{"id":24169,"date":"2023-10-20T08:38:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T13:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/?p=24169"},"modified":"2023-10-20T08:38:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T13:38:36","slug":"baylor-profs-lab-making-science-accessible-for-the-blind-visually-impaired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2023\/10\/baylor-profs-lab-making-science-accessible-for-the-blind-visually-impaired\/","title":{"rendered":"Baylor prof’s lab making science accessible for the blind & visually impaired"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Students<\/p>\n

Dr. Mona Minkara<\/a>, a bioengineering professor at Northeastern University in Boston, was in Waco last week —\u00a0a long way from the campus she calls home.<\/p>\n

The reason for her trip? To join Baylor Chemistry’s Dr. Bryan Shaw<\/a> in his lab, demonstrating to students from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) what she longed to hear at their age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been blind since I was a kid, and all I wanted to do was be a scientist,\u201d Minkara says. \u201cAnd all I heard was that I couldn\u2019t be a scientist. So, to get to the point where we\u2019re training the next generation to have the option to choose science? I can\u2019t even describe to you in words how that hits me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, 10 TSBVI students took part in a two-day event in Shaw\u2019s lab called \u201cIn Your Element.\u201d Shaw, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Baylor, has dedicated much of his research to opening the lab to students with blindness. Last year, he earned a major grant to develop approaches that make science labs accessible to students with blindness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of Shaw’s approaches are high-tech, using advanced robotics to help measure, pour and conduct precise experiments. TSBVI students utilized a number of common lab techniques without the equipment, and then with it — and their delighted reactions to being able to conduct chemistry research told the story. TSBVI students also enjoyed experiences with microscopy, protein purification and other tasks they could conduct as a college student. But in Shaw\u2019s lab, they found a setting designed with them in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could not make a model that would ever come close to the actual experience that they’re able to gather here in this program, with the mentors from Baylor,\u201d says Neely Kulhanek, a teaching assistant at TSBVI. \u201cIt\u2019s just the actual hands-on experience and further application later. I think as a culture, our attitude toward people with disabilities has grown so much, and Baylor is ahead of the game — a forefront type of program to be an example for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Shaw, creating experiences like this in both the short and long term is important. His son, Noah, was diagnosed as an infant with retinoblastoma, an aggressive pediatric eye cancer, and is now thriving as a teenager despite losing an eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about my son and talk to other parents of children with disabilities, what they\u2019ll be doing in their 30s and 40s depends on what we\u2019re doing for them now,\u201d Shaw says. \u201cAnd most scientists are just too busy to really even care. At Baylor, it\u2019s not that way, and that\u2019s nice. There\u2019s an ethos here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s visit marked the second year in a row that TSBVI students visited Baylor, and it won\u2019t be the last. Shaw continues to build on his past work to create further resources to open science to students with blindness, and TSBVI students will continue to be among the first to experience it for themselves.<\/p>\n

Sic \u2019em, TSBVI students and Dr. Shaw!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Mona Minkara, a bioengineering professor at Northeastern University in Boston, was in Waco last week —\u00a0a long way from the campus she calls home. The reason for her trip? To join Baylor Chemistry’s Dr. Bryan Shaw in his lab, demonstrating to students from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-research","category-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}