We went on a tour of the places for teaching children with visual impairments in the school building. We found out that specialized schools have essential equipment that helps students with special educational needs master the educational program: reading machines, displays, optical aids, Braille calculators, Braille writing instruments, typewriters, Braille rulers, and compasses.

 

(PIAF tactile image printer in Gymnasium No. 10 in Nur-Sultan)

Had familiarized ourselves with the available educational materials for children with visual impairments at school. We found out that there is an absence or irrelevance of teaching models and other tactile biology materials available in schools. This contributes to the impossibility or difficulty in representing biological objects, which are integral elements of the environment, which prevents the correct perception of the world by children with visual impairments.

(An outdated and undetailed tactile model of the plant cell in Gymnasium No. 10 in Nur-Sultan)

We visited a master class on planting indoor plants for children with visual impairments at school No. 4 Ostrovsky, Almaty. We found out that this helps students develop fine motor skills and a sense of smell. While Gymnasium No. 10 in Nur-Sultan, which has classes for visually impaired children, has a recording studio that helps develop students' vocal skills.

(The recording studio in Gymnasium No. 10 in Nur-Sultan)

(one of the visually impaired students during the master class on planting indoor plants)

We agreed on further cooperation with the school to receive feedback and provide educational materials.

Meetings with Ziyat Abdykaimov 

Ziyat Abdykaimov is a Nazarbayev University expert on assistive technologies and accessibility of information, consultant of the Commission on the Rights of People with Disabilities named after. K. Imanalieva and a participant in the initiative 'Coalition of Human Rights Defenders of People with Disabilities'. We met with Mr. Abdykaimov to get advice on creating educational materials for students with visual impairments.

Results:

• Educational tactile flashcards on biology and SynBio: We learned that when creating tactile flashcards for biology and synbio learning material, the size must be considered since Braille has a standard size that allows you to distinguish individual letters fully. So we decided that the flashcards would be about three times the size of regular flashcards to fit the sentences into easy-to-understand Braille.

• Educational tactile board game on biology and SynBIo: We learned what aspects to consider when creating a board game for people with visual impairments. First, the boundaries between the cells on the board need to be as large and high as possible so that they can be distinguished and the players' pieces do not move if they are hit. The works must be made from different materials (wood, wool, fabric, etc.) so players can distinguish them from each other. Also, before the start of the game, it is necessary to inform the players with visual impairments about the orientation of the moves on the board. 

Meetings with Dara Foundation

Charitable Foundation 'Dara' is engaged in the implementation of projects aimed at improving living conditions and expanding development opportunities for orphans and children with special educational needs. We met with representatives of the Foundation to obtain assistance in the creation and distribution of educational materials in biology for schoolchildren with visual impairments.

Results:

• Corrections in the creation of educational materials: it is necessary to smooth the surface on 3D models and make the Braille dots on them less sharp; Cards with numbers can be used instead of a tactile die to determine the number of moves in a tactile board game; to avoid the accidental reading of the answer on tactile flashcards, it is necessary to print the answer upside down on the other side of the flashcards.

• The Dara Foundation provided a list of schools where the made educational materials on biology and synbio for schoolchildren with visual impairments can be sent. They will cooperate with us in the shipping and delivery of these materials. The Foundation also agreed to sponsor the printing of 3D models of biological structures with Braille.

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Results of the work

3D models 

We have printed more than 30 3D models of animal and plant cells with organelles in Braille on the surface of the models and the detailed real-life-sized human heart and brain 3D models, which are sent to specialized schools for children with visual impairments and to schools with specialized classes for students with visual impairments. More in the Contribution section.

