In December 2022, VICTA families were invited to Winchester Science Centre to test out their new Discovery Pens. These are digital ‘pens’ that are tapped on a sensor that then talks to the user. As part of the testing with VICTA families, there were sensors at 10 different exhibits across the centre to try out. The pens will eventually make exhibits more accessible to people with a visual impairment.

Families had a great time testing out the pens. One parent said: “Zoe was really excited although a bit nervous as she feels she isn’t great with new technology (apart from an iPad, of course!) but she needn’t have been worried as it was really straightforward!

We were met by the people who were developing the pens and they explained to Zoe (and her non VI brother) what she needed to do and gave us a map with the exhibits that we had to visit clearly marked on. And off we went to explore and have a whole load of science fun!

Some exhibits had big dots on that Zoe needed to find and touch the pen onto. It was great fun for her to hunt the buttons down although some of the ones that had been positioned flatly made them tricky to see, which was one of the pieces of feedback that we gave the centre at the end of our time there. Luckily, Zoe’s brother was helpful in finding any dots she couldn’t and we ended up finding them all and learning lots from them.

We spent a considerable amount of time at the centre as it was all very ‘hands on’ and great fun for the children. They particularly liked the space section downstairs and the drainpipe maze exhibit which involved trying to build a maze using drainpipes and seeing if a ball could go all the way through it without falling out.

The Winchester Science Centre is great for children (and adults) who love science and we felt it was really accessible although there are definitely improvements to be made to the pens which we hope we helped with. Having said that, the pens were still a great addition to Zoe’s experience and really enhanced it, as I know she might have missed some of the details around the exhibits without the extra information that the pens gave her.

Overall we had a really positive experience trying out the Discovery Pens and would definitely “test drive” other equipment for VI children.”