New project to create accessible library make

Library makerspaces offer community members the opportunity to tinker, design, experiment, and create with a range of technology in an informal learning space. However, because current makerspaces and maker tools are highly vision oriented, blind and visually impaired (BVI) people have limited access to these learning opportunities. A new project being led by JooYoung Seo, assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences (iSchool) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Kyungwon Koh, associate professor in the iSchool and director of the CU Community Fab Lab,  seeks to address this problem by creating accessible maker programs for BVI learners and developing training materials for librarians and maker professionals on accessible making. The researchers were recently awarded a three-year $498,638 National Leadership grant…