Including Deaf and Signing Audiences in Solar Eclipse Outreach and Astronomy Education
The solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, offered an invaluable opportunity to engage Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, and Signing communities in astronomical education and outreach. Deaf and Signing individuals are not sufficiently included in astronomical activities: both in public outreach and in the training of professional scientists. The authors of this article, in working to improve Deaf/Signing inclusion in astronomy education and outreach, have carried out a range of activities in a variety of settings: online via Atomic Hands; at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, NY; at Boston University; and at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. We cast special attention on our activities associated with the 2024 solar eclipse, which collectively reached thousands of Deaf individuals, as well as other recent astronomy education efforts. We comment on how the community of hearing astronomers can better include Deaf/HH/Signing individuals and communities in their activities.
Authors
- Allison M. McCarthy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2015-5029)
- Alicia Wooten (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0156-4898)
- Barbara Spiecker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6895-9424)
- Thomas S. Rice (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7231-7328)
- Jason Nordhaus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5608-4683)
- Philip S. Muirhead (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0638-8822)
- Blessed Mbogo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3955-4114)
Institutions
- American Astronomical Society (US)
- Rochester Institute of Technology (US)
- University of New Hampshire (US)
- University of New Hampshire at Manchester (US)
- George Washington University (US)
- Gallaudet University (US)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2024-12-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/25c2cfeb.ad24d7db
- Primary Topic
- Categorization, perception, and language
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00