A common skill to be developed by students in astronomy topics is interpreting astronomical data, which is often represented on plots and graphs. These visual modes of communicating data make astronomy concepts inaccessible to blind and visually impaired (BVI) students. In order to convey the information on these plots to BVI students, teachers are often forced to describe the plots to the students, which inhibits their ability to synthesize what the data is telling them and draw their own conclusions about astronomy concepts. In order to make astronomy more accessible, multi-modal models that stimulate different senses other than the visual sense can be employed. For example, a tactile model like a skymap that BVI students can touch, almost like a topographical globe, can be 3D printed and would allow them to map out constellations and note the locations of celestial bodies in the sky. In a future classroom, I would work to devise mutli-modal models that would make astronomy more accessible to my students. By using these models, I would be making sure that all students can engage with astronomy content in a way that allows them to think critically about what they are observing, and draw conclusions about astronomical concepts from those observations.

One application of multi-modal sensory models is audio descriptions of images. An organization called Astroaccessible, which is dedicated to making astronomy more accessible to BVI individuals, has undertaken a project called "The Universe in Words," which has the goal of enabling BVI students to hear the universe by creating audio descriptions of images of well-known objects in the subject of astronomy, such as the crab nebula (pictured to the right). Not only do audio descriptions make astronomy more accessible to BVI students, they also can foster a more thorough and in-depth understanding of the image for all students by guiding students through what the image is showing and highlighting the most important components of an image, as well as explaining the scientific significance of those components. In a future classroom, I would utilize audio descriptions of astronomy images made by others or myself in order to both make the topics more accessible for BVI students and enhance the learning of all students.

Sonification is a method of representing data with non-speech audio that has been around for a while, but has only recently begun to be applied to astronomy. Sonified images allow BVI students to gain a conceptual understanding of an image without actually seeing it. In a sonified image, a bar or other visual aid commonly guides a viewer's eye as they hear the image. In the sonified image, volume typically coresponds to brightness (louder sound means a brighter object) and pitch corresponds to location within the image (higher pitch, closer to the top of the image). The audio is also typically mixed so that the audio shifts from the left ear to the right ear as a bar moves across the image. Several projects have been undertaken by organizations like NASA to convert data into sound, but this is something that can be accomplished by individuals using computer programs. In the future, I plan to use my knowledge of Python and other coding langauges, as well as skills I have developed in astronomy research here at TCNJ, to sonify astronomy data. This will again allow astronomy topics to be more accessible to BVI students. Sonification will also allow all students to experience astronomy data in a new and unique way, especially since our ears are better able to perceive minute differences in this type of data than our eyes can.

Tactile models are a useful tool for visualizing the universe in a new and interactive way. A common type of tactile model used to improve the accessibility of astronomy are 3D printed celestial spheres, which are essentially maps of stars on the sky. These models map out stars and often connect stars together into constellations to allow students to visualize how ancienct cultures connected stars together to tell a story. Additionally, by designing the model to have stars be printed larger if they are brighter, it further allows students to conceptualize how the night sky appears. Tactile models can be acquired from institutions, such as the Space Telescope Institute or NASA (for example, tactile panels of the Pillars of Creation and Stephen's Quintet, shown to the right). There are also several 3D print files available online which anyone can print, as long as they have access to a 3D printer. In the future, it is my hope to have several varieties of tactile models available to students in my classroom, and possibly design my own to 3D print. 

All of these multi-modal models of the universe—tactile models, audio descriptions, and sonification—can be combined into accessible planetarium shows. There are many resources available that can be utilized to make these events a reality. The Space Telescope Institute distributes detailed tactile panels of famous images, such as the Pillars of Creation and Stephan's Quintet. 3D print files are often available and ready to use, often for free, especially from agencies like NASA. NASA additionally has a host of data sonifications and extremely detailed audio/visual descriptions available; it is also worthwhile to provide descriptions of the presenter and the planetarium space to enhance BVI students' experience even further. Seeing as TCNJ has an operational planetarium which often hosts shows which are free and available to the public to attend, in the future I would love to collaborate with the astrophysics professors within the Physics Department to develop an accessible planetarium show that not only my students could attend, but also other BVI individuals in the area who may have never had the chance to experience the stars in this way before.