Deficiência visual: desafios e possibilidades frente aos avanços tecnológicos de acesso à leitura

Abstract

Braille enabled blind people to have direct access to reading through the use of touch, however, we perceive its disuse currently in Brazil due to the creation of Screen Readers software, digitized books, text enlargers used in smartphones and computers, which came to facilitate the daily lives of people who are blind and have low vision. Considering this panorama, this research refers to the use of reading access technologies that help the visually impaired in an educational environment. The general objective was to research on the technologies of access to reading used by blind and low vision people. As specific objectives, to investigate the contribution of screen reader software to the reading process of the blind person and to its inclusion in different spaces; describe the applicability of screen reader software for reading access for visually impaired and sighted people; Identify which Screen Readers software is currently used for reading. The methodology of nature was qualitative, because it is a research about the effectiveness regarding phenomenon, while the field research adopted was the exploratory with qualitative focus, because it lived with the subjects researched, students and teachers with visual impairment, allowing the investigator to increase his experience around a certain problem of approximate type, about a certain fact when the chosen theme is little explored, because there was coexistence with the subjects researched, students and teachers with visual impairment. The results of the research prove, the challenges faced by people with visual impairment to access to technologies of access to reading and in the educational context are many, from the difficulty of access to didactic materials to the lack of specific adaptations in schools. However, we found that outside the educational environment the participants of the research follow the advances being a learning continues as new technologies of access to reading are emerging. Keywords: Visual impairment; Technologies; Screen Readersoftwares.