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The National Science Foundation has awarded a $5 million grant to a team led by St. Louis University researchers developing software for people who are blind or visually impaired.

The software is meant to translate visual content 鈥� like a bar chart or an illustration in a geometry textbook 鈥� into formats that more readers can understand.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just a visual display,鈥� said SLU professor , associate dean of research and innovation for the School of Science and Engineering. 鈥淚t has vibrations, sound, text to speech, all embedded within it. So the features come to life through all of your senses. If I鈥檓 blind I can feel it, if I print it out on an embosser. If it鈥檚 on my mobile phone, I can feel the bars in a bar chart. And I can hear it.鈥�

Researchers are designing the software to work with users鈥� existing devices, such as a mobile phone or tablet. It will be a platform that converts existing content into forms that are legible for people who are blind or have low vision, and it will contain a library of content that can be customized for an individual鈥檚 use.

The team is one of six nationwide chosen for the second phase of the federal science agency鈥檚 , which aims to bring together researchers in related fields to solve problems facing people living with disabilities.

Gorlewicz leads a team that includes representatives from American Printing House for the Blind, Washington State School for the Blind and UNAR Labs. Consultants include people living with blindness or low vision.

Existing materials for blind students can be extremely expensive. A custom order for a math textbook rendered in Braille can cost a school system tens of thousands of dollars, said , a longtime educator in the Francis Howell School District who works with blind students and is working with the SLU research team.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, tools for distance learning have grown more popular. Digital learning tools can make information more accessible to people living with disabilities, but only if they鈥檙e designed to do so, Hollinger said.

鈥淓veryone was thrown into a situation of, 鈥榃ow, we鈥檝e got to get electronic resources and content available right away,鈥� but they didn鈥檛 think forward enough to figure out how the accessibility piece moves forward,鈥� Hollinger said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to figure out how to get kids graphics, how to get them tactile material that is meaningful, that they can interpret with their fingers.鈥�

Funds from the National Science Foundation grant will be paid out over three years. Inclusio researchers said they aim to start releasing the software after two years.