The Use of Digital Technologies as a Pedagogical Tool for Students with Visual Impairments

Abstract

This study presents as a problem-question whether the use of the audiobook will provide the visually impaired person with the condition to adhere, take ownership, make individual and collective use ofnew technologies, these human creations whichrepresent the possibility of an increasingly growing mastery of information never imagined and its new ways of use.Within this context, the research has the following objectives: to analyze the importance of the audiobook as a pedagogical tool, as mediator of reading classes for students with visual impairment; to analyze whether digital technologies can be used to support the teaching and learning process.Regarding tothe approach ofthe problem, the research has a qualitative focus. For data collection, interviews and online questionnaires sent by WhatsApp were used. The research population and sample comprised 13 (thirteen) subjects. To carry out the interviews, several technological resources were used: Google Meet; WhatsApp and cell phone (phone call).Due to the pandemic –Covid 19 and the inevitable social isolation, digital technology was the best option for conducting the research. The interviews were transcribed using theTranscriber for Whatsappand Call Recorderapplications. The study reveals that digital technologies can and should be used to support the process of teaching and learning to students with visual impairments.That the audiobook represents another reading alternative, a complement, a support, with its own attractions, benefiting people with or without disabilities.As from the social representations extracted from the research subjects’speeches, it was possible to see that assistive technologies need to gotogether with the Braille system, called as a literacy technology, a method whichallows the visually impaired to read and write without intermediation, in other words, the person has direct contact with the text.

Relações étnico-raciais e infâncias negras: racialidades e vozes em diálogo em prol de um saberfazer pedagógico antirracista

“…Posteriormente, foi ouvida a cantiga africana Olélé Moliba Makasi", junto ao conto de sua história. A partir deste momento as/os professoras/es foram convidadas/os a participar da dinâmica inspirada no denominado "Rio da Vida"(Barreto;Paula, 2014) que propõe reflexões sobre a vida a partir de algum objeto e as memórias que ele desperta. Para o desenvolvimento da dinâmica, foi estendido um tecido comprido como um rio e ao longo dele coloquei diferentes objetos cotidianos que remetem a diferentes fases da vida, com ênfase às infâncias e às referências étnico-raciais.…”