Description
For almost a decade, The Tactile Universe project has been creating multi-sensory resources to give blind and vision impaired students more options for accessing astronomy. While the project is well known for its work creating tactile images of galaxies, from 2020 - 2023 we worked with local VI students and gravitational wave research groups in England, Wales and Scotland to co-create resources focusing on the detection of, and science behind gravitational waves.
As well as creating a suite of both high tech (3D printed) and lower tech tactile resources, for the first time, the team also incorporated sonifications alongside these.
In this talk, I will showcase our new resources and discuss our experiences combining audio and tactile modes, what different but complimentary information we've been able to communicate with each and how this has been received by the VI students we've worked with, as well as the gravitational wave researchers we've trained to use these resources.
