Recommendations for Creating and Using Teaching and Learning Materials
Twelve recommendations for creating and using educational materials that support access, retention and participation for students with visual impairments in Higher Education Institutions – HEIs, together with the parties chiefly responsible and the opportunities for applying them.
Role of the Higher Education Institution – HEI
It is recommended to make available to every student, including those with a visual impairment, all information, training, resources or conditions that guarantee participation in every space and activity of the HEI with autonomy.
Accessibility Tutoring Programme – PTA
It is recommended to make available to every student, including those with a visual impairment, an Accessibility Tutoring Programme – PTA guided by specialists in special education, with trained tutors, and complemented by a system of peer learning and collaboration, with guidance and access to support resources and documents, that fosters academic, social and personal development with autonomy.
Role of the teacher
It is recommended to provide every student, including those with a visual impairment, with the minimisation of cultural, physical and bureaucratic constraints in the academic environment, in order to create a welcoming and collaborative setting, and encouragement of social interaction, with empathy.
Student agency
It is recommended to involve every student, including those with a visual impairment, in every stage of the educational process, from planning to assessment, so that each method, resource, objective and expectation is adapted to their individual characteristics, with agency.
Communication between teacher and student
It is recommended to establish with every student, including those with a visual impairment, a continuous and reciprocal effort towards understanding and collaboration, and towards recognising and understanding the student’s individual characteristics, through communication.
Presenting the task
It is recommended to present to every student, including those with a visual impairment, every task, activity or interaction using descriptive language, precise terms and progressive steps, accompanied by audio description, so as to guarantee participation with autonomy.
Feedback routine
It is recommended to provide every student, including those with a visual impairment, with a routine of feedback that makes it possible to recognise progress, understand challenges and identify opportunities to improve the teaching and learning strategy and experience with autonomy.
Flexibility of the resource
It is recommended to make available to every student, including those with a visual impairment, every teaching material, system or resource with flexibility of choice and the possibility of personalising the interaction, in order to guarantee access to information with autonomy.
Design of the resource
It is recommended to make available to every student, including those with a visual impairment, every teaching material, system or resource with information design attributes such as sharpness, contrast, size, hierarchy and so on, in order to guarantee quality of use and experience with autonomy.
Audio description of the image
It is recommended to present to every student, including those with a visual impairment, every visual resource, such as figures, charts and video, using descriptive language and precise terms, accompanied by audio description, in order to guarantee understanding with autonomy.
Consistency of the resource
It is recommended to make available to every student, including those with a visual impairment, all teaching content with clarity, coherence and cohesion of language, format and structure, across different pieces of information and resources, in order to guarantee access and understanding with autonomy.
Multisensory stimulation
It is recommended to provide every student, including those with a visual impairment, with varied learning experiences, using resources that stimulate not only sight but also hearing, touch, smell and taste, for an alternative relationship with the content and an alternative relationship between theory and practice with autonomy.