Loss of vision is an unfortunate circumstance that can affect students' development. These students face distinctive challenges in their educational journey. They are often asked to access curricular areas and work with text materials without the presence of any learning support. The use of an online text reader is, therefore, an indispensable tool that can work as a reinforced system.
The level of development for students depends on the time they were first diagnosed. People with visual impairment since their birth “ a congenital case” have a serious impact on development in comparison to someone who has had visual issues later in life. Nonetheless, the learning process for both cases is extremely challenging and the lack of proper tools to help is driving the situation to displease results.
Visual impaired students at a younger age risk losing motivation to move forward in fear of the unknown. Usually, motor development is acquired since infancy but in this case, visually impaired students are always one step behind the usual progress because of innovative support shortage. Cognitive development also requires an environment and materials examination. This step is crucial for students as it helps them think and understand the world they live in by developing skills, dispositions, knowledge, and problem-solving.
Unless specialists create an extensive program to engage visually impaired students in different courses and training, they will not be able to come across what other students learn. These disparities, if not taken into consideration, can seriously hinder the development of the visually impaired community that has more than 2 billion people in the world.
The term visual impairment states a broad scale of visual needs. Each student with a disability is unique and different from other cases. Therefore, one way of supporting students during their learning journey is through assistive technology. It is a technology that helps people with special learning and thinking capabilities. Assistive Technology can be a device, equipment, or any tool that helps students with disabilities communicate better.
One of the tools considered as assistive technology is an online text reader. Generally speaking, an assistive technology tool reflects visually impaired students’ unique necessities as well as activities they need to accomplish. An online text reader can be a perfect supporting tool to accompany these students throughout their education and learning process in general.
In past years, from 1960 onwards specifically, there was a move to shift from the typical pedagogical learning process in which a teacher relies heavily on text expositions and written materials on the blackboard into a student-centered instructive approach.
This approach would allow students to independently research subjects and themes on their own. As for the typical curriculum, which is still used to this day, it only serves as a medium to help students along the learning process. The only change is that it’s now taught through different techniques and mediums as an alternative learning tool.
However, when you look at the new approach, you realize that people with visual impairment are not considered. They are now more than ever in a constant struggle to not only keep up with the usual curriculum learning strategy but also miss out on engaging learning techniques.
In order to understand how assistive technology like an online text reader would be a turning point when it comes to the learning methodology for the visually impaired, it is important to bring out how these people are able to learn in an environment where there isn’t any consideration for disabilities.
Visual impaired students find it hard to learn their curriculum when 80% of its content is visual according to a study. These students are bound to miss out on an incredible amount of information as they won’t be able to access the curriculum the way a normal student can. This case is especially applied for primary and secondary levels. The University curriculum generally includes text materials, although some subjects like physics and geology require field trips and practical work.
Additionally, reduced vision can result in less motivation and desire in absence of patience and perseverance. If a student is not well surrounded by motivated people who will bring out their best capabilities, they will find it hard to engage inside the classroom or initiate a conversation. Vision loss for younger students can negatively influence the development of their social skills. And as a result, students may lose their self-esteem which can limit their sense of capability over their own lives.
A misleading conception indicates that students with visual impairment are different from students with normal vision. Yes, it is important to recognize how vision is crucial in the learning process. However, that’s not the only aspect students employ. If you consider the senses and qualities students utilize during the learning process you will be surprised how the brain is at the forefront of students’ development.
Even though we can’t compare students who have disabilities and those who don’t when it comes to learning, studies have shown that most visually impaired students have high chances of succeeding when given special training and instructive companionship just like their fellow students. However, this only applies in special cases and in foreign countries. Students in developed countries however are in need of a qualified training program and access to assistive technology to be able to succeed in educational and professional life.
Concept development for visually impaired students is what vision is for normal students. The latter are able to see images and understand concepts through the use of colors and signs. For students with vision loss, the only way they can understand is through concept development using their brains. Teachers in this case play a huge role in identifying and shaping students' learning process.
Teaching visually impaired students is met with three challenges. The first one is related to incidental learning, meaning learning by discovery and observing the world around them. For visually impaired students, it’s hard to visualize unless the person receives clear descriptions of the world. However, for people who have had vision loss since their birth, it is a constant struggle to keep up with people who can clearly see.
The second challenge is part-to-whole learning. People with low vision use touch as an essential sense to learn a certain concept. Using touch for students can be seen as a supportive method to initiate and develop their learning. However, the learning process is first done about parts then putting the elements together to create a complete entity. This process is helpful for students but it does provide a rather slow development. These students can only take parts of the information before gathering the bigger picture.
Last but not least, is the unavailability of certain concepts for students to touch. Students with visual impairment are only capable of conceptualizing elements either by touch or detailed descriptions. This means that there are certain elements they won’t be able to understand because they can’t observe them from afar.
For example, students can easily identify what roses look like because they can touch them. However, they won’t be able to know what a lion looks like unless someone provides verbal explanations even though experiencing something by hand is far more memorable than words. Students with vision loss rely heavily on other sensory knowledge.
One of the aspects we should advocate during learning development is allowing students with visual impairment to be independent. As much as constant support is appreciated in many aspects, it is also substantial to allow students to be completely reliable on themselves inside classrooms. To be able to achieve that, learning spaces and methods should be varied from the old school methods. An online text reader can be considered the perfect companion.
To become independent is to know when to ask for assistance. For facilities and schools that provide learning support for visually impaired students, it is necessary to design all spaces to accommodate their needs and capabilities. Since these students won’t be able to see, the focus should shift to engaging their other senses throughout their learning process.
The key here is to design instructions for students to take action independently. The first step of learning is to consider adding an online text reader in room arrangements. An online text reader can easily change any text to voice in seconds. So adding this tool to identify each room or space will allow students to act on their own without the need to ask for help.
The online text reader is a perfect investment for students with vision loss. For students who haven’t had the chance to use or don’t necessarily count on Braille can rely on AI technology for an easy learning process. Students who use an online text reader are known to complete their homework in record time and more efficiently. They even become fast readers. How does that happen? Well, the key here is to use the same curriculum used by normal students to teach the visually impaired.
You can transform the curriculum into an audiobook using an online text reader with different tones and voices. This way both students will learn the same content but in different mediums without compromising content quality. It is also important to give students with vision loss access to computers and encourage learning computer skills to better enhance their learning process.
Instructors and teachers also need to normalize using an online text reader during class sessions with visually impaired students. Instead of relying on the curriculum, teachers can prepare audio files generated by an online text reader to describe images, signs and any aspects students won’t be able to notice.
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