Virtual environments supporting group work between sighted and visually impaired pupils

Purpose and goal

This project examines the current situation for students with visual impairment in terms of group work in school. The focus is on supporting topics and tasks that are particularly difficult to create adapted teaching materials for, such as geographical maps as well as coordinate systems and linear equations in mathematics. The goal is to develop applications for group work with visual, haptic and audio feedback that enable students with visual impairment to contribute to group work in an equal way.

Expected results and effects

Results show that group work is a central part of many subjects today in accordance with the school´s curricula and national tests have elements of group work. Results show that students with visual impairment do not consider themselves to have equal opportunities to contribute to group work in school. Changed working methods could improve this situation for this group of students. Two applications have been developed with visual, haptic and audio feedback that students in evaluations consider to have advantages compared to today´s aids, although improvements were also requested.

Planned approach and implementation

In-depth interviews about group work in school with students with visual impairment, their sighted classmates and teachers gave an idea of how group work in school works today and what problems there are. In an iterative design process two applications were developed, with visual haptic and audio feedback, for group work. One for tasks involving geographical maps and associated textual information, and one for mathematics, coordinate systems and linear equations. These applications were evaluated with students with visual impairment and sighted classmates in group work at school.

External links

Video om projektet