A Broad Survey of Inaccessibility and Solutions in Astronomy for Deaf Participants

There is a significant lack of Deaf people participating in astronomy across the hobby, educational, and professional levels. This is likely due to a long list of inaccessibilities and barriers. Through inexperimental research of established literature and primary interviews, this thesis broadly examines and discusses such barriers across various contexts such as inaccessible sounds, the lack of astronomical vocabulary in sign languages, and the ways astronomy curriculum is often not accessible for Deaf students. Possible solutions are discussed with the goal of minimizing the obstacles that keep Deaf people from becoming involved in astronomy and increasing the number of Deaf people in the field. Further research is needed to determine the best solutions, as this thesis acts only as a starting point of an important discussion.