Educação de pessoas com deficiência visual e tecnologia assistiva : conhecendo as práticas de uma escola de atendimento educacional específico da cidade de Manaus

Abstract

This work presents the results of a field research with the following title: visual impairment education and assistive technology: understanding the practices of a specific state school in the city of Manaus. In which we list the following topics: the development and learning of students with visual impairment, historical and legal aspects of people with disabilities and specialized educational assistance, concept and characterization of visual impairment, visual development, visual perception, and diseases associated with vision loss, assistive technology and pedagogical practices used with students with visual impairments. The research had the following general objectives: investigate how assistive technologies can contribute to the teaching-learning process of students with visual impairments in a state school providing specific educational services, and the specific objectives: a) Understanding visual impairment and the process development and learning of people with this specific educational need; b) Understand the concept and applicability of assistive technology in the process of educational assistance to students with visual impairments, identifying how they contribute to the accessibility of learning; c) Identify educators' conceptions about assistive technology and their contributions to the teaching-learning process for people with visual impairments. Which had the following research problem How can assistive technologies contribute to the teachinglearning process of students with visual impairments in a state school providing specific educational services? This is field research in which most of the work is done personally by the researcher, being qualitative research, as it is rich in descriptive data and has greater flexibility focusing on the reality studied, whose method used was the historical-dialectical materialism. Data collection took place through the application of a semi-structured interview guide carried out with teachers. Regarding data analysis, we chose to use Bardin's (1979) content analysis method. With this research it is concluded that the education of people with visual impairment involves the recognition of this subject of their specificities, together with adequate training for teachers to carry out this service, as well as the recognition and use of assistive technology to promote access to education, development, and autonomy for students with visual impairments. Keywords: Visual impairment; Assistive technologies; Pedagogical practices; specialized educational service.