Making Physics Courses Accessible for Blind Students: strategies for course administration, class meetings and course materials

TL;DR

This paper shares strategies and lessons learned from creating an accessible physics curriculum for a blind student, highlighting universal design principles that benefit all learners and ensure compliance with ADA requirements.

Contribution

It presents practical methods and insights for making physics courses accessible to blind students, filling a resource gap in STEM education.

Findings

Universal design principles improve learning for all students.

Accessible curriculum enables blind students to succeed in physics.

Collaborative efforts enhance course accessibility and inclusivity.

Abstract

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that U.S. institutions of higher education provide "reasonable accommodations" to students with disabilities to ensure equal educational opportunities. However, despite the key role of physics as a gateway to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) studies, only limited resources exist for teaching physics to students who are blind or visually impaired. Here we share lessons from our experience creating an accessible physics curriculum for a blind physics major. The authors include the student himself, a blind physics B.S. who graduated from a different institution, a PhD chemist and consultant on STEM accessibility who is himself blind, and several sighted educators and course assistants who worked regularly with the students. Throughout this effort, we learned that many of the principles of universal design described herein enhanced learning for all of our students.