Diversity and Inclusivity

There are all kinds of obstacles and barriers around the world. Some are visible, and some are not. But we would always believe that science has no boundaries, and everyone should have the right to learn as much information as possible about cutting-edge issues of science and technology and then choose the direction of future development freely. Our team is committed to eliminating visual and language barriers that may be encountered in the process of information transmission, including these three parts below.

For visually impaired people

Web pages are compatible with accessibility plug-ins, making it possible for people to hear the text easily and for other non-text content. Our wiki is written with alternative text (< alt >) under the label of the image, so that when a speech-reading software is used, a detailed explanation of the image, not just the title, can be read automatically. In this way, visually impaired people will not lose the opportunity to learn or even participate in synthetic biology only because they don't have access to content.

Fig. 1 alternative text (alt) in our wiki
Alternative text (alt) is used in our wiki to make it accessible for visually impaired people.

Besides, the layout of our wiki is also user-friendly, following the WCAG requirements for text blocks, contrast, and line/paragraph spacing, and is up to 200% magnification without any assistance. Furthermore, all dynamic components and video playback on this website can be controlled in case, it will not cause mental tension or inducing any mental illness.

For people with color vision disorders

There are more than 8% of men and 0.4% of women affected by color vision disorder all over the world. In the academic research field, color resolution is needed for many results analysis, such as micro fluorescence images and heat maps. Thus, this needs to be considered thoroughly to assure equal access to scientific data for everyone. Among the use of colors in synthetic biology, color - changing indicator is an essential one. A very important function of indicators is that they enable people with non-professional backgrounds to make simple judgments based on color, which is very helpful to the broader implementation of projects. However, for people with color vision disorders, the products that can indicate colors sometimes appear to be less effective because they cannot be distinguished.

The final implementation of our project also involves a simple test paper for determining soil salinity and alkalinity. We expect our products to reach a wider audience. Therefore, it is necessary for our project to explore a more friendly color scheme for the indicator. Inspired by 2020 Leiden’s work, our team members come up with the following improvements related to our program in dealing with color vision disorders this year.

Comprehensive use method of pH test paper

When holding a lecture in primary school, we played a game where pH test paper was used to measure the pH of soil. In the game, we found that some children could not distinguish strong acidic solutions from weak alkaline ones with extensive pH test paper. After simulating the color of the pH test paper seen by people with color vision disorder (as shown in Figure 2), we found that the color of the extensive pH test paper at pH 1-3 was similar to that at pH 10-8.

Fig. 2 different pH test paper in different people's eyes
From that simulation, we find it hard for protanopia, deuteranopia and also achromatopsia to distinguish pH1-3 with pH9-8. For achromatopsia, it’s more difficult to tell the difference between 10 and 14, as well as 9/11/12/13.

Generally, using pH meter to measure the pH is more accurate than using pH test paper. However, in our project, when the samples are too little to use a pH meter, using pH test paper is a perfect solution. In addition, when testing soil pH in the field, pH test paper is more convenient and cheaper than any pH meter. Thus, test paper is widely used in the treatment of saline-alkali land, so as the significance of finding an approach helping color vision disorder people with that.

The starting point to solve the problem is can we find another kind of test paper, which has higher color and is less likely to be confused, to identify whether the solution is acidic or basic, and then use extensive pH test paper or precision pH test paper to further identify the pH value, that is, the comprehensive application of pH test paper.

Fig. 3 the comprehensive application of pH test paper All the pH test papers are placed in the same order.
They are phenolphthalein test paper, red litmus test paper, purple litmus test paper, blue litmus test paper, Congo red test paper and extensive pH test paper. The top of the paper shows the original color and the bottom shows the color affected by the solution.

In this method, we use different test papers successively to narrow down the range of pH to be measured. As shown in Figure 3, for protanopia, pH=1 and pH=13 are observed as very similar dark colors on extensive pH test paper. This makes protanopia difficult to distinguish between pH=1 and pH=13 just by using extensive pH strips. However, with our method, the comprehensive use of pH test paper, when protanopia get a result that may be pH=1 or pH=13, protanopia continue to use phenolphthalein test paper. If protanopia see that the test paper become significantly darker, protanopia can determine it is pH=13, not pH=1.

Fig. 4 The pH testing will be easier for people with color vision disorders if our future testing product combines the extensive test strip with the phenolphthalein test strip.

With our discovery, we think the simple combination of extensive pH test paper and phenolphthalein test paper can solve most of problems related color vision disorders in pH testing. However, the color change range of phenolphthalein test paper is pH 8-14, and the color change of test paper is not obvious when pH is greater than 7 and less than 9. Therefore, this method still cannot solve the problem that the color of test paper is difficult to identify when pH is 7-9, and we hope that can be solved in the future.

In addition, we also thought of other methods, but we did not put them into practice because of time limit, such as printing different colored pH value, based on its corresponding color, and when the color of the test paper changes, visibility of number changes. So that people can directly read the pH value from the test paper, instead of comparing the color card to distinguish the color.

In short, how to help people with color vision disorder to overcome the color barrier and devote themselves to scientific research without any worries is a very important and meaningful thing. I hope other iGEM teams in the future can also put their brains into this aspect.

Colorblind-safe data analysis graph

To make our wiki and experimental results easy for people with color vision impairment to read, we used a colorblind-safe palette found in J*FLY(Figure 4).

Fig. 5 Colorblind-safe palette and how it looks like in different people's eyes (More details in https://jfly.uni-koeln.de/color/)

Before launching the web, we used the function of ‘Emulate vision deficiencies’ in Google Chrome DevTools(Figure 5) to make sure that the color contrast was clear and that we were able to convey exactly what we wanted to emphasize.

Fig. 6 The page of Google Chrome DevTools
What is round with red lines is the function of emulating vision deficiencies and there are five kinds of visual impairment to choose from.

Language barrier

The language barrier is the biggest barrier hindering information transmission, although science and technology are well developed nowadays and there are a lot of mature translation software, ambiguous results still appear from time to time. To make our idea and conclusions fully understood, videos we made are presented with English voice and Chinese subtitles, which may expand the group of audience.

As for other text materials or pictures, we have made two versions, both in Chinese and English, so that more people can get to know synthetic biology so that there can be more people joining in our big family of synthetic biology. In particular, the two textbooks compiled for kindergarten kids or primary school students create the possibility of a sustained and widespread impact on education. To download the relative text, please click here.

Fig. 7 Education materials
1: for kindergarten (Chinese version); 2: for kindergarten (English version); 3: primary schools (Chinese version); 4: primary schools (English version); 5: for high schools (Chinese version); 2: for high schools (English version).

With the increasing popularity of social software on mobile phones, pictures that are used to express feelings are widely used and they have a high efficiency of emotional conveyance. As 2020 Rochester said, art is a way to make science accessible, we also believe funny emoji can be the light, illuminating people’s curiosity of synthetic biology or Corynebacterium glutamicum.