Spatial concepts are prevalent in the STEM fields as such problem-solving relies largely on one’s spatial thinking abilities. External representations often serve as cognitive aids for spatial reasoning tasks. Research has shown that performance on tasks that rely on spatial thinking are not dependent on the modality of learning, yet most of the mechanisms and tools that have been developed to support spatial reasoning rely on vision. Ms. Alexa F. Siu’s work as a PhD student has looked at ways to increase access to STEM concepts for people who are blind or visually impaired by investigating how we can leverage other modalities to complement and enhance learning and manipulation of spatial concepts. She will discuss two projects that investigate the use of tactile and auditory modalities to increase access to spatial information motivated by two domains: (1) 3D design and (2) data visualizations.
