Teaching labs for blind students: equipment to measure standing waves on a string

TL;DR

This paper presents an adapted physics lab for blind students to measure standing wave wavelengths on a string using sound, enabling inclusive participation in standard engineering courses.

Contribution

It introduces a novel auditory method for measuring standing waves, making physics labs accessible to blind students.

Findings

Blind students can accurately measure standing wave wavelengths using sound cues.

The adapted lab enables inclusive participation in physics education.

The method is effective and can be implemented in standard courses.

Abstract

We designed a Physics Teaching Lab experience for blind students to measure the wavelength of standing waves on a string. Our adaptation consisted of modifying the determination of the wavelength of the standing wave, which is usually done by visual inspection of the nodes and antinodes, using the sound volume generated by a guitar pickup at different points along the string. This allows one of the blind students at our University to participate simultaneously as their classmates in the laboratory session corresponding to the wave unit of a standard engineering course.