Teaching geography to the visually impaired

Tactile cartography, focused on the creation of maps, globes and mock-ups to teach geography to the blind or people with local visual acuity, is still little used in Brazil, according to a study

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP –  Although it is very well developed elsewhere, tactile cartography – the area of cartography focused on the creation of maps, globes and mock-ups to teach geography to the visually impaired – is still little known in some countries, including Brazil.

This problem exists because the world’s current technologies for producing these cartographic materials, which the blind or people with low visual acuity can read by touch, are still very sophisticated and expensive. As a result, the utilization of these materials in public school classes is impossible.

In the past few years, however, researchers from some universities in Brazil and other countries have dedicated their efforts to the development of simple teaching materials, adapted for tactile cartographic language, that could be used easily by elementary school and high school teachers and students.

The experiences of the principal groups of researchers in Brazil and Chile that conduct studies in the area of textile cartography are presented in the book Tactile Cartography: orientation and mobility for visually impaired people.

The publication collects articles by researchers from the Universidade Tecnológica Metropolitana de Santiago do Chile (UTME), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) and other institutions.

“Although tactile cartography materials have been produced since the beginning of the 19th century on a worldwide scale for teachers, parents and volunteers, these materials are still little known in Brazil and Latin America, even in the academic world,” says Maria Isabel Castreghini de Freitas, professor at the Geosciences and Exact Sciences Institute at Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Rio Claro campus, and one of the organizers of the book, in an interview with Agência FAPESP.

Through a research project conducted with FAPESP funding, Unesp de Rio Claro researchers have developed mock-ups, maps and learning games adapted for tactile cartography.

The materials are in high relief and different textures. Signs in Braille and sound resources also make learning easier for students with visual deficiencies.

In addition, the didactic materials for students with low visual acuity have strong colors and enlarged letters that can be used by both visually impaired or students without vision problems. These features allow the integration of both types of students in the classroom.

“The goal is to use these tactile materials in integrated activities and classrooms, bringing together the blind or low-vision students with sighted people, according to the guidelines of inclusion policies for students with special needs in early and elementary education,” explains Freitas.

Initially, the materials will be developed in laboratories based on the content of geography courses at different educational levels. Later, they will be taken to schools with blind or visually impaired students to be tested or improved with the help of students and teachers.

Notions of space

Teachers are offered training courses to learn to use the Mapavoc program, which allows them to include sound devices in mock-ups and maps.

Unesp researchers developed the software in partnership with José Antonio dos Santos Borges, a researcher in the Electronic Computing Center (NEC) at UFRJ, which created the first system to aid blind people to use a computer, the Dosvox.

“When we developed the materials, we realized that they will offer limited possibilities of exploration to blind students or those with lower visual acuity and that if they had sound in addition to different textures, it would be possible to increase the interactions between the students and the materials. For this reason, we sought out Professor Borges and proposed that he develop a system of learning materials with sound resources,” explains Freitas.

Through specific commands, the computer system allows users to activate sounds on a mock-up, map or a learning game connected to the computer, facilitating the orientation of a blind student in exploring didactic material. Previously, this interaction only occurred through touch. The use of the computer system by the students broadens their opportunities to perceive and comprehend space.

When moving through a mock-up of a city’s central square, for example, the student can touch buttons that produce the sounds of a church bell, a water fountain or the music played by a band in a gazebo.

“The messages and short sounds produced by the computer have some meaning to blind students. Our biggest challenge in this project is understanding how the students acquire the notion of space, which is fundamental in teaching geography,” says Freitas.

“For this reason, we began utilizing mock-ups of the classroom, of their homes and the route that they take to school as a means of understanding how they conceive space and their surrounding environment,” he said.