Introduction: Visual model comprehension and application are important for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. As educational materials shift to primarily digital content with dynamic interactive visuals, students with visual impairments are at risk for being disadvantaged, since few interactives are born…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) stress the need for all students to receive excellent science instruction--including those with disabilities--based upon disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices (NGSS Lead States 2013). Further, the NGSS emphasize reducing disparities in student…

One of the key abilities that every student should learn is mastering math skills. It is particularly difficult for blind students who have problems with access to information that is usually presented graphically for common pupils. One of such information in the case of mathematics is the presentation of graphs of functions and geometric shapes.…

Diagrams appear in many school subjects but more prominent in science and mathematics taught in schools. Accessing these diagrams in an inclusive classroom has been identified to be problematic for blind students partly due to the teaching resources available and personnel type, support and sufficiency. Diagrams are mostly omitted by teachers…

This work discusses the construction and evaluation of a digital thermometer especially designed to be operated by people with visual disabilities. The accessibility thermometer can be used as an educational tool in practical activities in classes for sighted and visually impaired students, with the aim of helping those with special needs gain…

This article presents the results of a study on the use of 3-D printed models in a science classroom for students with visual impairments and examines whether the use of these models impacts student conceptual understanding and misconceptions related to geosciences concepts, specifically plate tectonics. Data were collected one week prior to…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention programme administered to blind and sighted school students. The students were given information concerning style, author and technique of three paintings from three different artistic periods, as well as guidelines to assess the overall aesthetics of each image. This programme was…

We devise and test a set of tactile symbols to represent elements frequently used in mechanics diagrams, such as vectors, ropes, pulleys, blocks and surfaces, that can be used to adapt drawings of physics situations in textbooks for blind students. We also investigate how figures are described for blind students in classroom activities and exams,…

Introduction: Many students with adventitious vision loss or progressive vision loss need to transition from print to braille as a primary literacy medium. It is important that this transition is handled efficiently so that the student can have continued access to a literacy medium and make progress in the core curriculum. For this study, we used…

The objective of this paper is to discuss how blind students learn basic concepts of probability using the tactile model proposed by Vita (2012). Among the activities were part of the teaching sequence "Jefferson's Random Walk", in which students built a tree diagram (using plastic trays, foam cards, and toys), and pictograms in 3D…

NCTM (2000) described geometry as "a means of describing, analyzing, and understanding the world and seeing beauty in its structures" (p. 309). Dossey et al. (2002) captured the essence of this aspect of visualization by stating that geometry fosters in students an ability to "visualize and mentally manipulate geometric objects." (p. 200).…

Diagram describing texts are integral part of science and engineering subjects including geometry, physics, engineering drawing, etc. In order to understand such text, one, at first, tries to draw or perceive the underlying diagram. For perception of the blind students such diagrams need to be drawn in some non-visual accessible form like tactile…

This paper addresses a central need among people who are blind, access to inquiry-based science learning materials, which are addressed by few other learning environments that use assistive technologies. In this study, we investigated ways in which learning environments based on sound mediation can support science learning by blind people. We used…