog has been lost, Independence Science can
be contacted by telephone at (814) 441- 2589.
connecting the probes, the Lab Pro, and the computer, and arranged ring stand, beakers, test tubes,
and so on, in an organization of their choice. Students seemed to find measurement of various
solutions using the adapted syringes quite easy. All students were able to use the probes to measure
the temperature of water as it froze and then thawed, to monitor the conductivity of three solutions of
gradually increasing concentrations of either NaCl, CaCl2, or AlCl3, and to measure the pH of strong
and weak acids and bases both before and after combination. They listened carefully as JAWS
announced data as it was collected, for example, “Temperature 0.72 degrees … temperature 1.45
degrees … temperature 2.23 degrees …” and so on. After their data had been collected and
graphed, students could direct Logger-Pro to analyze the data in various ways, such as showing the
line of best fit on the graph. Students could quickly access statistics such as mean, minimum,
maximum, and standard deviation, through opening a text box on the graph, and using JAWS
commands to read the data in the text box.
Chemistry Braille Code
Students also had frequent opportunities this weekend to read chemistry braille code, as their
instructions were written in this code. Most students reported seeing “chemicals written like that” in
their textbooks, but several said that their school handouts did not use that notation. For comparison,
here is an equation, as transcribed by Duxbury translation software, and as written correctly in
Chemistry Braille code:
HNO3 + KOH → H2O + KNO3
As transcribed by Duxbury translation software in literary mode:
,,hno#c plus ,,koh ---- *99 ,h#b;,o plus
,,kno#c
As transcribed by Duxbury translation software in “Math code, technical notation” mode:
,h,n,o#c plus ,k,o,h *99 ,h#b;,o plus
,,kno#c
As transcribed correctly into Chemistry Braille Code:
,h,n,o3+,k,o,h $o ,h2,o+,k,n,o3
Even those who do not read braille can see that the braille samples are quite different from one
another. Only the third example is correct Chemistry Braille Code. We discussed with students the
details of various expressions in the code, such as the subscript numbers found in many chemical
formulas, and the notation for the arrow (which means, “yields”).
Additional time was spent examining the Periodic Table from the American Printing House for the
Blind. We were pleased that the majority of the students in the class had seen this accessible
Periodic Table before, and a few were quite familiar with it. It was in the context of discussing the
Periodic Table that students discussed chemical families and periodic trends such as increasing and
decreasing atomic radii.
Individual Comments
We were pleased to have Imaginary as a member of this special class. He listened carefully, asked
“good” questions, and often provided answers to questions from the instructor or other students. He
was quite successful in working with the computer and JAWS, and made excellent progress in
learning to use Logger Pro. He worked with the lab equipment and chemicals carefully, and with his
partner, completed all lab activities successfully.
Conclusion
This secondary level Chemistry Tools and Concepts Class provided an intense, content-filled
experience for students and staff. The work was challenging, but some special moments were
actually quite moving, as when, one after another, each group’s Logger-Pro software “illustrated”
their conductivity graphs with an audible, steadily rising tone, to represent a line sloping up. The
students were doing real chemistry, with real tools, and succeeding. They were not merely sitting by,
perhaps serving as a notetaker, while other students carried out the actual hands-on work. We
believe that this weekend class was very beneficial to each of the students.
If you have any questions or comments about this report, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Margaret C. Robinson, Ed.D.
TSBVI Special Programs
1100 West 45th Street
Austin, TX 78756
E-mail: robinsonm@tsbvi.edu
Phone: 512-206-9476