Ep. 7 Dr. Sunggye Hong: Innovating for Inclusion—On the Convergence of Assistive Technology and Multisensory Science Education

In this episode of the Inquiry Oasis, host Jeffrey Anthony sits down with Dr. Sunggye Hong, a leading faculty member at the University of Arizona's College of Education, who is breaking new ground in the realm of accessible science education for the visually impaired. Dr. Hong elucidates the transformative possibilities that lie at the intersection of assistive technology, multisensory approaches, and STEM curricula. Their conversation takes us on a journey from the barriers of traditional educational paradigms to the frontiers of inclusivity, revealing how Dr. Hong's work is not merely about accommodation, but about redefining the very fabric of educational experiences. Tune in to discover an inspiring narrative that challenges us to think differently about the role of technology and sensory diversity in shaping a more equitable academic landscape.

Topics Covered:

• The Evolution of Assistive Technology
• The Significance of Multisensory Learning
• The Role of Planetary Science in Inclusive Education
• Navigating the Barriers to Accessibility in STEM
• The Impact of High Expectations on Students with Visual Impairments
• Dr. Hong's Personal Journey and Motivations
• Community Benefits of Inclusive Research at the University of Arizona
• Future Horizons: Dr. Hong's Vision for Assistive Technologies

Book Recommendation:

• Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma

Transcript

Jeffrey Anthony: 0:02

Welcome to the Inquiry Oasis, a University of Arizona College of Education and Podcast. Here in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, we bring you conversations with our esteemed faculty and staff whose research impacts lives from Southern Arizona to the far reaches of the globe. Recording From the College of Education's Digital Innovation and Learning Lab, we explore the transformative power of education in this border town where diverse cultures and ideas converge, weaving a tapestry of innovation with compassion and a sense of wonder. Join us as we journey through the sands of curiosity, unearthing insights that enrich and inspire. So sit back and relax as we invite you to dive into the inquiry Oasis. Thank you for tuning into the Inquiry Oasis. I'm your host, Jeffrey Anthony, and today we're honored to welcome Dr. Sunggye Hong, an associate professor in the Department of Disability and psychoeducational studies and David and Minnie Myerson's, Distinguished Professor and Special Education Unit Chair at the University of Arizona College of Education. Dr. Hong has dedicated his career to promoting equal access to educational opportunities for students who are blind or visually impaired with or without additional disabilities. His research encompasses areas such as braille reading, assistive technology, and the STEM education of students with visual impairments. Whether it's through teaching class, I'm gonna start over there, whether it's through teaching classes on braille literacy development. Nemeth code or devising instructional strategies for students with visual impairments. Dr. Hong's work is a testament to his commitment to inclusivity and accessibility. And this brings us to the topic of our discussion today. We will delve into Dr. Hong's extensive research and explore how his efforts are shaping the future of education for visually impaired students. We'll also discuss his perspectives on technology, pedagogical strategies and the importance of equal access in educational settings. So without further ado, let's embark on this enlightening journey with Dr. Hong here in the inquiry Oasis. It's an honor to be speaking with you, Dr. Hong.

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 2:04

Hello, and nice to be here.

Jeffrey Anthony: 2:06

So before we delve into the intricacies of your work in visual impairment education, I was hoping you could share with our audience your background and the motivation that has guided this remarkable path you are on.

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 2:16

I don't know if the remarkable, that word is the right word, to, uh, describe who I am. Mainly my work has been, you know, identified probably to a degree and promoted by my own needs. To those of you who are listening into, this program, I'm a person who, is visually impaired and I'm completely blind and has been brail reader, for my entire life. And so as a child with visual impairments, I've gone through schools and learned things with touch. And, and through that process, you know, I've thought a lot about, like, I'm, giving this question to myself like, what is it to be blind in our society? And that's probably is very cultural question to a degree. But on, on top of that, the public usually would approach, the idea of being blind or being disabled as very quote unquote pity or, uh, emotional, subjects. And, As a child, I thought that there gotta be better way of dealing with this than simply saying like, oh, what a pity, a, you know, blind person or, what can I help you with? You know, that, that kind of, of, approach. as I was growing up, I was hoping that, there would be things that I would be able to, take care of the needs of my own as well as, students and children like who I am, who, who can't see things, and, but in the meantime would like to become a contributing citizen in the society and being able to maintain, quote unquote "normal" life. And so that's, I guess what took me here. And, probably spent the majority of my energy for, researching, studying, and, you know, uh, working and, meeting people on top of my needs or my own personal, needs as playing guitar as my fun thing to do, right? that's probably what, took me here.

Jeffrey Anthony: 4:15

So we're eager to hear about the focus of your research. What drives your investigations into braille reading assistive technology, and the STEM education for students with visual impairments?

