Zooniverse projects are mostly built to deadlines by, and for, people who use browsers on high speed connections in Western Europe and North America. This has created a bias over the years that has lead to an mostly Englishspeaking volunteerbase and a skew away from lowbandwidth compatibility and nonstandard accessibility. Put simply: the Zooniverse has not historically paid attention to accessibility or to international participation, particularly from the developing world.
This project set out to improve that. We have successfully done so by:
a. Improving Zooniverse inhouse translation tools, and reaching out to a greater diversity of volunteer translators
b. Adding greater default accessibility functionality to the standard Zooniverse project toolset
c. Creating a project directly connected to Africa, and building a site with a meaningful scientific contribution to the developing world. This was done by collaborating with the PEEK Retinal Imaging project, and London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital, and has provided a whole new avenue for the Zooniverse to work in for potentially the next two years.