Animal cell:

(0) ⠼⠚ - ⠫⠙⠗⠕  ЯДРО (Nucleus)

(1) ⠼⠁ - ⠗⠊⠃⠕⠎⠕⠍⠮ РИБОСОМЫ (Ribosomes)

(2) ⠼⠃ - ⠺⠁⠅⠥⠕⠇⠾ ВАКУОЛЬ (Vacuole)

(3) ⠼⠉ - ⠉⠊⠞⠕⠏⠇⠁⠵⠍⠁  ЦИТОПЛАЗМА (Cytoplasm)

(4) ⠼⠙ - ⠇⠊⠵⠕⠎⠕⠍⠮ ЛИЗОСОМЫ (Lysosomes)

(5) ⠼⠑ - ⠁⠏⠏⠁⠗⠁⠞ ⠛⠕⠇⠾⠙⠚⠊  АППАРАТ ГОЛЬДЖИ (Golgi apparatus)

(6) ⠼⠋ - ⠉⠑⠝⠞⠗⠊⠕⠇⠾ ЦЕНТРИОЛЬ (Centriole)

(7) ⠼⠛ - ⠍⠊⠞⠕⠓⠕⠝⠙⠗⠊ МИТОХОНДРИЯ (Mitochondria)

(8) ⠼⠓ - ⠪⠝⠙⠕⠏⠇⠁⠵⠍⠁⠞⠊⠟⠑⠎⠅⠁⠫ ⠎⠑⠞⠾ ЭПС (Endoplasmic reticulum)

Plant cell:

(0) ⠼⠚ - ⠫⠙⠗⠕  ЯДРО (Nucleus)

(1) ⠼⠁ - ⠍⠊⠞⠕⠓⠕⠝⠙⠗⠊ МИТОХОНДРИЯ (Mitochondria)

(2) ⠼⠃ - ⠉⠊⠞⠕⠏⠇⠁⠵⠍⠁  ЦИТОПЛАЗМА (Cytoplasm) 

(3) ⠼⠉ - ⠗⠊⠃⠕⠎⠕⠍⠮ РИБОСОМЫ (Ribosomes)

(4) ⠼⠙ - ⠁⠏⠏⠁⠗⠁⠞ ⠛⠕⠇⠾⠙⠚⠊  АППАРАТ ГОЛЬДЖИ (Golgi apparatus)

(5) ⠼⠑ - ⠓⠇⠕⠗⠕⠏⠇⠁⠎⠞  ХЛОРОПЛАСТ (Chloroplast)

(6) ⠼⠋ - ⠺⠁⠅⠥⠕⠇⠾ ВАКУОЛЬ (Vacuole)

(7) ⠼⠛ - ⠇⠊⠵⠕⠎⠕⠍⠁ ЛИЗОСОМА (Lysosome)

(8) ⠼⠓ - ⠪⠝⠙⠕⠏⠇⠁⠵⠍⠁⠞⠊⠟⠑⠎⠅⠁⠫ ⠎⠑⠞⠾ ЭПС (Endoplasmic reticulum) 

Board game 

We made an educational tactile board game in biology and synbio for schoolchildren with visual impairments in three copies, which are sent to specialized schools for children with visual impairments and to schools with specialized classes for students with visual impairments. The board game has tactile cells, symbols, and illustrations as well as game cards in Braille language. Tactile cells ensure that game pieces do not fall or get lost during the game and visually impaired children can easily count the number of moves. Number of moves depends on a pulled number card with Braille. Game pieces have different types of fabrics so that visually impaired children can effortlessly find them during the game and avoid confusion with game pieces of other players. Considering feedback from students with vision loss, we are planning to make game pieces larger and square-shaped, and change the material of number cards to PVC. More information can be found in the Education section

Flashcards 

We have designed more than 240 Braille tactile flashcards on the topics of biology and synthetic biology. Considering feedback for board game's game cards, we are planning to print flashcards on plastic with tactile Braille language. Flashcards will be printed in three copies and distributed to schools with visually impaired schools.

Video lessons

We shot video lessons on biology and synbio with an emphasis on audio description of concepts and images for schoolchildren with visual impairments. Learn more about video lessons in the Education section.

Workshop 

We successfully held a master class on creating an exhibit at the BioArt exhibition for children with total blindness from school gymnasium No. 10 in Nur-Sultan: the structure of an animal cell from plasticine. Before the master class, our team gave a lesson on the construction of cells and the purpose of each organelle. As a result, each student managed to depict the structure of an animal cell from plasticine. Their works were presented at our BioArt exhibition. In addition, this session allowed the children to go beyond the school and take a lesson and a master class in a different environment.

