By adding features to commonly used chemical-engineering software packages, researchers at the University of Arkansas, the University of Akron and Chemstations Inc. have developed adaptive technology that allows blind or visually impaired students and working professionals to perform the essential functions of chemical-engineering process design.
Led by Bob Beitle, professor of chemical engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas, the research team created a system that combines tactile, Braille-like representations that can be “read” by visually impaired chemical engineers. The system also includes an audio, screen-reading component and audible indicators of certain software functions. Researchers have also overcome a major obstacle associated with the user function of dragging and dropping or copying and pasting. A tablet computer with a customized overlay, a tablet pen functioning as a computer mouse, and alignment holes mapped to the tactile objects help facilitate the drag-and-drop function, which is the method that connects unit operations.
“We are far enough into this project for me say that we have significantly minimized the differences between visually impaired and sighted engineers who do process design,” Beitle said. “While we haven't eliminated all differences, we have reached a point where a blind chemical engineer can conduct himself as any engineer by manipulating process-engineering software to achieve improvements or investigate alternatives.”
The system has been extensively tested at a process-engineering firm by Noel Romey, a graduate student in the Ralph E. Martin Department of Chemical Engineering. Romey, who has been blind since birth, came to the university to study chemical engineering. Since May, he has tested the system by simulating and designing various chemical facilities. The extensive designs are used by clients of the design firm to improve manufacturing systems.
The teaching and practice of chemical-engineering design traditionally has had a strong visual component due to many visual tools that describe concepts and processes. This reality, combined with the fact that industry-specific software does not include any adaptive-technology features, means that professors and engineering professionals have little experience with visually impaired students, which may contribute to blind and visually impaired students avoiding the profession.