The tactile reading of bars graphics representations for blind students

Abstract

This article presents part of the first author’s doctoral thesis, in which it is described how the congenitally blind learner participating in the research performs tactile reading of bar graphs. The bar graph presented was taken from a mathematics textbook in ink and represented by tactile graphs produced by the Braille Fácil program, by the MONET software, and handmade, with different material artifacts. The study was based on works and research related to the teaching of statistics, graphic statistical representations and the making of accessible materials for blind and low vision students, especially graph-tactiles. The methodology used in this article has a qualitative character and one made use of task-based interviews for data collection. The emerging results of the data collected tell us how the interviewed blind learner read bar graphs, and which representations can be more effective for teaching statistics to students with visual impairments. It was observed what level of graphic reading the student was able to reach and which representation was preferred to use to carry out the tactile reading. From the gestures produced by the student, we can see how he reads the title, the axes and the values of the variables in the graph. We also observed that the student is able to identify all the elements of the graphs presented, associating and comparing the variables contained in them. Finally, the interviewee informs us that he prefers to use handcrafted graphics to carry out the activities instead of those produced using a braille printer.