Achi news desk-
WASHINGTON –
While eclipse watchers look to the sky, people who are blind or visually impaired will be able to hear and feel the celestial event.
Audio and touch devices will be available at public gatherings on April 8, when a total solar eclipse crosses North America, with the moon blowing out the sun for a few minutes.
“Eclipses are very beautiful things, and everyone should be able to experience it once in their life,” said Yuki Hatch, a high school senior in Austin, Texas.
Hatch is a visually impaired student and space enthusiast who hopes to one day become a computer scientist for NASA. On eclipse day, she and her classmates at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired plan to sit outside in the school’s grassy quad and listen to a small device called a LightSound box that translates change light into sounds.
When the sun is bright, there will be high, delicate flute notes. As the moon begins to cover the sun, the mid-range notes are clarinet notes. Darkness is rendered by a low clicking sound.
“I’m looking forward to being able to hear the eclipse instead of seeing it,” Hatch said.
The LightSound device is the result of a collaboration between Wanda Diaz-Merced, an astronomer who is blind, and Harvard astronomer Allyson Bieryla. Diaz-Merced regularly converts her data into audio to analyze patterns for her research.
A prototype was first used during the 2017 solar eclipse that crossed the United States, and the handheld device has been used in other eclipses.
This year, they are working with other organizations with the goal of distributing at least 750 devices to locations hosting eclipse events in Mexico, the United States and Canada. Workshops were held at universities and museums to build the devices, and DIY instructions were provided on the group’s website.
“The sky belongs to everyone. And if this event is available to the rest of the world, it must also be available to the blind,” said Diaz-Merced. “I want students to be able to hear the eclipse, to hear the stars.”
The Perkins Library — affiliated with the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts — plans to broadcast the changing tones of the LightSound device over Zoom for members to listen online and by phone, said outreach manager Erin Fragola.
In addition to students, many of the library’s senior patrons have age-related vision loss, she said.
“We are trying to find ways to make things more accessible to everyone,” he said.
Others will experience the solar event through the sense of touch, with the Tivideb tablet from Indiana’s Tactile Engineering. The tablet is about the size of a mobile phone with rows of dots that appear up and down. It can be used for a variety of purposes: reading Braille, feeling graphics and film clips, playing video games.
For the eclipse, “A student can put his hand over the device and feel the moon slowly move over the sun,” said Wunji Lau of Tactile Engineering.
The Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired began incorporating the tablet into its curriculum last year. Some of the school’s students experienced a “ring of fire” eclipse last October with the tablet.
Sophomore Jazmine Nelson is looking forward to joining the expected crowd at NASA’s major eclipse viewing event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the tablet will be available.
With the tablet, “You can feel like you’re part of something,” he said.
Her classmate Minerva Pineda-Allen, a junior, added. “This is a very rare opportunity, I may not get this opportunity again.”
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