Do it yourself

Context

This project is supported by “Cherchons pour voir”, within the framework of the LACII – joint laboratory IRIT (Research Institute in Computer Science of Toulouse) / IJA (“Institut des Jeunes Aveugles” of Toulouse) – and subsidized by FIRAH (International Foundation of Applied Research on Handicap).

The actors of the project are IRIT researchers and different types of specialized trainers from the IJA (teachers, locomotion instructors, educators, etc.) who together seek to meet the specific needs of the visually impaired children of the institute. The needs of these children are varied and heterogeneous due to the variety of associated disorders of each. At the IJA, there are four groups of children, differentiated according to their age, their cognitive level in learning, in communication and in their degree of autonomy. To meet their needs, the trainers do not have access to all the existing tools because they are few, sometimes very specific to the satisfaction of a single need and costly. Thus, the “Do It Yourself” technique, which would allow them to create tailor-made interactive teaching materials at low cost to facilitate their courses and activities, would be an appropriate solution.

Goals

The two general objectives are anchored on the needs of specialized trainers and visually impaired people :

1) improve the process of creating teaching materials for trainers’ courses or activities ;

2) improve the usability of the educational material created for the visually impaired, in particular by the use of new technologies such as 3D printer, digital tablets and new forms of non-visual interaction with rapid prototyping.

For this, an inventory of existing techniques in France and abroad was carried out in order to offer several avenues of technological innovation and to easily and autonomously implement prototypes by specialized trainers. Thanks to the “Do It Yourself” technique, different types of projects have emerged and new projects continue to be created according to the imagination of professionals. These projects are visible on the blog “Do it to see” where articles and / or tutorials are provided for each. In a second step, the prototypes will be evaluated by visually impaired students, in particular the prototype of the project on the map of Paris in collaboration with a professor of History-Geography of the National Institute of the Young Blind. The results of this research will be materialized through the development of a set of recommendations and educational materials created from easy-to-use electronic cards such as the “Makey Makey” and the “Touch board”. The creations of the various projects will be made available on the blog for the reproduction of these for all interested professionals.

Have we aroused your curiosity? To find out more, go to the following link: http://cherchonspourvoir.org/faislepourvoir/.

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