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Information Technologies for Visually Impaired People
Specialist teachers in visual impairment use special
methods to teach these applications, so that children can
learn use them without assistance in the shortest time possible.
Among the skills learned are familiarity with the screen,
use of hotkeys only when the application is to be used continuously,
navigation using an application’s toolbars, use
of the computer and of the application’s functions solely
via the keyboard, etc.
Although hotkeys allow users to navigate faster, it is
advisable to teach learners how to access an application’s
tools and functions via the toolbar. It is better if learners do
not memorize the hotkeys for a particular application but
rather come to think of navigating through menus as the
norm, as this will help them be more independent when using
a variety of applications.
Thus, our work focuses on three fundamental aspects:
1. Direct intervention to show learners how to use the
computer in day-to-day classroom work, and to show them
the usefulness of the computer in daily life.
2. To identify any resources that might be of use to
achieve the first objective mentioned in point 1 above.
3. To draw up a basic plan that can be adapted to the
needs of each individual learner.
The work schedule employed up until now covers the
following topics:
Basic concepts of the Windows Operating System.
Microsoft Word or whichever word processing program
is applicable.
Dictionaries and encyclopaedias: Microsoft Encarta.
Internet navigation: browsing, search engines
(Google), information search and transfer to a word processor,
etc.
Email via a web page, creation of an address using
servers such as Yahoo or Hotmail, Microsoft Outlook.
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet: workbooks, simple
formulae, graphs, combination with other Office applications.
Microsoft Access database management: creation and
management of tables, queries, reports, etc.
Business management applications: Facturaplus,
Contaplus, etc. Blind learners are taught strategies for using
these applications with a screen reader.
Graphic design applications are used by learners with
low vision in conjunction with a screen magnifier. Blind
learners do not have access to these graphical applications.
4 Main Challenges in the Future
The main challenges we face in the future are as follows:
Use of standard tools versus specialized tools
Specialized tools are necessary in many areas but in
education most of the professionals at the Educational Resource
Centre favour the use of standard tools that are already
equipped with the necessary accessibility features,
for the following reasons:
- In the case of blind learners who write in braille, the
laptop facilitates the exchange of material with teachers and
classmates. It enables work to be corrected immediately and
encourages classroom teachers to have a more active attitude
towards learners. Standard tools are integrative.
- The price of standard tools and applications tends to
be lower than specialized tools given that they are aimed at
a larger market.
- The teachers at regular schools are familiar with standard
tools, which makes it easier for them to help when a
learner gets into technical difficulties.
- New versions of standard applications are released
more often than specialized tools since specialized tools
ultimately depend on innovations introduced in standard
tools.
- Notwithstanding this preference for standard tools, they
cannot always be used by visually impaired learners since
they may not have the required accessibility features: voice
synthesis, screen magnifiers, virtual keyboard, configurable
colour, font, and size of characters, etc. Ideally, designers
of new tools would follow universal design criteria and then
we would not have to be thinking about specialized applications
to make those new tools “accessible”.
Lack of accessibility and usability of the applications
and portals used in education.
We live in a technological world in which visual aesthetics
are all important. The appearance of new applications,
educational portals, thematic search engines, etc. are
opening up an increasing number of possibilities and teachers
are including these tools in their classes to an ever growing
extent.
The Internet has made it possible for the visually impaired
to perform a great many activities independently
which previously required the help of others (parents, teachers,
co-workers or classmates): educational activities (online
dictionaries and translators, museums, etc.), work-related
tasks, leisure (online shopping, reading the newspaper, chatting,
online banking, etc.)
However, none of this is possible if web pages are not
accessible. It is necessary for web page developers to follow
accessibility criteria and use all the available accessibility
tools in their design programs (for example, the accessibility
features of Macromedia Flash) so that visually
impaired learners are not excluded from the technological
society in which live and to prevent the “digital divide” from
widening.
It is not enough merely to meet internationally recognized
criteria in this respect, such as the WAI guidelines
developed by the W3C Consortium [9]; usability criteria
also need to be adopted and recommendations such as those
described in [10] need to be followed.
Educational digital content and widespread use
of the Internet.
It would appear that the future trend in the field of education
will be the ever-increasing use of digital content in
classrooms and the widespread use of the Internet. This
means that visually impaired learners must have unimpeded
access to these materials if they are not to be left behind by
the education system.
UPGRADE Vol. VIII, No. 2, April 2007 65