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 4:25

Well, I've talked about the questions, as we were to, talk questions, about like what is the tool to make the student with visual impairments to be productive and contributing citizens into the community and into the society. There are some words, that guided, my mind and one is to be equitable, and that's because we as a, uh, you know, a person. As a rights to be equal and, uh, being able to, do things in a manner that's equitable. However, what often people tend to forget is the needs of being different. That is while the idea that we'd like to read books, Is same, right? It's whether you are blind or whether you are sighted, you are reading books. Mm-hmm. But then the way that you do it is different. Some people would use braille to do that, and others would use print to accomplish the same task. The things that, you mentioned that is Braille code, assistive technology and STEM education are the tools to make that process of being different, to be more accessible, meaning that, by utilizing technology, I would be able to do things that otherwise I wouldn't be able to do or with less efforts. For example, I often quotes that when I was a, uh, a student at, uh, college, a while ago, about, uh, twenty- seven, eight years ago, the way that I would, get an article out of a journal, that was, quoted on my syllabus would be to go to the library, talk to the librarian, asking the person to help me to find the shelf on the fourth floor. Grab the journal title. Come down to, the ground floor, go to the copy room and ask someone to help me to make a copy of that.'cause often if, even if I were trying to do it, there's some edges that are cut off and that, so that wouldn't work well. So then I would bring that, copied, journal article back to the Disability Resource Center and find a volunteer to record it on a, tape player. And then that probably would take another two or three days before I would have access to it. So I would receive that, uh, cassette tape and come back and listen to it. An overall process probably will take easy, you know, a week or two weeks, whereas today, if I were given a title of a journal article, I would just go search it. And, uh, being able to pull it up, open PDF, and read it, and that probably would take about two minutes. So it really, is that those three tools, the technology, you know, the braille and then the STEM. Probably would, uh, serve as a tool that, uh, make myself and, many people with visual impairments and many people who are disabled to be, better, to be included in this society in a manner that's much more, exciting and that's much more, either smooth than say without it.

Jeffrey Anthony: 7:45

Well this is really fascinating to hear,'cause what I hear there is that these technologies are building capacities for more, interactions between, people and scholarship and also learning and experiencing and sharing knowledge. would that be an accurate. description.

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 7:56

I think you did a nice job of, uh, summarizing the context here, because when I say being different, the people tend to forget that. There gotta be a way for you to do things in a certain way, but that definitely is not true in many instances and especially in our society where there are a lot of views and a lot of ways doing things. Things like multi-sensory approach where you would utilize every possible way of gaining access to things is very important. In that I think what you just described is the concept of accessibility. Where it's not just blind people, it's not just, uh, people with disabilities to have the rights to be accessible. Right. the things can be different, but in a way that we, should be able to enjoy an experience where all the things that we do is accessible. And in that, I would like to bring a, quote, there is an author that I, think is very impactable in the at, um, uh, Haben Girma, discussed that Accessibility is not just convenient, it is a human right, and I cannot agree more on her, words than that. It really, sets the tone, create an experiences that's equitable for many people. So in that we're achieving an experience where the things that we do. Although, for the same task would be different, that the task itself is accessible and that whether you're blind, whether you are not, whether you're disabled, whether you're not, you should be able to, achieve the task, the goal, the concepts, in a manner, um, that is accessible to everyone. And I think that really is what, um, drove my, research in that as a result, you know, I try to create, research projects where students with visual impairments are able to take part in science and technology and STEM education equitably with others. So there are different tools that we use in the process. We've used mentorship as an important way of, making the students to be excited about STEM. We also utilized, various, educational technology, such things as 3-D printers, and, sound as a way for these students to access, different sector and types of, STEM education. But I think what is most important that I learned from the process is both for the public and the students to understand the concept that high expectations becomes the key. In other words, it has been open coded that people with visual impairments, the employment rates, for them, Is very, low compared to, the rest of the population. it is usually coded that, only 30% or so of people with visual impairments are working competitively in job markets. And I think that's a very discouraging to a degree. And I think what really makes, the chain, to be, to break is so that both, People with vision impairments and then the public would have high expectations so that it is not just that the public would feel as if whatever the person with disabilities do things and they would see it as, uh, you know, pity and emotional. But it is that, you know, being disabled or being, blind is. An identity and it, you know, it's just a part of me. But other than that, I would be able to do things in a manner that's probably different, but being able to accomplish the same tasks and that, I would read books using braille and using technology and using voice. But at the end of the day, what I would achieve is the same as what, all other, students and faculty members would be able to do here in the campus.

Jeffrey Anthony: 12:03

You know, this reminds me you brought up, you play guitar at the beginning, and I can think of a, of a jazz trio where you have a bass player, a piano player, and a drummer, and they each have their own. identity. but what happens is everyone's treated as an equal peer and they work together to create something beautiful, in the moment together. And there's no sort of inequities in that relationship there.

