Alliance for Accessible Astronomy

On first blush this sounds like an oxymoron. Astronomy – traditionally thought of as very much a visual thing – for blind people? That’s what we’re here to change.

The first thing you have to realize is that astronomy is about exploring things via the electromagnetic spectrum – something even sighted people can only see 0.0035% of.

Astronomically…we’re all blind!

Astronomy is one of the most accessible sciences for the layman. Objects are being uncovered all the time by all kinds of people. And the idea of astronomy as a visual activity is likewise outdated. Astronomers haven’t actually looked through telescopes in decades. Today, the computer is more important to an astronomer than the telescope. In fact, it can be said that the telescope has become an astronomical peripheral to the computer. CCD cameras, much more accurate and sensitive than any human eye, gathers data which is fed to computers. It is here, on computers, that people read data to explore the universe – something that modern computers easily enable visually challenged people to do.

More than doing astronomy, it is important for people – including those visually challenged – to be able to learn about the wonders of the universe and their part in it: the variable brightness of stars, the ruggedness of lunar mountains, the vast scope of distance that is a light year. While the Guild specializes in making astronomy more accessible to visually challenged individuals, we’ve found that the methods used to do this can bring new insights to sighted people as well. It can be equally illuminating for a blind and a slighted student to run their hands over a scale model of a lunar crater.
Interested? Have some new ideas for accessibility? Or are you simply searching for a way to enhance the world – for everyone? Join us! What’s 0.0035% between friends?