Impact case study database

The focus of the Tactile Universe is on engagement with visually impaired (VI) groups, and is inspired by Bonne’s personal experience. Due to his status as a severely sight-impaired person, he faced extreme difficulties when visual verification of galaxy properties was required for his research. This led to discussions on how this work could have been made easier for a VI researcher and how ICG research could be made more accessible to the wider VI community. From these initial ideas came the Tactile Universe, a public engagement project that makes current ICG galaxy morphology research accessible to the VI community.

Context

Studies by support charities RNIB and Vision UK have shown that VI people experience major barriers to accessing information at every stage of life, from early education through to higher education, employment and beyond. While 0.2% of the UK population aged 25 or younger are estimated to have a visual impairment, only 0.1% of UK higher education students were recorded as having a visual impairment in 2017. Physics-specific statistics are limited but in the most recent Royal Astronomical Society membership survey only 0.3% of respondents reported “blindness” (noting that this includes retired members and the likelihood of vision impairment increases with age) compared to 3.3% of the entire UK population. Increasing the availability of accessible STEM educational materials is key to establishing better routes from school through to higher education and employment for this under-represented population, which is where the Tactile Universe comes in.

Project development

The models were initially co-created with VI adults to best meet their needs via 3 consultation sessions between September and November 2016. The project has had an impact from the start, with one member of the consulted group going from being “scared” of space at the start of our first visit, to asking us when we would come back again by the end.

The change of focus to VI school pupils started in November 2016, when a VI primary school pupil and her teacher attended an outreach event during our initial development phase; we used the prototype 3D galaxy models to adapt an existing activity so she could fully participate. The teacher said: *“...it was a really inspirational session, that had a huge impact on ... Realising how [Dr Bonne] had achieved what he had despite visual impairment gave her confidence to aim high... her mum said... "What have you done to her - she's told me she's now going to university to study science when she's 18."*”(S1)

Since 2017 we have collaborated with a primary and a secondary school that both have ‘resourced provision’ for visual impairment, to develop VI accessible activities that use our 3D galaxy models and are based on ICG galaxy research. Between November 2017 and March 2018, 5 secondary school test sessions were held attended by an average of 15 VI pupils each time, and 3 test sessions were held at the primary school: 2 with whole Year 5 classes (60 children including 4 VI) and 1 with 10 VI pupils and their support staff. These sessions resulted in the creation of 3 (2 primary and 1 secondary) school workshops. All the workshop resources have been made freely available on our website where the resources page has been accessed over 3,000 times since it launched in 2018.

In April 2018 we won a highly-competitive STFC Nucleus Award (G1) to fund a nationwide roll-out of the Tactile Universe, by training people to deliver our school workshops and providing either a ready-made kit or the instructions to create their own resources. 66 educators, including 5 VI people, attended 5 training sessions across the UK in 2019. 20 kits were distributed to attendees and others have indicated that they will create their own kits. The training resulted in changes in attitude towards engaging with visually impaired audiences - following the training sessions in Birmingham and London, 100% of attendees reported an increase in confidence to explain galaxies to a VI audience (S4).

Impact on school children

Our sessions increased student interest in astronomy and also led to changes in behaviour, with a teacher at the secondary school reporting that “ ...our pupils with VI have developed a greater interest in this aspect of science and STEM subjects generally. Moreover, one of our Year 11 pupils has enrolled on an online teaching course on cosmology to further his interest and knowledge... His intention is to continue with this within post 16 education” (S2). The teacher also stated that “ all of our pupils have engaged in positive questioning and higher-level thinking. Social skills have also been developed” (S2).

Since 2019 we have delivered 6 workshops to 159 school pupils (6 with VI), with a further 5 school visits cancelled due to COVID-19. Post-visit teacher interviews and pre- and post-workshop pupil questionnaires show the impact of these visits. Overall, pupils enjoyed the novel approach to learning and came away with the clear message that ‘anybody can be an astronomer’. For example, 92% of secondary school pupils (n=49) agreed with this statement following participation in a Tactile Universe session, compared with 76% before the session (S10). The VI pupils in particular felt ‘included’ and ‘inspired’ by the sessions, with one teacher who observed her VI pupil in a session reporting that “he talked about it for hours, at the end of the day he was so excited to tell his Mum and Dad”. Teaching staff also noted that their VI pupils were more involved and engaged, asking questions where they would usually not, and being a more active participant with more of their peers (S9). Beyond our direct delivery, our resources have also been used by our kit holders to deliver workshops to their local schools reaching an additional 120 school pupils (6 with VI).

