  The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that U.S. institutions of
higher education provide "reasonable accommodations" to students with
disabilities to ensure equal educational opportunities. However, despite the
key role of physics as a gateway to Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) studies, only limited resources exist for teaching physics
to students who are blind or visually impaired. Here we share lessons from our
experience creating an accessible physics curriculum for a blind physics major.
The authors include the student himself, a blind physics B.S. who graduated
from a different institution, a PhD chemist and consultant on STEM
accessibility who is himself blind, and several sighted educators and course
assistants who worked regularly with the students. Throughout this effort, we
learned that many of the principles of universal design described herein
enhanced learning for all of our students.
