Thanks to a 2024 grant from the Cognitive Science Society's Broadening Participation in Cognitive Science Initiative, the S-K Techincal File is getting an upgrade!
The S-K Technical File is a technical magazine for blind people, founded by Bill Gerrey, a SKERI engineer who was blind from birth. Consistent with SKERI’s long history of groundbreaking research on assistive technology, the Technical File was conceived by and for blind and visually-impaired (BVI) researchers and engineers as a reference that provides extensive guidance for adopting and performing research and engineering tasks for BVIs. Published by SKERI from 1980-1998, it was available in contemporary media formats: braille, large print, audio cassette, and floppy disk. Although no longer in active publication, the Non-Visual Soldering series has been popular with the blind community with in-person, multi-day workshops at The LightHouse San Francisco and the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Due to the popularity of those programs, there has been extensive demand in resuming and enhancing the publication by the addition of more modern formats, audio files, audio-described video content and centralized tutorial handouts. In addition, many of the current and near future projects showcasing new approaches and techniques (such as programming, data visualization, 3D printing, or online video description) are in need of multimedia-rich learning tools.
The S-K Enhanced Technical File (ETF) will be a robust online learning resource, with easily searchable audio, video, and text-based materials. Combined with SKERI’s Summer Institute, a virtual school for BVI students wanting to learn research tools and techniques for data science, SKERI’s robust internship and fellowship program that encourages participation by BVI trainees, and SKERI’s commitment to engaging with the BVI community about research and science at every stage, the ETF can help address the extensive and largely unaddressed barriers to entry in science for the BVI community.
For our recent update, you can read the Cognitive Science Society's blog here.