Volumetric Titrations with (Non-)Visual Indicators: How Low-Cost Assistive Technology Can Make Existing Experiments More Accessible

Quality education is one of the requirements for sustainable development, as identified by the United Nations. Achieving this goal requires educational practices that are accessible and understandable for all students, including those with disabilities. Traditional chemistry teaching experiments, such as volumetric titrations, often rely on visual indicators to demonstrate chemical changes in solution and are often used to teach chemical equilibria. However, different students may perceive color changes differently, affecting their learning experience. To address this challenge, this paper presents a framework for creating alternative representations of solution color change in real time during volumetric titration experiments, relying on low-cost and easy-to-fabricate assistive technologies. Our proposed framework allows for the real-time translation of solution color changes to other sensory stimuli, like sound, and can be used to support accessible education in accordance with the principles of the universal design for learning. We take this approach to neutralization and redox volumetric titrations, making these practices, which rely on visual indicators of the equivalence point, more accessible in educational chemistry laboratories.