About the NFB Info About Vision Loss For...Members Resources Products and Technology Publications

The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award

Letter of Recommendation Form
Thank you for your support of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Awards program.
Please complete the form below to submit your letter of recommendation in support of the award nominee. Recommendations cannot exceed 800 words. You will not be able to submit your recommendation if the maximum word count exceeds 800 words.
Please note that recommendations should come from someone other than the person who nominated the candidate. Please note that required fields on this form are indicated by an asterisk (*).

* Nominee Name:
* Your First Name:
* Your Last Name:
* Your State:
* Your Phone Number:
* Your Email Address:
* Your Relationship to Nominee:

Please enter your letter of recommendation in the text area provided below: Dr Nic Bonne Tactile Universe project lead Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation Dennis Sciama Building University of Portsmouth Portsmouth, HAMPSHIRE United Kingdom, PO1 3FX nicolas.bonne@port.ac.uk April 10th 2023 To the members of the NFB’s Dr Jacob Bolotin Award Committee, Statement of support for GLAS Education’s submission for the Bolotin Award My name is Dr Nic Bonne and I am an astronomer and science communicator based in the UK. I currently lead the award winning public engagement project, the Tactile Universe, which is creating educational resources to improve access to astronomy for blind and vision impaired students across the UK and internationally. I am also one of only a handful of blind individuals currently working professionally in the field of astronomy. I have collaborated with Kate Meredith (former Director of Education Outreach at Yerkes Observatory, now President and Director of GLAS Education) and GLAS Education on work involving opening up topics in astronomy to the blind and vision impaired community since 2016. Sonification, as a mode of accessing data has many unique advantages for both vision impaired and sighted users alike, for education and for research. It gives users a chance to hear overly visual data rather than seeing it, or in some cases, to layer extra information on top of existing visuals. It is a field which is growing in popularity, but one that the wider astronomical community can still view as ‘gimmicky’ rather than useful at times, despite the clear potential for this work to widen access to astronomy. There is a growing number of individuals and groups who see the value in sonification working on projects globally, but until recently, many of these groups worked in isolation, practiced poor evaluation and user testing, did not often publish their results, and struggled to promote and share their work. In February 2020 Kate and GLAS identified these issues and decided to do something about them. With no real financial backing, they created a network and began hosting and coordinating a series of roughly monthly online meetings called Sonification World Chat (SWC). Over the last 3 years the meetings have provided a space for those already invested in sonification, or those interested in getting involved to share experiences, projects and best practices. The community invested in this network has steadily grown and involves a number of educators and researchers who are blind or vision impaired. The network has also spawned a working group called Sonification World Chat ‘Learn’ which is focusing more closely on resource creation for formal and informal education, with the aim of normalising the use of sonification in these settings. In 2021 and 2022, members of SWC (Kate and myself included) ran the Audible Universe (online) and Audible Universe 2 (in-person/online) meetings through Lorentz Centre in the Netherlands. These meetings brought together groups from the astronomy sonification community as well as sound experts to share ideas with a particular focus on best practice around design and evaluation. Both meetings were extremely successful and have resulted in a number of high profile publications in Nature and an upcoming publication in the ICAD (International Community for Auditory Display) journal. These publications are already helping to improve the credibility of sonification in the eyes of many astronomers. In the context of these meetings Kate and GLAS provided support and expertise to make sure that the meeting sessions and documents were fully accessible for blind and vision impaired meeting attendees. Speaking from personal experience, accessibility in meeting is often something I have fight for, and I know that the other BVI participants appreciated the effort that went into this as well. It’s also important for me to emphasise the impact Kate and GLAS have had on me as an individual with a vision impairment. As well as working with Kate and GLAS on several projects, Kate has acted as a mentor, helping me realise that my experiences as a young person with a vision impairment chasing my dream of becoming an astronomer could be valuable and inspirational to others. Without Kate’s advice, support and encouragement, the Tactile Universe project would never have gotten off the ground, and would not have grown into the successful project it is today. On a very personal level, Kate has always treated me like an expert (something that my peers don’t always do) and has helped me realise the strength of the unique perspectives that my vision impairment gives me in the field of astronomy. For the reasons I’ve outlined above, I very much support GLAS Educations application for the 2023 Bolton Award for the important work they have done in supporting and coordinating efforts in the growing field of astronomy data sonification from 2020 to present. Though GLAS received a Bolton award in 2020, I believe that the work they have done between now and then is significant enough to warrant a second award. Yours Sincerely Dr Nic Bonne
To avoid multiple recommendation submissions, please click submit one time only.

The Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award

Letter of Recommendation Form