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A new approach to sonification of astrophysical data: the user centred design of SonoUno

A new approach to sonification of astrophysical data: the user centred design of SonoUno
A new approach to sonification of astrophysical data: the user centred design of SonoUno
Even when actual technologies present the potential to augment inclusion and the United Nations has been stablished the digital access to information as a human right, people with disabilities continuously faced barriers in their profession. In many cases, in sciences, the lack of accessible and user centred tools left behind researches with disabilities and not facilitate them to conduct front-line research by using their respective strengths. In this contribution, we discuss some hurdles and solutions relevant for using new technology for data analysis, analysing the barriers found by final users. A focus group session was conducted with nine people with and without visual impairment, using the tool sonoUno with one linear function and an astronomical data set downloaded from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. As a result of the focus group study, incorporating data analysis using sonification, we conclude that functionally diverse people require tools to be autonomous, thereby enabling precision, certainty, effectiveness and efficiency in their work, resulting in enhanced equity. This can be achieved by pursuing a user-centred design approach as integral to software development, and by adapting resources according to the research objectives. Development of tools that empower people with wide-ranging abilities to not only access data using multi-sensorial techniques, but also address the current lack of inclusion, is sorely needed.
astro-ph.IM, cs.HC, physics.ed-ph
42-51
Casado, Johanna
df2d2a7e-d495-4c1b-b209-e06c182d18e2
García, Beatriz
85688b60-52c9-48aa-8a53-6cddc803adaa
Gandhi, Poshak
5bc3b5af-42b0-4dd8-8f1f-f74048d4d4a9
Díaz-Merced, Wanda
80d85f15-468e-475f-a9a0-929d9efbc177
Casado, Johanna
df2d2a7e-d495-4c1b-b209-e06c182d18e2
García, Beatriz
85688b60-52c9-48aa-8a53-6cddc803adaa
Gandhi, Poshak
5bc3b5af-42b0-4dd8-8f1f-f74048d4d4a9
Díaz-Merced, Wanda
80d85f15-468e-475f-a9a0-929d9efbc177

Casado, Johanna, García, Beatriz, Gandhi, Poshak and Díaz-Merced, Wanda (2022) A new approach to sonification of astrophysical data: the user centred design of SonoUno. American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 9 (4), 42-51. (doi:10.11648/j.ajaa.20210904.11).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Even when actual technologies present the potential to augment inclusion and the United Nations has been stablished the digital access to information as a human right, people with disabilities continuously faced barriers in their profession. In many cases, in sciences, the lack of accessible and user centred tools left behind researches with disabilities and not facilitate them to conduct front-line research by using their respective strengths. In this contribution, we discuss some hurdles and solutions relevant for using new technology for data analysis, analysing the barriers found by final users. A focus group session was conducted with nine people with and without visual impairment, using the tool sonoUno with one linear function and an astronomical data set downloaded from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. As a result of the focus group study, incorporating data analysis using sonification, we conclude that functionally diverse people require tools to be autonomous, thereby enabling precision, certainty, effectiveness and efficiency in their work, resulting in enhanced equity. This can be achieved by pursuing a user-centred design approach as integral to software development, and by adapting resources according to the research objectives. Development of tools that empower people with wide-ranging abilities to not only access data using multi-sensorial techniques, but also address the current lack of inclusion, is sorely needed.

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2302.00085v1
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 6 May 2022
Published date: 31 May 2022
Additional Information: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 table
Keywords: astro-ph.IM, cs.HC, physics.ed-ph

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 476770
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/476770
PURE UUID: 77a880c1-7062-48cb-8aea-62259612e957
ORCID for Poshak Gandhi: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3105-2615

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Date deposited: 15 May 2023 16:53
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:37

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Contributors

Author: Johanna Casado
Author: Beatriz García
Author: Poshak Gandhi ORCID iD
Author: Wanda Díaz-Merced

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