Modifying an Organic Chemistry Esterification Teaching Lab to Be Accessible to Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) Students

• Deborah Bromfield Lee ^[1] ; Jarah Nelson ^[1]
  1. [1] Florida Southern College

     Florida Southern College

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 101, Nº 5, 2024, págs. 1891-1898
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • While it is widely accepted that there should be equal access to education regardless of disability status, the chemistry laboratory tends to be an area where equal access is lacking for blind and visually impaired (BVI) students. Due to the highly visual nature of the tools and skills in chemistry laboratories, BVI students often cannot easily complete the various techniques required to perform the experiments or analyze the data. This work aims to bridge this gap by using a systematic approach to modifying an existing organic chemistry II teaching lab to be more accessible through the use of liquid nitrogen liquid–liquid separation, replacement of thin-line chromatography (TLC) with gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC-MS), sonified infrared (IR) spectroscopy, pH probes instead of pH paper, and micropipettes instead of syringes. The modified lab was implemented into the normal curriculum of an organic chemistry II teaching lab, and the lab reports and postlab reflections were examined to how non-BVI students used the modifications; in addition, the student data was used to determine the success of the modifications. It has been determined that the use of the modified techniques could be useful for BVI students to work more independently in chemistry laboratory courses.