Articles

About 15 years ago, when I was doing my first master's program in science education at the National Taiwan Normal University in the capital city of Taiwan, Taipei, I was recruited by the Premier Foundation for the Blind as a volunteer to teach science to a group of blind elementary kids on Saturdays. My major was physics. When I was a college freshman, I began to teach math and science to students from the elementary to the high school level as a tutor or at after-school learning centers. Therefore, I already had quite a few years of teaching experience at that time and was not unfamiliar with teaching. I was pretty confident in my teaching and believed I could really help these kids learn something new! However, it turned out my understanding was too naive. 

Because I had no experience in teaching blind students at that time, I was very used to the approaches I adopted to teach sighted students. For instance, when I taught science, particularly physics, to sighted students, I would perform a demonstration for them to see a phenomenon so that they would wonder what happened and want to learn about it. However, this approach did not work for the group of blind elementary kids I met and tried to teach science to. "What is the alternative way I can use to get the phenomenon observed by these kids?" was the question I asked myself all the time during that volunteering semester. Little did I know this question would become the seed of my professional journey. 

As I gravitated toward STEM for the blind and low-vision (BLV), I started to ask myself: 

• What can we do to make science more accessible for students with visual impairments? 

• For students with visual impairments, do they benefit from learning science? If yes, what can they benefit from it? 

• What is the value of learning science for students with visual impairments?...

As an educator, I care a lot about access to education. Because I was born into a working-class family in the countryside, I did not realize my access to educational resources was limited until I went to junior high school when I learned from my peers what extracurricular books they had read and what science museums they had been to. The above questions I frequently ask myself have been guiding me on my professional journey. They helped me develop my expertise in STEM for BLV and see the work that needs to be done in the field. 

It is uncommon for a sighted kid to get asked why they would learn STEM. According to the literature review I did for my dissertation, white male students from middle-class families are much more likely to be encouraged to learn and pursue STEM. These identities (being white, male, and middle class) were found among the promoted science identities through science identity studies. Having an able body and being smart are also deemed essential qualities that an individual must have to learn or do well in STEM. Due to these stereotypes and biases existing in our society, students with disabilities are often perceived as unsmart, and therefore labeled as incapable of learning or doing well in STEM. 

As I became more interested and involved in the field of STEM for BLV, I talked about STEM for BLV with people more often. I have received a variety of questions or even statements as feedback from people I met primarily in education, particularly science education researchers and science teachers, in different countries. Below are the typical questions or feedback I get to receive often: 

1. What's the point for a blind student to learn STEM? 

2. It's unnecessary (for students with visual impairments to learn science). They are not going to be scientists in the future after all. 

3. Did you mean students with visual impairments learning science? I don't think they can do it. How? They should put their energy into learning something more useful for their future's sake, such as massage. 

4. It'd be hard to teach them science. How do they even learn math? 

5. That [teaching science to students with visual impairments] should be the special education teacher's responsibility. 

6. Is it important at all for students with visual impairments to learn math or science? 

7. It's not practical (for students with visual impairments to learn STEM). 

8. Can you guarantee they [students with visual impairment] can find a job in STEM fields? If not, why would you think they should learn science?... 

From the above questions and feedback, it is not hard to imagine what a blind or low-vision student's science learning situation might look like. Their rights to education might be neglected. Their future might be determined by others who do not see what they are capable of. They might not have access to STEM education, not to mention a quality one. 

Questions or feedback like the above used to make me feel upset. However, these responses showed me the barriers that need to be removed as well as the gaps that need to be filled to build a more just STEM learning environment for BLV students. As we are doing the work, let's continue to envision a world where a blind or low-vision kid does not get asked why they would learn STEM but has full access to STEM education and careers. 

• Yuan T. Lee Foundation Science Education for All 

• Reference mentioned (in APA style): Chiu, Y. T. (2020). Uncovering issues in science education for students with visual impairments through the examination of science identity at a specialized residential school for the blind. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University, Columbus. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1597844001665559