Embedding Expert Knowledge: A Case Study on Developing an Accessible Diagrammatic Interface
Published: 2022
Publication Name: Embedding Expert Knowledge: A Case Study on Developing an Accessible Diagrammatic Interface
Abstract:
When students with blindness and visual impairment (BVI) are confronted with inaccessible visual graphics in the geometry classroom, additional instructional supports are often provided through verbal descriptions of images, tactile and haptic representations, and/or kinetic movement. This preliminary study examined the language used by instructional experts to describe geometry images to students with and without access to a visual instructional image. Specifically, we investigated expert descriptions of geometry diagrams for 1) spatial information, 2) instructional concept information, and 3) overall description structure (e.g., length, vocabulary, image part/whole order/relationships). We found that experts used nearly twice as many words to describe diagrams in the no visual access condition. We consider the double-edged nature of this result for supporting BVI learners in classrooms and chart possibilities for future research.
Keywords: Students with Disabilities, Geometry & Spatial Reasoning, Mathematical
Representations