Making Visual Illustrations of Physics

Accessible to Blind Students

Josiane Pereira Torres and Enicéia Gonçalves Mendes, Universidade Federal de São Carlos

T
he teaching of physics often numerous physical illustrations through
involves the use of illustra- the kit. It also enables its user to make
tions that complement and changes in the illustrations in a short pe-
assist the understanding of a particu- riod of time, in the same way as a teacher
lar situation or physical phenom- can construct and modify multiple illus-
enon. Overall, the proper use of illus- trations in class on the blackboard. The
trations can maximize the learning portability feature refers to the possibility
and understanding of concepts and that the KitFis could be transported easily
phenomena related to the teaching of to anywhere by its user. The last feature
science (physics, chemistry, biology) described is durability. The kit should be
and mathematics.1 made from durable resources, so that even
Access to visual information is after its extensive and constant use, it does
difficult for students who suffer from not degrade easily.
visual deprivation. The visualiza- The first prototype of KitFis (Fig. 1)
tion illustrations for such students Fig. 1. Magnetic table and some of the metallic was composed of a rectangular table with
depend on the functionality of the pieces that compose the kit. a magnetized surface with some metallic
2
visual devices they use. Thus, blind pieces. The magnetized surface allows the
students in physics classes where adhesion of metallic parts. Dimension-
learning tools are based on illustra- wise the table was 20 cm wide, 30 cm
tions can experience a situation of long, and 4 cm high. These dimensions
exclusion.3,4 Now a question arises ensured a good portability feature to our
as to how to make use of illustrations kit. Eighty-three pieces of various shapes,
for teaching physics according to the including rectangles, ellipses, circles, arcs,
needs of blind students. etc. accompany the magnetic table. These
The materials developed for phys- pieces were made of steel, which ensures
ics teaching for blind students should Fig. 2. Two suspended objects connected by good durability to the material and guar-
a wire.
take into consideration the point of antees its extended use.
their excessive use. Therefore, these The steel parts are attracted and at-
resources must be highly durable, tached by the magnetic table over it. The
allowing their constant use and magnetization is a way to strongly keep
handling without significant depre- the parts in place during use by the user.
ciation. Another important feature However, in case of composing new illus-
regarding learning resources is that trations, it also allows easy removal and
they should support the construction handling of the parts over the table with-
of maximum content of the phys- out any difficulty.
ics curriculum for teaching to blind
students. Experiments and evaluation
Fig. 3. Two objects connected by a wired sys-
These considerations support the tem, with one in suspended position and the After fabrication of KitFis, its possible
development of a new didactic mate- other on a flat surface. advantages were evaluated. In this section
rial for teaching physics to blind stu- some illustrations of physics using KitFis
dents. A didactic kit named KitFis has been developed for this are presented. An initial trial of KitFis was also conducted,
purpose. It resulted from qualitative research whose goal was involving some physics teachers and a blind student.
to develop and evaluate didactic material that can tactually
reproduce the illustrations that are used to teach physics. Some possible physics illustrations with KitFis
Figure 2 shows a representation of two hanging objects
Methodology connected through a wire that passes over a pulley. In Fig. 3
To develop KitFis, the following features were taken into two connected objects are shown; one is situated on a flat sur-
account: versatility, portability, and durability. The versatility face and the other is suspended. These tactile representations
feature provides a possibility to allow tactile reproduction of allow a teacher to illustrate application of Newton’s second

THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 55, October 2017 415

Fig. 4. Inclined plane system. Fig. 5. Representation of an electrical cir- Fig. 6. Reflection of light on a reflective curve
cuit. surface.

law to a blind student. This illustration involves the concepts

of acceleration, traction on the wire, and force of weight on
the objects.
Figure 4 shows a possibility to represent an inclined plane
system. This theme can let students explore concepts of ac-
celeration acting on objects in the presence or absence of
friction.
A representation of an electrical circuit is shown in Fig.
5. In this illustration, a battery or voltage supply has its poles
connected via a conducting wire. This illustration allows
discussion of electrical concepts such as potential differ-
ence between the battery poles, electric field, electric current
generated by the movement of carriers in the conductor, and
others.
The KitFis allows assembling schemes of geometrical op-
tics. Figure 6 shows a scheme of reflection of light on a curved
surface. This illustration can support a physics teacher in dis-
cussing the laws of reflection with a blind student.
The possibilities of reproducing illustrations through
KitFis permits the didactic teaching of many topics currently
present in the high school physics curriculum. Mechanical
illustrations such as optics, waves, thermodynamics, and
electricity can easily be built. Thus versatility is one of the
idealized characteristics of this work. KitFis supports simple
and two-dimensional illustrations at best. However, improve-
ments can be planned that may support 3D models.
Fig. 7. Illustration of reflection of light on a curved
Evaluation of the KitFis surface.

