Inclusive learning materials for blind people

<< Background >>Blind and severely visually impaired students today have access to only a fraction of the graphical learning materials available to their sighted peers. While sighted students encounter around 25,000 learning graphics throughout their school years, blind students can only access a small portion of them.In mathematics, graphical learning materials are omnipresent. They are indispensable not only in geometry and curve theory but across the subject as a whole. If blind students cannot access these materials, or only in a very limited way, it has a major impact on their learning success. Since mathematics is such a central subject, the project’s goal is to eliminate the shortage of suitable learning materials.To achieve this, approximately 100 of the most important learning graphics per grade level will be identified and adapted to the specific needs of blind and severely visually impaired learners. These will then be made available free of charge for download to teachers and students worldwide.In this way, the learning opportunities of blind and severely visually impaired students in the crucial subject of mathematics will be sustainably improved worldwide.<< Objectives >>Today, around 70% (source: EBU) of blind students in Europe are educated in inclusive classrooms. This often means they are the only ones in the class unable to work with visual learning materials. As a result, not only is their learning success at risk, but teachers and classmates also face significant challenges.To improve learning opportunities for blind students, promote inclusive classroom learning, and ease the burden on teachers, access to graphical learning materials must be ensured. Therefore, the most important mathematical graphics for each grade level are identified and adapted to the specific needs of blind and severely visually impaired learners. The goal is for blind students to work independently with these materials, deepen their knowledge, and learn effectively.To guarantee the quality of the 1,250 learning graphics, they are designed by special education experts in visual impairment and tested with blind and visually impaired students.In this way, the project makes a vital contribution to improving the educational opportunities of blind and severely visually impaired learners.<< Implementation >>The project was structured as a workflow. In the first step, the learning graphics to be adapted for the needs of blind and severely visually impaired people were identified. Each graphic was then described in detail so that it could be understood by blind students.In the second step, the identified and described learning materials were adapted to the specific needs of blind and severely visually impaired learners. This meant that the graphics were significantly simplified based on the originals, the elements were made tactilely perceptible, and the user was guided through the graphic. Where appropriate, exercises were also added to the learning content.In the third step, the graphics were tested with blind and severely visually impaired students. In many cases, further improvements were made afterwards.In the final step, the graphics were organized into collections, their legal status (licenses) was reviewed, and they were published in the ProBlind database.In parallel, throughout the entire project period, the work was presented and discussed at conferences, trade fairs, online meetings, on the website, and across social media.<< Results >>The goal of identifying, adapting, testing, and making publicly available the 1,250 most important mathematical learning graphics has been more than achieved, despite the highly ambitious scope. Today, a total of 1,267 mathematics graphics in German are available, covering all grades and subject areas from primary school to high school graduation.These learning materials are freely accessible not only in German and Polish but also in English via the Share database on ProBlind (www.problind.org). In addition, they are available in 29 languages, as all graphics created during the project can be automatically translated into an ever growing number of languages. Access, translation, downloading, copying, and adaptation of the materials are all free of charge.Although the project faced challenges alongside the large number of graphics, the partners collaborated so successfully that three of them will continue their cooperation in a follow up project.The results have been presented widely—at conferences, trade fairs, online meetings, on the website, and across social media—within the international blind community.