SAN ANTONIO — Seeing the solar eclipse is nearly impossible for the visually impaired community, but that will change this year thanks to new technology.

“The whole completed internals  — totally ready to be tested. We just need to put a battery in," University of Texas at San Antonio senior Tiffany Jensen said. 

Jensen is happy her classmates at UT-San Antonio are willing to help with a special project.

“We definitely need the help,” she said. “We need people to be making a lot of boxes because it may be 27 boxes here in San Antonio, but it’s like 500-plus across the nation that have been requested.”

The senior physics and astronomy major is referring to the LightSound boxes.

“It’s assigning sound to the intensity of light,” UTSA Eclipse Project Manager Dr. Lindsay Fuller said. “That way we can help people who are blind and low vision experience the eclipses.”

With an annular eclipse approaching Texas, these UTSA students are building these devices to create a more inclusive experience.

“Blind people getting involved in the eclipse in some sort of way,” Jensen said. “And getting to experience it with the rest of us when usually they’d be left out.”

Allyson Bieryla, an astronomer at Harvard University, helped develop the LightSound Project for the 2017 Great American Eclipse.

“The type we are building here is wired,” said Bieryla. “And it teaches people to solder. So, it’s a great tool for a student to learn.”

Without student workshops like this at campuses across the country, Bieryla says they wouldn’t be able to fulfill all the requests, giving folks access to these "once in a lifetime" eclipses.

“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Bieryla said, describing an eclipse. “There were people crying. People with their jaws dropped. It kind of hooks you. And that too makes me want to make sure everybody can experience that.”

This eclipse will be the pre-party to the total eclipse coming six months later in April 2024. Fuller says both pass through San Antonio. These SoundLight boxes will allow everyone to experience the phenomenon.

“We want to get everybody excited about eclipses,” Dr. Fuller said. “So for somebody who can’t see something that’s so visual as an eclipse, we can do something about that.”