AT&T is collaborating with Georgia Tech to help people with visual disability to witness the solar eclipse

The AT&T Foundry in Atlanta is collaborating with Georgia Tech to create an inclusive experience for people with a visual disability to witness the upcoming solar eclipse.

When AT&T opened the doors to the Atlanta Foundry in 2013, it wasn’t a coincidence we chose Georgia Tech’s Technology Square. It’s where start-ups, college students and researchers come together to collaborate.

This location has also opened up the potential for AT&T and Georgia Tech to work together. The latest project creates an inclusive experience for people with a visual disability, during the solar eclipse on Aug. 21.

Georgia Tech’s Sonification Lab is a research group based out of the School of Psychology and School of Interactive Computing.  The team there often works with people who cannot look at, or cannot see, traditional visual displays. So they study ways to enhance wayfinding and mobility, math and science education, entertainment, art, music, and participation in informal learning environments like zoos and aquariums.

That’s why AT&T tapped Georgia Tech to help develop an aural experience for people during the total solar eclipse. A team of students and researchers in the Sonification Lab will take images and data points from past eclipses, include data points from the eclipse on Aug. 21, and turn them into sounds that showcase what is happening in the sky.  Think of it as an eclipse soundtrack driven by data.

So, while millions watch the sky, people who are visually disabled will be able to listen as the sun and moon create a symphony of their own.