Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) Students in Chemistry

BVI Students in Chemistry

There has been a reported lack of blind and visually impaired (BVI) students pursuing careers in the sciences, even more so in chemistry (Supalo et al., 2016). This may be caused by the barriers faced by BVI students pursuing education in chemistry such as difficulty receiving equitable laboratory education (Supalo et al., 2016), difficulty of schools receiving specialized accessible equipment (Neppel et al., 2005), and pushback from others for wanting to learn science (Hamann, 2023). 

The literature reveals some barriers faced by BVI students, and the importance of interactions between the BVI student, instructors, peers, and themselves. The aim for this project is to more completely identify the barriers, accommodations, and the perceptions towards BVI chemists by faculty, peers, and the BVI chemists themselves to identify potential reasons for the low number of BVI chemists and to identify potential areas of future research to address the inaccessibility of the field.

A diagram showing a BVI Student at the center, connected by two-way arrows to Peers, Faculty, and Themselves.

Research Aims

  • Further explore the barriers faced by BVI students in chemistry
  • Further explore the interactions between BVI students and stakeholders in education
  • Further explore successful accommodations for BVI students in chemistry
  • Investigate the perceptions of others towards BVI chemists
  • Identify reasons for low numbers of BVI students
  • Identify future areas of research

 

Project Team

A man with glasses wearing a blue suit, light blue shirt, and patterned tie.

Jarah Dreamerson

Jarah Dreamerson completed his undergraduate thesis in Chemical Education modifying an esterification reaction teaching lab to be accessible to blind and visually impaired students. He is continuing this field of research in making chemistry accessible for BVI students in the Saitta lab, with a focus on identifying barriers and perceptions of BVI chemistry students.

No photo available.

Diego Rodriguez-Sandoval

Diego Rodriguez-Sandoval is currently working with Jarah Dreamerson transcribing and analyzing interviews as part of the BVI project.

A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair smiles in front of a metal sculpture.

Kira Garvey

Kira Garvey is an undergraduate research student. She is working on creating an outreach project which will give people the opportunity to see how blind and visually impaired people can participate in chemistry. The purpose of the project is to challenge the perception that chemists rely on sight to perform experiments and analyze data.

Erin Saitta

Erin Saitta

Dr. Erin Saitta has over a decade of experience in faculty professional development and evidence-based curricular design where she specializes in GTA training, inquiry-based instruction, and collaborative action research.

 

Alumni

  • CJ Justice

 

Related Publications

  • Dreamerson, J. T., Saitta, E. K. H. The Current State of Literature on the Education of Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) Students in Chemistry and STEMM in Higher Education. Journal of Chemical Education (2025) 102(8), 3142–3149. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5c00269