Website and Instagram page 

We have created a website for the RemiSee project where video lessons and educational articles on biology and synbio can be found, leave your feedback and follow the project updates. We have created a separate Instagram for the RemiSee project, where we highlight the problem of the lack of high-quality and relevant educational materials for visually impaired schoolchildren, as well as publish educational posts on inclusive education for children with visual impairments.

Reportage

We filmed a reportage at school No. 4 named after. N. Ostrovsky Almaty: interviewed several children with visual impairments about the provision of educational materials, career choices, and interest in biology; interviewed a representative of the school administration about the provision of educational material, technological support, learning conditions; interviewed a biology teacher about biology teaching material and the interest of children with visual impairments. The reportage highlights the problems of providing schoolchildren with visual impairments with educational material and their learning conditions, as well as the reasons for their reduced interest in the study of biological sciences.

You can view their reportage on the official website of Remisee 

Feedback from the students, specialists

We met again with specialists (Ziyat Abdykaimov, representatives of the Dara Foundation) and teachers of specialized schools and classes for schoolchildren with visual impairments to receive feedback on ready-made educational materials on biology and synbio for children with visual impairments.

Ziyat Abdykaimov: 'You have done a tremendous work. I can give you general praise for doing all this, for your initiative and efforts. You considered all of my suggestions in the course of your work. However, you should get a more detailed feedback from schoolchildren, your target audience and users of your final products.'

Kasiyet Omarova, Dara Foundation: 'Thanks for considering our suggestions and for your eagerness to learn from experts. We are glad that you guys really care about inclusivity and put so much effort in pursuing your projects. 3D models and board game came out well adapted for visually impaired people and we will be happy to engage your team in our future projects. Our country needs initiative youth as you that can not only generate great ideas but also turn them into new products.'

Saule Lyabivovna, typhlopedagogue of school-gymnasium no.10:

“The iGEM club members found us themselves, visiting our special classes for fully visually impaired children in the school-gymnasium No. 10. A friendship was formed between the classes and the students. The meetings were warm and intense. Students talked about themselves, about studying at Nazarbayev University, and about the project. For children with profound visual impairment, there arevery few tactile aids, an individual approach to each student is necessary. It is also essential to know the specifics of working with them. The students studied everything, delved into it, offered, and consulted. The following meetings were held within the walls of Nazarbayev University. Children molded the cell structure from plasticine and were acquainted with the university. Everything was organized at the highest level. The kids were taken away and brought back on a comfortable bus. All the necessary materials were provided, and even a workshop was organized for them. So we got acquainted with the structure of a living cell. Interactive events were held, and the workshop 'Application of a biological cell' will be remembered by our children for a long time. They presented us with a board game and tested a biology board game with children. The material was very accessible to our children, printed in Braille. Our children should also be aware of all these events, all innovations. We are sure that the future belongs to such young people, although it sounds trite. We hope for further cooperation. I wish the students and the guys further creative success in their studies!”

Feedback of visually impaired students can be found in the Education section.

Summary of the Remisee work

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Accessible environment

People with visual disabilities should also be provided with opportunities for interaction, development of their abilities, and complete contact with art. Our team and Kazakhstani inclusion specialists have done tremendous work and made great efforts to create an accessible environment for blind and visually impaired visitors. The general model of an accessible exhibition environment - live or recorded verbal description supplemented with a touch tour.

Verbal description

Verbal description or audiodescrıption is a form of narration that creates a mental image of an object, expressive and spectacular art, events, and videos. It translates visual information into language. So, forming a mental picture of something helps visually impaired ones to understand the context better, participate in discussions and create their own opinion. We used two forms of verbal descriptions, live and recorded when a visual volunteer turned on the verbal description via QR code. The live verbal description was used during touch tours.

 

Tactile exhibits

For many visually disabled people, touch is the primary way to obtain information or access a work of art. Tactile models allow them to build a complete mental image of an object.

