RARE — Recommendations for Accessibility in Educational Resources
The number of students with visual impairments in Brazilian higher education has grown. Yet their effective inclusion requires changes in teaching practice to secure full participation and continued study. What follows are the recommendations that came out of the undergraduate final project behind this site, focused on creating and using accessible educational materials that support these students’ paths.
Recommendations
Twelve recommendations
A set of recommendations for creating and using educational materials that support access, retention and participation for students with visual impairments in higher education. See the full index-
Role of the Higher Education Institution – HEI
Providing information, training and resources that guarantee participation in every space and activity of the institution with autonomy. -
Accessibility Tutoring Programme – PTA
Running a programme guided by specialists and trained tutors, complemented by peer collaboration and access to support documents. -
Role of the teacher
Minimising cultural, physical and bureaucratic constraints to create a welcoming, collaborative academic environment that encourages social interaction. -
Student agency
Involving the student at every stage of the educational process, so that methods, resources and expectations fit their individual characteristics. -
Communication between teacher and student
Establishing a continuous, reciprocal effort towards understanding, collaboration and recognition of individual characteristics through communication. -
Presenting the task
Presenting tasks and interactions using descriptive language, precise terms, progressive steps and audio description to guarantee autonomy. -
Feedback routine
Establishing a feedback routine to recognise progress, understand challenges and identify opportunities to improve the teaching and learning experience. -
Flexibility of the resource
Providing teaching materials and systems with flexibility of choice and the possibility of personalising the interaction. -
Design of the resource
Applying information design attributes — sharpness, contrast, size and hierarchy — to secure quality of use and an independent experience. -
Audio description of the image
Presenting visual resources, such as figures and charts, using descriptive language, precise terms and audio description to guarantee understanding. -
Consistency of the resource
Organising all teaching content with clarity, coherence and cohesion of language, format and structure across the different pieces of information. -
Multisensory stimulation
Offering varied learning experiences that engage hearing, touch, smell and taste, creating alternative relationships with the content and with practice.
Foundations
Foundations
The project was built on data gathered about people with visual impairments, accessibility in higher education, teaching equipment and materials, together with concepts from Inclusive Design, Human-Centred Design and Heuristics in Ergonomics and Design. Its central aim is to propose practical strategies that advance inclusion and equity in higher education. Explore the theoretical basis-
Overview
Access to higher education for people with disabilities has increased through public policy, which requires educational practice to adapt to the particularities of every student. -
Methodology
The research unfolded across four structured stages: exploratory literature review, qualitative analysis, propositional synthesis of the recommendations, and verification with the public concerned. -
References
The literature review grounds the project’s core themes and also presents a broad chronological survey of pre-existing heuristics in scientific articles, books and specialist institutions, forming the systematic framework on which this work rests.
Tools
Tools
The theoretical work takes shape in resources that can be applied. This site is the living proof of the recommendations, and it offers practical instruments to support managers, teachers, tutors, administrative staff, content authors, instructional designers and students themselves in the everyday work of inclusive education. Explore the tools-
Assistant
A structured prompt that instructs artificial intelligence tools to act as accessibility assistants for educational materials, grounded entirely in the canonical table from the research. -
Materials
At a later stage this section will offer the project’s adapted versions for download, including accessible PDF, EPUB, audio and a braille-ready edition. -
Training
Planned training on applying the recommendations in everyday academic life, for teachers, institutions, students and tutors. None has been delivered so far: the section describes the proposal and opens the design of the training to collaboration.
Next steps
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Recommendations
Start by exploring the 12 recommendations, structured along three lines of action: Institution, Teacher and Resource. -
Foundations
Understand the context, the methodology and the theoretical references behind this project. -
Tools
Put the AI assistant to work, and see the materials for download and the planned training.