”Beyond 3D printers”: Understanding Long-Term Digital Fabrication Practices for the Education of Visually Impaired or Blind Youth

Abstract

Fig. 1. Although digital fabrication did not replace traditional techniques for producing accessible tactile media, laser cutting was promptly adopted for creating educational tools and accessories such as [a] this conversion table with braille cubes, replacing some tactile transcription and this accessible square; or [b] representations of concepts with rich textures, here a puzzle circulatory system. 3D printing has a narrower range of applications: while professionals adopt it for some manipulable representations of space, such as [c] a model of a street block, printed complex 3D representations are not often needed, less agreeable to manipulate, and examples such as [d] tactile globes could not be designed or printed internally. Finally, electronic prototyping platforms can augment representations or teaching tools to support students' engagement, like [e] interactive tactile books using a Lilypad controller. However, interactive projects are difficult to maintain, require skilled volunteers and remain at the periphery of practices.Disability professionals could use digital fabrication tools to provide customised assistive technologies or accessible media beneficial to the education of Blind or visually impaired youth. However, there is little documentation of long-term practices with these tools by professionals in this field, limiting our ability to support their work. We report on such practices in a French organisation, providing disability educational services and using digital fabrication since 2013, for six years. We trace how professionals defined how digital fabrication could and should be used through a range of projects, based on pedagogical uses and the constraints in creation, production and maintenance. We outline new research perspectives going beyond 3D printers and its promises of automation to embrace hybrid approaches currently supported by laser cutters, the learning and documentation process, and the production of accessible tactile media at a regional or national scale.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in accessibility; Accessibility; Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing; Field studies; • Social and professional topics → People with disabilities.

Exploring Factors Affecting Elementary School Teachers’ Adoption of 3D Printers In Teaching

“…The results of our study show that the limited number of 3D printers in schools and the limited access of teachers and students to this teaching tool also significantly affect its applicability in the classroom. The lack of 3D printers in schools as a limiting factor for the application of this technology in the classroom has been cited in previous research as a major limiting factor for the use of this educational technology in developed countries such as the United States (Brulé & Bailly, 2021). Considering that the availability of technology is one of the basic requirements for its use in education, the data obtained in our research that teachers believe four to five 3D printers to be a desirable number for successful implementation is very important for future schools equipped with this educational technology.…”

3D Printed Interactive Multi-Storey Model for People with Visual Impairments

“…The results are also in line with [35] where six out of seven OMIs were interested in creating and using 3D objects. In general, concerns about DIY techniques were raised by professionals of disability in several studies [17,60,63]. Vandenberghe et al, investigated maker technologies for empowering occupational therapists and they claim that infrastructural changes (funding, availability of professionals, etc.)…”

“…Almost half of the research papers (47%) included in the review are focused on PVIs, meaning that the implementation of good practices and methods can empower OMIs and PVIs. For example, Brulé et al, in a long-term study, showed that low-vision professionals actually use laser cutters and judge them as versatile and flexible tools [17]. In conclusion, it seems that 3D printing and laser cutting are complementary techniques that professionals will be able to rely on in the near future.…”

Making Equity: How the Disability Community Met the Maker Movement

“…I stayed for eighteen months for field work and continued doing interviews and collecting their documentation of their making practices for four more years. Throughout, I was involved in making myself, focusing especially on more complex three-dimensional representations used in classrooms, for instance tactile globes and models of insects (Brulé and Bailly 2021).…”

“…For more complex shapes, a model could include a part based on a 3D scan. This is the approach used in GripFab, a design tool for occupational therapists to create custom grips for everyday objects (Buehler et al 2014). In contrast, previous methods of automation have relied on a range of standardized sizes, necessary to create the molds for plastic, or other industrial fabrication processes.…”