 

Braille signage

Braille signages were used to give brief descriptions of the artworks. It contains information about the author, year, title, materials used, and very brief description of appearance and a general idea of the work

Touch tour

Touch tour incorporates live verbal descriptions and in-depth tactile investigation of selected works. The trained guide describes the space they are in to help orient people and reads the prepared script of verbal description nad instructions of handling tactile exhibits (some works can be fragile). An essential aspect of having a touch tour is that it has an appropriate track which is convenient for visually impaired visitors and the guide can always encourage dialogue and responses while visitors explore a work. In addition, we conducted two touch tours during the exhibition: one for an adult audience and one for schoolchildren.

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Organization process

An inclusive environment for blind and visually impaired visitors had been organized in 3 stages:

1. Discovering general attributes of accessible exhibitions

Environment, product, or service must have a set of characteristics in order to be comfortably, safely, and equally useful to all and, especially, to those who have some sort of disability.  To discover this set of characteristics and ways of organizing an inclusive environment for blind and visually impaired visitors, we contacted the charitable foundation “Dara”. “Dara” Foundation is actively involved in creating and developing inclusive museums along with supporting an inclusive educational environment. Experts of this foundation, including fully visually impaired expert Kasiyet Omarova, shared with us their amazing and valuable experience of adapting Kazakhstan’s museums. 

Results:

• We obtained detailed instructions on the general approaches used in creating accessible exhibitions for ones with vision loss 
• We identified approaches that are applicable to BioArt exhibition, in particular, audio descriptions for artworks, tactile 2D artworks, 3D models, touch tours and Braille signage for each exhibit

2. Obtaining competencies and exploring resources  to implement selected methods

After defining how the Bioart exhibition can be accessible for blind people, we searched for opportunities that will let us implement all of the above methods. 

“Dara Foundation” connected us with representatives of the Gala Global Group which is the only agency in Kazakhstan that performs audio-visual translations and writes verbal descriptions. In cooperation with Kazakh Translation Academy, Gala Global Group  conducted a week-long training on writing scripts for verbal description and creating touch tours.

Results: 

• our team members received qualification certificates and were capable of adequately preparing verbal descriptions for our exhibits and conduct touch tours; 
• we get an idea of the implementation of recorded audio descriptions via QR codes.

Increasing the number of tactile exhibits had the utmost importance in creating an accessible environment. One of our team members who works in the Robotics department of Nazarbayev University used 3D printers to build tactile 3D models of different cell types and real-sized human organs. Schoolchildren with loss of vision from school-gymnasium No.10 in Astana were engaged in preparing tactile artworks as well. Some artists exhibited sculptural works and tactile installations. In this way, visually impaired visitors had an opportunity to touch original works of art.

People with visual limitations should also have a choice to briefly learn about the exhibit without the need for listening to long verbal descriptions. Therefore, we needed signage for every exhibit in Braille language. Nazarbayev University’s expert on assistive technologies and accessibility of information, Ziyat  Abdykaimov helped us to create and print Braille signages. The printed Braille descriptions were reviewed and corrected by him. Considering his suggestions, some of the artwork descriptions were edited and reprinted several times. Moreover, he shared guidelines on the proper placement of Braille descriptions near each artwork. We tried to print tactile 2D copies of snapshots using PIAF tactile image printer. According to Mr. Abdykaimov’s review, it wasn’t tactile enough, he suggested editing the snapshots’ color and using more simple lines for future exhibition.

3. Implementing selected methods and making final adjustments

At the last stage of the project, when we had collected all exhibits and prepared verbal descriptions and signages, Kasiyet (“Dara Foundation”) and Anna (“GalaGlobalGroup”) instructed us on the proper allocation of tactile exhibits, Braille signages, QR codes with audio descriptions and planning touch tour track. 

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Feedback and future improvements

The following feedback was recorded after the touch tour for visually impaired children of school-gymnasium No.10. Feedbacks were transcribed and translated from Russian into English. 

