TEACHING RECOMMENDATIONS

By using the following techniques/activities/adaptations, derived from my own experience, hopefully teachers can help make sure that students with VI do not feel singled out, potentially ‘othered’ but comfortable in engaging in a shared learning experience; ‘provide as many opportunities as possible for concrete learning through direct experience’ (Ann Bostock, 1988:17). I aim for any visually impaired students in attendance to not feel singled out or ‘othered’ but engaged in a shared learning experience with others that does not accentuate their difference but is structurally engineered so that learning can take place through our bodies and not just our eyes. I argue that knowledge acquisition is not exclusively derived from what we see. Here are some useful adaptations that I have discovered to make teaching  more accessible for students with vision impairment. Although most of the suggestions are mainly aimed for students of art, I am sure they will also be useful when teaching non-art related subjects.

Before a teaching session

Learning materials: Make sure any resources are available for the student in their preferred reading format, for example large print, braille or an accessible digital version. You may need to replace images with written descriptions. Enlarge colour reproductions of paintings, drawings, 2D artworks to be discussed in class.

Physical environment: Make sure that the classroom does not present any physical obstacles. Check that the classroom is safe and accessible – are walkways clear? Is the lighting suitable? If the student uses electronic devices, do they need to sit close to a power source?

Lesson plan: Rehearse the running order of the session and its related content, paying attention to visual elements used in terms of teaching materials and the need for the student to “see” what’s going on to be able to learn. Put on a blindfold to mentally prepare and identify with VI students. When explaining visual artworks, it is important to use visual language (art and design terminology related to pictorial, sculptural, and graphic representation) – the vocabulary of shape, line, tone, colour, texture, volume, space, weight, balance, rhythm etc. I also discovered that it is important to express not only what you see in a piece of artwork, but how it makes you feel too.

During a teaching session

Verbal descriptions: It’s important to announce verbally any visual elements that occur throughout the teaching session, for example saying that you are moving onto the next slide in your presentation, describing an image or referring to a student by their name rather than pointing. Verbal descriptions help build images in students’ minds, increase their observational skills and expand their critical thinking, vocabulary and visual awareness, for the benefit of sighted students too. They also force sighted people to spend that extra time necessary to ‘see’ things otherwise missed. Encourage blind students to teach the skill of verbal description to the sighted. But, as Dr Emma Kennedy, Education Adviser (Academic Practice) suggests (in personal communication with me in June 2017), ‘don’t default to putting the burden onto disabled students. Do your homework and be grateful if the student can help.’

Inclusive activities: Set up a supportive space by providing a stimulating environment, both visually and tactually, where learning can take place through students’ entire bodies and not just their eyes. This can be achieved by using a range of teaching activities that deploy sensory feedback for the benefit of both students with VI and their sighted peers. Generate teaching activities/materials that draw on all senses – touch, smell, sound etc. As Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel and Nina Sobol Levent (2003) suggest, ‘The more senses that are involved, the more accessible the art becomes, and the more the students will gain’ (2003:370). For example, invite students to re-enact an artwork by posing as figures, for example taking the pose of an Alberto Giacometti sculpture with their bodies. This will help them develop a stronger understanding of their own body language and emotions. To teach landscapes in terms of foreground and background (a tricky concept for students with no vision), encourage students to physically moving around in a space so they can get better understanding of spatial awareness/composition in real terms. Look at landscape paintings for inspiration on playing around with spatial composition in painting. Choreograph students’ bodies so that they may understand how space operates in certain paintings in physical terms. Have a look at kinetic paintings for inspiration.