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 12:22

Exactly. Yeah. So that, that harmony, right, the balance would create. And I think the third, leg, on the balance is being innovative. That is many of the things that we have done, for example, on the day, of, about like 200 or 300 years ago before Braille was, devised the tactile books that were used for students with visual impairments were created by using nail and then string and then would just copy the shape of, alphabet letters. And that would take carts and carts of, wood plates with strings and nails, and then you would spend enormous amount of time to create. Letters for people with visual impairments to, to read textually. And they had, we got the new and very innovative way of doing things called braille and yet substantially reduced the space and the efforts that it took, for people to solve the problem and to make the situation to be more equitable. You know, 200, 300 years later, we're now dealing with what we call refreshable braille display, where electronic information from internet, from your computer screen are being sent to this device. Then braille would be, created instantaneously and that probably will not take a cards of braille books to carry, but, would still provide the same, experiences that otherwise the people in the 18th and 19th century would've, appreciated. So in that sense, I think being innovative and coming up with ideas that are sparkling and uh, being able to solve problems, I think is an important aspect.

Jeffrey Anthony: 14:19

Well, I wanna move on to our next question here, which is, understanding our personal connection to our work is often key to realizing its full impact. Could you explain why this research is

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 14:28

important to you? And I think it is important to me personally, as a child, going through a school for the blind, during my middle and high school days, I was so excited a lot about science stars, black hole, and things that are happening up on the sky. And I asked to my teachers, to my friends that I'm so interested in studying for planetary science. And the answer always has been no. And they think that it is not accessible. They think a lot of it is very visual that you will not be able to contribute it for, say, collecting data, making observations, creating hypothesis and so on. So you are not a good candidate for planetary science. I think that was very, understandable at the time, right. All the reasons that they told me were reasonable, so I thought that was true, right? So I said, okay, well if you think that's not the right path to go, then I would accept it. Later when I had an opportunity talking with, many capable faculty members here at the university, and, some of my friends there at the Planetary Science, they said that actually the data that is being collected from far, is numbers. It is numeric data that we receive, however, the conversion is taken place with visual images because that's what a lot of audiences use, right? And so for that matter, if we could change it to touch, textual format, and if we could change those numeric data into sound and I should be able to appreciate the same experiences that my sighted planetary scientist would have. And we didn't know that. And from my personal own experience, and probably this applies not only to the science, but many other areas of studies that are going on here at the university campus. It is very easy for us to say that, Hey, it is not accessible. Hey, I don't think you'll be able to participate in it because many of the things are visual. But flipping the coin and thinking about the idea, that, it, uh, it is possible for us to change and make it to be accessible. So coming back to the word of, uh, you know, being accessible, it is not convenience. It is rights, right? So in that sense, I was so excited. For example, I conducted, a National Science, Foundation, sponsored, research projects that utilizes three D printing materials and, convey the ideas of geological features of Mars to student with visual impairments and use that as a motivational effect for their science education. And I was so excited, not because I was, you know, working for and about you know, being convenient, but rather I was, working for the possibility of making sure that the human rights of, being accessible is treated and understood, equitably.

Jeffrey Anthony: 17:43

Well, you hinted at this already, but, so I wanna bring it right back here to the space we're sitting in, why Why do you believe this research is important to the community here at the University of Arizona?

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 17:52

There are a couple of things that I think it is very important. One, like I said, since it's a human rights, the university has every responsibility to, provide its, knowledge and its research capacity to topics that may not necessarily be most fashionable. That's one thing. But the second thing is, while I'm talking about students with visual impairments and their needs, the knowledge of today's society is very co-mingled and interrelated. In that sense, I have a number of students from the planetary science departments who happen to be sighted and told me. That when they actually, observed some of the 3-D printed models that we create for the projects, they were able to make sense of Mars and its features much better than simply seeing it there. I think the value of my work and research, that delves into touch and sound is so that, we, As a university, and, as as a powerhouse of research would be able to create a vehicle where multi-sensory approaches being applicable to many other types of research in that I had an opportunity to, uh, run a project together with a faculty member in, Engineering departments. The idea was to create an obstacle detection for people with visual impairments. Later the faculty member was able to utilize that very technology. With his, graduate students for research in the area of autonomous, vehicles and being able to use, the system to detect, obstacles, around the vehicle. And I think that really shows the identity of these small scale, but very, distinctive and innovative type of research ideas and knowledge. It not only would just imply and affect, the group of, students, in this case, students with visual impairments, but in many cases, depending on the way that it is implied and applicable, that it be able to be used by many other, society and community, here at the university campus.

Jeffrey Anthony: 20:15

That was really fascinating. while you've been doing this research, has there been any discoveries or outcomes that have just taken you by surprise?