Aigul Kenesova, teacher of specialized class of school-gymnasium No.10:

“We were invited by students of Nazarbayev University to their exhibition. we really liked the exhibition. first of all, everything is tactile, children not only listened but also touched it all with their hands, “looked” with their hands, what a heart looks like, what size it is and etc. if last time we came to make animal cells with our own hands, today we saw them at the exhibition, Children were able to “look” at their work this time. Moreover, children were able to touch freshly growing wheat, and grass, which was very soft to the touch. We are very grateful to the students of Nazarbayev University for their imagination, for their desire to show our children something new because no matter how limited our children are in the fact that they cannot look with their eyes, now you can see it all at such exhibitions with your hands and we are very thankful for it. More such kinds of exhibitions should be organized for our children. we are always happy to take part in and visit this kind of event!”

Viktoria Tsoy, 6th grade student  of school-gymnasium No.10:

“I really liked human head sculptures. In the future, I want to be an artist and make sculptures as I saw here. I want to make a sculpture of an elephant. Also, I liked cell models, it will be great to use things like that at school. I’m more interested in arts and science is hard for me but using this kind of model will make everything easier to remember. And also I practiced my skills of reading Braille language”

Improvements for the future exhibition: 

• Create tactile 2D copies of microscopic snapshots
• Verbal description suitable for both adult and child audience
• Verbal description should consider when the loss of vision occurred
• Engage and instruct more volunteers
• Adjust pedestals’ height
• Improve the quality of recorded audio guide
• Plan several tracks for touch tours
• Increase % of verbal descriptions

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Guidebook on making temporary exhibitions accessible for visually impaired ones

We believe that everyone should be equally involved in social and cultural life. Therefore, it is essential to implement as many socially inclusive projects as possible that will change the attitude towards people with disabilities and not consider them more as vulnerable segments of the population, but treat them as active and worthy members of society. In this regard, we collected all our knowledge about organizing accessible exhibition environments into this Guidebook. We hope that it will be helpful for those who are planning to hold such kind of temporary exhibitions.

[Guidebook on creating accessible exhibition environment for visually impaired people]

More information about the Bioart exhibition is in the Science Communication section

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Quotas for the rural and visually impaired high schoolers

In total, we have collected 141 applications. 42 of them had an opportunity to attend the camp program offline. They joined in-person lectures and did science-related practical tasks by applying their newly acquired knowledge. 

Our team created 14 quota places for participants from rural areas and with visual impairments. We collaborated with iQanat Foundation which implements social and educational projects and programs aimed at supporting rural schoolchildren in all regions of Kazakhstan. iQanat representatives helped us to reach out to schoolchildren from rural areas and engage them to participate in our camp. As a result, above 40% of camp participants were rural schoolchildren with predominantly Kazakh language of education. 

Two participants had low vision. They were students of school-gymnasium No.10 in Astana which has several special classes for children with visual impairments. 

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Accessible educational materials

All of the practical tasks, educational materials, and recordings were shared with all participants at the end of the camp program so that every participant could review the topics covered. Educational materials were adapted to be suitable for the needs of students with low vision. This was achieved through:

- Evaluation of the materials by inclusive education experts from Nazarbayev University, School-gymnasium no.10, and Dara Foundation

Result: Considering specialists’ suggestions, our team prepared a template for all speakers’ presentations and edited the design of handouts

- Following the guidelines published by the National Center of Accessible Educational Materials (https://aem.cast.org/).

- Providing instruction on accessibility for speakers of the camp and asking them to use our templates

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Results

Participants who have shown the greatest interest in developing their scientific thinking were awarded educational prizes, discount certificates for IELTS, SAT, or NUET preparation courses from SmarTest Prep. Most of the prizewinners, 66%,  belonged to various socially vulnerable categories. This includes schoolchildren from rural regions as well. As the educational center is in Astana, rural schoolchildren had a chance to choose an online form of education that has the same program as the offline one. According to the data provided by the administration of SmartestPrep, some of the prizewinners have already started their courses and are actively preparing for their college entrance exams. Participants shared their positive feedback and points for improvements. You can read feedback in the Education section.

More information about SummerCamp can be found in the Education and Science Communication sections

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