AN APPLICATION OF SONIFICATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE FOR THE ACCESSIBILITY OF ASTRONOMICAL IMAGES TO THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

Astronomy's dependence on visual perception makes it difficult to be accessed by the visually impaired. Nevertheless, there are efforts to communicate astronomy to the visually impaired with the help of auditory perception and tactile perception. Screen reader applications are accessibility tools which help the visually impaired perceive images with the help of words. One of the disadvantages of screen reader is abstract astronomical concepts may be difficult to be recognized, especially for those who are visually impaired since childbirth. In this research, an image sonification program is designed as an alternative to screen reader applications to communicate astronomical images to the visually impaired using shape-approach sonification. The program was written using Python 3.8 programming language. The program is able to sonify shapes automatically and is also responsive to changes and differences in shapes. The result from program is a MIDI file which is then polished and exported using DAW to create music in the form of MP3 file. After a series of evaluation with the help of six people with visual impairment, we found that this method of sonification has potential as an alternative to the accessibility of astronomical images for the visually impaired with sufficient practice.