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 20:22

Well, surprise, I don't know is the right word to describe it. But one thing that we've learned that I think is very fascinating is that indeed students with visual impairments can become very excited about science. Again, going back to that expectation. The public often would understand that science is something that is so visual that many students with visual impairments would not be able to have a lot of fun and motivational experiences. However, when we were providing these, educational materials and experiences to students in the manner that is, fulfilling to their needs, in this case sound, and touch. They had become very excited about science. So it is not just about a simple question of can you do this or can you not do this? It's more of like, what is the way to motivate our students in that sense? With the sound and technology, I found that science can become very exciting topic and that many students with visual impairments were so motivated for science and science learning. So I thought that was, rather exciting than surprising, but in a way that was the biggest finding that I could come up with on my research project.

Jeffrey Anthony: 21:46

If you could jump into a time machine and observe the state of education for the visually impaired and the state of assistive technology, what would you love to see in this future?

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 21:54

Probably, among many needs that people with visual impairments have, one of the two most distinctive needs may be, to move around independently and freely. And then to read. Independently and freely. Mm-hmm. And you would think that both of these questions are pretty easy. Right. But indeed it is not. I was just had a meeting with one of my colleagues there in the student union and, they had this kiosk where I would have make selections. On the screen, and we're beginning to see that some of these kiosks are equipped with voices. But nonetheless, I think, with various types of signs and, materials and, colors, available for printing, often, even with the most, advanced smartphones, it is somewhat difficult to read information from different things. I'm not saying that there isn't a technology to try to solve that problem, but I think none of them are perfect yet. And then the second, like I said, the needs of moving around is another important things, you know. Things like, I'd like to just wake up in the morning and think like, oh, I'd like to go to Mount Lemon. And then, you know, if, if you are a driver, you would be able to just pull out your car key and drive off to Mountain Lemon and have nice two or three hours of walk. In my case, I probably need to call Uber or Lyft, make a reservations. try to, create a tactile map of the location where I would go so that I would be able to make some understanding of the area and how it would look. And, I gotta come up with a plan for the way to come back.'cause usually lift is not available up the top of Mount Lemon. So would I ask a favor of my friends to pick me up there or would I decide not to go, right? Mm-hmm. So there's a lot of these, not just moving around, but plans that are, relevant to that particular question of, I'd like to go to the top of Mountain Lemon this morning. So hopefully there will be something that, allows me. To sort of experiences the same way, like you do as a sighted person that I'd like to go someplace this morning and, freely you would just, do it. so I don't know if the technology would be a shape of an app. You know, it can be like a robot guide doc, who knows, right? Or it can be like, these, virtual glasses, that are beginning to be seen on YouTube and places like that, but whatever capacity may be, if there's a technology that takes care of the orientation and mobility needs as well as the needs of literacy. For people with visual impairments, I think that would be a perfect solution. And, my Christmas gift.

Jeffrey Anthony: 25:03

As we near the end of our conversation, we like to ask our guests to recommend a book or a paper that has been meaningful to them. Could you share one with our audience and explain how it has impacted you?

Dr. Sunggye Hong: 25:13

Sure. The book that I'd like to recommend is Haben by Haben Girma and Haben Girma is a, advocacy lawyer, graduate from Harvard, and herself is a person with depth blindness. So probably I'm not just talking about, the dedication that she put in. And I'm not talking about how emotional can that be to become a lawyer as a person who is deaf blind. But what I'm trying to say is that the society, in a way made a good progress, and, created these, Opportunities where we see a lot of people cannot become contributing, citizens in our society. And she described a lot about the needs of technology, the importance of accessibility, the idea of being equitable. And, her book, really gave a lot of food of thoughts, that I could, learn and especially thinking about ways that people with disabilities can become contributing citizens into the society on top by understanding her description of accessibility and the way that she thinks that, The disability is being formed culturally. that really gave me a lot of thoughts about ways that I would be able to design my own research, projects in the future with seeing disability and blindness. As just an identity, not as a defining feature of a person. So in that regards, I would recommend this book, Haben, by Haben Girma as one of the, titles that, the audience would, have access to and, learn from it.

Jeffrey Anthony: 26:57

Well, Dr. Hong, it's been a profound pleasure delving into the vital world of education for students with visual impairments and learning about what drives you and your research. Your commitment to promoting equal access. Your passion for braille and literacy development, and your innovative approaches to assistive technology are both inspiring and incredibly important. We eagerly await. Witnessing the continued impact of your transformative work within this field. And thank you listeners for joining us today in the Inquiry Oasis. We hope our conversation with with Dr. Sunggye Hong, has inspired you as much as it has us. Remember, we're back on the first and third Wednesdays every month with fresh insights and conversations, so be sure to tune in. Until next time, keep your curiosity alive and remember, knowledge is our oasis.