FORT WORTH, Texas — On April 8, while Eclipse watchers look to the skies, people who are blind or visually impaired will use sound to detect the moon passing between the sun and Earth.
When you meet Fort Worth mother, Alexa Owens, she'll tell you she has conquered a lot by not allowing being visually Impaired to get in her way.
"Just because we have a disability, we want to do and experience everything just like everyone else," Owens said.
Owens is a mother of two and works full-time with the Lighthouse for the Blind of Fort Worth. She considers her coworkers at Lighthouse her second family. They depend on each other because much of their duties are done on an assembly line method in the warehouse.
"We make insulated boxes for the military. We also make AT&T boxes for damaged cell phones," Owens said.
For the visually impaired, Lighthouse has teamed up with Fort Worth Botanic Garden so visually impaired people won't miss the eclipse. They will use a light-sound device that converts data to sound. That will allow visually impaired people to witness when the moon orbits between the Earth and the sun.
Lea Rowe is the Head of Client Services and narrated a demonstration of the sonification device they will use during the eclipse.
"The flute sound is at total brightness or total exposure to the sun. You will hear the tones get deeper and deeper with the clarinet sounds as a transition to the deep clicking," Lea Rowe said.
Rowe wants to make sure the eclipse event covers the entire spectrum of visually impaired and blind people who attend the watch party at the garden.
"So, if you think about blindness, it's on a full spectrum. Nobody really experiences the same way. You might have one person who can see just light and shadows," said Rowe, "You might have another who has blocked out tunnel vision, so they can only not see what's directly in front of them, where some might be missing their complete peripheral. And then you have someone who has complete blackness. So it's a full spectrum, of accommodations."
Anna Sorelle works as the family and children program manager. Their goal is to make sure all programs are inclusive.
"Things like this happen all the time, like phenomenon, and they can get involved and experience it," said Sorelle.
Lighthouse will also provide solar charts in braille for people with vision challenges on all levels.
Fort Worth Botanic Garden staff has already had about 2,700 people RSVP for their eclipse watch event. They expect that number to grow leading up to the celestial event. They are also prepared to make accommodations for people who decide to show up at the last minute.
"We should have lots of high energy. We'll have lots of free activities outside the garden, as well as different activities and food trucks inside the garden," said Sorelle, "We'll have some opportunities to do community science with our research team and other opportunities and activities to learn more about the eclipse and our solar system.
In addition to hosting the visually impaired, Botanic Garden has also partnered with NASA to collect sound data during the eclipse.
Owens said she is excited about the solar phenomenon and challenges others to make sure everyone is included in big events like the eclipse.
"We can do everything just like you," said Owens.