Rethinking a Timeless Titration Experimental Setup Through Automation and Open-Source Robotic Technology: Making Titration Accessible for Students of All Abilities

Titration is a common introductory experiment performed across teaching laboratories from high school to university. Yet, its setup remains inaccessible for students with disabilities, denying them the opportunity for experiential learning. Therefore, rethinking such a setup is required to increase laboratory participation for these students. To remove these physical barriers, an automated titration unit based on existing undergraduate titration setups and universal design concepts, coupled with text-to-speech (TTS) capability, is presented. This unit can connect seamlessly via Bluetooth to any mobile platform and takes advantage of the advances in assistive features, such as TTS, on either a tablet or a smartphone. The cost of this unit is between $300 and $500, not including the cost of the smartphone or tablet. However, with the popularity of mobile devices in our society, these devices are becoming highly affordable, and almost every undergraduate is equipped with such a device. Also, with the emphasis on coding literacy, this autotitration setup serves as an excellent example and exercise on design thinking and automation in an undergraduate chemistry lab.