Breaking Down the Visual Barrier: Designing Data Interactions for the Visually Impaired in Informal Learning Settings

: As data literacy takes an increasingly prominent role in education, learning sciences research is investigating how environments can be designed to foster sensemaking, including in informal environments. Yet, most efforts rely on visually-based data representations that remain inaccessible to blind and low vision learners. Work in human-computer interaction has explored solutions for human-data interactions that are accessible to visually impaired learners, but few have explored the intersection of data, informal learning, and visual impairment. Because informal science engagement is a strong influence toward developing STEM identities and pursuing STEM careers, neglecting to design informal science interactions for visually impaired learners can have long-term impact on participation in science. Here we review efforts toward supporting human-data interactions with scientific data for visually impaired learners, describe our interdisciplinary design efforts creating accessible auditory displays of oceanography data, and lay out an agenda toward designing accessible informal data interactions.