"DIY" Prototyping of Teaching Materials for Visually Impaired Children: Usage and Satisfaction of Professionals

Abstract

Professionals working with visually impaired children (i.e. specialist teachers and educators, Orientation and Mobility trainers, psychologists, etc.) have to create their own teaching materials. Indeed, only few adapted materials exist, and do not fully meet their needs. Thus, rapid prototyping tools and methods could help them to design and make materials adapted to teaching to visually impaired students. In this study, we first designed a blog enabling professionals to create their own teaching materials. Then, we set up a challenge with five teams including one professional of visual impairment and students in computer science. The aim of each team was to design and make a teaching material, based on handcrafting, 3D printing tools and cheap micro-controllers, fitting the needs of the professional. After they have used their material with visually impaired students, we interviewed the professionals in order to evaluate usage and satisfaction. The professionals reported that the materials were easy to make, and valuable for teaching to visually impaired students. They also reported that DIY prototyping, based on 3D printing and cheap microcontrollers, enables them to create their own teaching materials, and hence accurately meet unanswered needs. Importantly, they would advise their colleagues to use this method and new tools. However, they consider that they would need assistance to create new materials on their own.