To ensure the maximum success of an inclusive educational experience for all students, it is essential to create an effective learning environment that is comprehensive in terms of both pedagogical resources (materials, personalized contents etc.) and teaching approach that will take into account the specific needs of every V.I learner.
Specifically, when dealing with V.I learners, it must be considered that their personal development and learning approach may follow different time frames than other students, and therefore it is essential to foster and consolidate haptic/tactile perception. In addition, it is necessary to ensure that the surrounding space is specifically adapted to their needs.
Making sure to set up an inclusive environment, where tools and resources are adequately accessible and usable, will be critical to promoting fruitful and stimulating learning for all students with visual impairment. The well-structured learning environment, capable of adapting to individual needs, will help to create a welcoming and inclusive educational environment in which every pupil will have the opportunity to develop his or her abilities to the fullest potential.
“Touching is learning”: a multisensory approach to foster inclusiveness of V.I learners
In the construction of the perceptual act of the blind person, touch plays a predominant synthesis function, but it is also joined by hearing and other senses during the exploration of the surrounding environments. As Cottini states (Cottini, 2008), “while touch allows the evaluation of the shapes of objects, hearing provides the blind person with criteria for direction and orientation.” Consequently, it is essential to provide the blind child with motor education interventions that focus on structuring and integrating the body schema. This process allows the child to develop an “awareness of his or her own body enriched by the perception of space and attitudes.
The goal of such interventions is to provide the visually impaired child with the skills needed to understand the world around him, interact with it, and move independently and safely. This type of motor education is essential to foster the overall development of the child and to help him or her overcome the challenges associated with lack of vision, enabling him or her to fully participate in daily learning activities.
Children who are blind or visually impaired require specific aids to enable them to read and write independently. Among the most widely used tools are Braille code, raised materials, spoken books, and text- to-speech systems. In addition, they can benefit from a variety of technological devices tailored to the severity of their visual impairment.
When one of the sensory channels is impaired or missing altogether, our cognitive system demonstrates extraordinary plasticity, enabling the refined development of the other senses. In cases where vision is deficient or completely absent, the child will rely primarily on touch, followed by hearing, to orient themselves and learn about the world around them.
Making perceptually accessible and inclusive spaces for a child with visual impairment means creating environmental conditions that facilitate the development of personal autonomy, learning and social interactions.
In a classroom for example, there are immediately perceptible elements that suggest a certain way of thinking about educational action: the organization of space, the arrangement of desks and the desk, the use of walls, and the presence, or absence, of certain tools are some of the structural features that contribute to influencing the modes of action and relationship between the subjects living in that context.