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Learn About Accessibility in Zero Gravity at Our White Cane Day Event, 10/15

Learn About Accessibility in Zero Gravity at Our White Cane Day Event, 10/15

Please join the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired virtually this Friday, October 15 for a White Cane Day Event, “Will There Be Space for White Canes in Space?

LightHouse partnered with SciAccess Initiative for the launch of a new program, Mission: AstroAccess which will take a group of 12 cross-disability ambassadors on a series of weightless parabolic flights on October 17. The ambassadors have visual, hearing and mobility disabilities and will test various designs for accessibility in zero-gravity and high gravity environments by performing targeted tasks during the flights.

Now’s your chance to meet the four ambassadors who are blind at this Friday’s White Cane Day Event.

What: LightHouse White Cane Day Celebration – “Will There Be Space for White Canes in Space?”.
When: Friday, October 15 from 11:00 am to noon Pacific
Where: Online via Zoom or phone
RSVP: Register for the White Cane Day Celebration on Eventbrite. After you sign up, you will receive information to join the event using Zoom or the phone. You may also email Sheri Albers at SAlbers@lighthouse-sf.org for the event details.

Now, here’s a little bit about the four blind ambassadors you’ll meet this Friday.

Sina Behram

Sina Behram

Mr. Behram is an accessibility consultant, computer scientist, researcher, public speaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Prime Access Consulting. He was recognized in 2012 as a White House Champion of Change for his doctoral research work enabling users with disabilities to succeed in STEM fields.

Website: www.sinabahram.com

Dr. Mona Minkara

Dr. Mona Minkara

Dr. Minkara is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Northeastern University and leads the Minkara COMBINE (Computational Modeling for BioINterface Engineering) Lab researching pulmonary surfactant. Mona is also a 2019 winner of LightHouse’s Holman Prize for Blind Ambition and used her funds to document her independent travel around the world through her YouTube channel “Planes, Trains, and Canes”.

Website: monaminkara.com

Zuby Onwuta

Zuby Onwuta

Mr. Onwuta is a Harvard-MIT trained innovator, US Presidential Service Award recipient, US Army Veteran, and founder of both Think and Zoom and Future of Disability. He is the patented inventor of Brain control for Blind Assistive Tech, a solution that reads and responds to human brain waves and provides hands-free vision augmentation and reading assistance.

Website: zubyonwuta.com

Dr. Sheri Wells-Jensen

Dr. Sheri Wells-Jensen

Dr. Wells-Jensen is an associate professor of linguistics at Bowling Green State University where her research focuses on social aspects of human colonization, astrobiology, disability, and the relationship between language and thought.  She studies the ways in which alternative sensory inputs influence the evolution of scientific thought and is currently writing a book about disability and space.