Teaching Chemistry for visually impaired students and the right to learning as part of the right to education

Abstract

This article aims to present theoretical and practical issues related to the people with visual impairments schooling in the teaching-learning process of the discipline of Chemistry. We assume here that the right to education must fully guarantee the right to learning, and this must be anchored in processes that ensure adequate conditions for access, permanence and success in the schooling trajectory. Thus, discussions about the experiences of a blind student will be presented throughout the text, which can collaborate to advance the debate on learning and development of the blind. The theoretical framework supporting the debate is based on the contributions of cultural-historical theory. This is a qualitative study characterized as a case study. The research was carried out in a public school of the state education network, located in the north of Espírito Santo state, in the year 2018, and had as research subject a student with visual impairment (congenital blindness) enrolled in the 1st grade of high school . Data collection was based on observations and notes taken during the class by the Chemistry teacher. In addition, the class was recorded and the audio later transcribed. From the data collected and analyzed together with the literature in the area, we consider that the main barriers related to curricular accessibility are associated with the teaching methodologies used in different school spaces, which in many cases have teaching-learning as a parameter based on predominantly visual information. In this context, ensuring the learning of visually impaired people requires consistent planning, which results in teaching practices that mobilize alternative paths of development that go beyond the barriers socially imposed by the lack of vision.