Internationally, we are affiliated with the International Astronomical Union-funded AstroBVI project which has distributed kits featuring our models to 100 teachers in South America, Spain and Nepal. In the USA, Bonne has used our resources at IDATA (Innovators Developing Accessible Tools for Astronomy) workshops, engaging with over 50 teachers and students (10 with VI), and also ran workshops with 45 VI pupils attending Wisconsin’s School for the Blind.

By creating activities that are inclusive regardless of level of vision, our school workshops have also had an impact on the fully-sighted participants. For example, one secondary school pupil said “ It was good because we got to understand how could use certain tools to help him understand what he can not see” (S3).

Impact on the wider public

The versatile nature of the Tactile Universe resources is something that has been recognised by us as well as the delivery teams and teachers. The Tactile Universe resources have been incorporated into the wider ICG public engagement programme, reaching over 5,400 members of the public since 2017 at events including the ICG’s annual public Stargazing at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard event and Victorious Music Festival. An external evaluation in 2020 showed that the kit holders were “adapting the sessions to their own needs with success” (S9) and our resources have been used at a variety of events (both VI and non-VI targeted) including the University of York Astrocampus events (2019-20), the London Science Museum 2019 VIscovery day, and an International Astronomical Union gala in December 2019 attended by the King of the Netherlands, reaching over 3,700 members of the public. Bonne has appeared on national TV and radio to talk about the project, including news pieces for BBC South in February 2019 and January 2020, an interview on BBC The Sky at Night in October 2020 and numerous interviews for RNIB Radio Connect. The open nature of our resources means that they are likely to have been used in many more situations that we are unaware of.

Impact on the education and public engagement sectors

The Tactile Universe is also having a wider impact on educators and public engagement practitioners, and these sectors as a whole. Follow-up interviews were conducted in 2020 with teachers who attended sessions that we delivered in their schools. The interviews revealed an unexpected impact on these teachers - they reported having their confidence raised through participation in the sessions, and the external evaluator who carried out these interviews concluded that the sessions “provide a space for reflection and professional improvement” for these teachers. The teachers also requested help from us with other subjects, showing the value they placed on our approach (S9). Our resources will be included in the State of Ohio science standard model curriculum (S8).

The Kavli Institute for Cosmology in Cambridge has built on our resources in their ‘TouchAstro’ outreach project and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh hosted a VI undergraduate summer student in 2019 who created multi-material versions of our models (S5). Bonne has further facilitated this aspect of the project by advising others in the UK and internationally on how best to engage with VI audiences, through direct consultancy activities and collaborations, and presentations at public engagement meetings (S6). These include providing exhibit accessibility advice and training staff at the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, collaborating with European Southern Observatory (ESO) Fellow Dr Chris Harrison on a VI-accessible show that premiered at the 2019 British Science Festival (S7) and consulting for the NSF-funded IDATA project in the USA.

In 2017 we initiated a VI physics public engagement consortium, organising a meeting in collaboration with the Royal Astronomical Society to bring together people working on different projects (the first of its kind). This first meeting was held on 14 December 2017 with representatives from 7 projects. A second meeting, this time with more than double the number of attendees, held in Manchester on 15 January 2019. A third meeting scheduled for March 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19.

In conclusion, the Tactile Universe has reached more than 9,000 people across the world, including over 350 with VI, since 2016. Through this work VI children have increased their engagement with and changed their attitude towards astrophysics, non-VI children have a better understanding of the needs of their VI peers, and public engagement practitioners are more confident and better equipped to engage with this under-represented group. The importance of this work was recognised in 2020 when the Tactile Universe was selected out of 112 worldwide finalists as the winner of the Falling Walls Science Engagement Breakthrough of the Year, recognising achievements that remove barriers to scientific engagement (S11).