Three physics teachers and a blind student were invited to
evaluate the functionality of KitFis. Evaluation of the material
involves the preparation and ministration of a class through
this material with a blind student (Tiago). The theme of the
lecture was chosen by the teachers; the only requirement was
that KitFis could support that theme. The teachers, Daniel,
Eduardo, and Jean, prepared lectures on topics of thermody-
namics, Newton’s laws, and concepts of optics, respectively.
Names of the participants mentioned here are fictitious. This
research has been approved by the ethics committee on hu-
man research. All participants were informed of the consent
of the research objectives and they signed an agreement be-
fore starting this research.
Each class session took place on different days and had an
average duration of 40 minutes. All the classes were video-
taped and all the dialogues that took place during the filming
were transcribed for analysis. Small excerpts of the recorded
classes were selected in which the teachers built illustrations
in KitFis. These excerpts were then analyzed in order to iden-
tify the functional characteristics of the kit. It is important
to note that the blind student started learning in no time
through the use of the didactics prepared by the teachers. The
focus was to analyze the functionality of KitFis in a physics
class. Teachers and students were interviewed at the end of
the classes in order to raise their perceptions after using and
handling of KitFis.
As an example of this evaluation, Fig. 7 shows a sequence
of the class performed by Professor Jean. In this class Profes-
sor Jean discusses concepts of geometrical optics, specifically
reflection on a curved surface.

416 THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 55, October 2017

 During the lesson the teacher asked the student about the
definition of angles, which he could not answer. If this situ-
ation occurred in a college class with traditional resources,
it would be complicated for the teacher to improvise an il-
lustration that can explain to a blind student about the angle,
since traditional materials require prior preparation time and
typically these do not allow any modifications during lecture.
However, KitFis made it possible without deconstructing the
main illustration. The teacher built a right triangle [in bot-
tom left of Fig. 7(c)] on the same material and explained the
concept of angles to the student, proceeding with the class
normally without any need of using alternative material. The
student understood the illustration through the use of KitFis,
which can be observed in the dialogue between them:
Teacher Jean: Here I have a surface. What is the char-
acteristic of this surface?
Tiago: It’s a curved surface.
Teacher Jean: Here I have a surface...I have a beam of
incident light .... It’s being focused on the curved surface…
and ends up being reflected.
Teacher Jean: Note that here, I have a dashed line.....
we call this broken line as “normal.” Normal line is per-
pendicular to the plane of the surface... and now if the
incident line makes an angle with the normal ... have you
any idea about, what is an angle?
Tiago: I don’t have any idea.
Teacher Jean: So I'll assemble here a geometric figure.
Let's try to see first what is an angle, then I will explain
the angle of incidence to you.
Teacher Jean: What is this geometric figure?
Tiago: This is a triangle?
Statements from the student like “It’s a curved surface” and
“This is a triangle” prove that he can recognize the graphic
formats and show that the metallic pieces are noticeably per-
ceptible.
Conclusions
The goals idealized earlier in the project for KitFis have
been achieved. The portability feature can be attributed to
KitFis because its dimensions make it possible to be trans-
ported anywhere by the user. The kit is made from materials
that are considered durable. In this way KitFis will last for a
long period of time, even if it is constantly used by a student
or teacher. The possibility of reproduction of several illustra-
tions in the kit characterizes it as a versatile didactic mate-
rial. Yet these illustrations can be deconstructed and recon-
structed without difficulty as many times as required. This
characteristic is important for teachers because it can save a
lot of time from planning and preparation of extracurricular
material in advance.
At the moment, KitFis has a pending patent application,
THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 55, October 2017
filed at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI -
Brazil), protected by BR2020140020280 number.
Many teachers complain about the lack of resources devel-
oped for blind students studying at public high schools. This
is because many resources are developed and intended for
the education of infants and for elementary education. In this
context, the development of resources/kits focusing on high
school students becomes of paramount importance.
Physics is considered one of the toughest sciences by many
students. It has a predominance of visual information, often
involving tables, graphs, and mathematical relationships.5 In
this context, blind students can easily find themselves exclud-
ed in a class that has visual features such as illustrations.
KitFis does not guarantee that blind students will learn
physics, as even those students with no visual impairment can
have difficulties in learning physics. However, KitFis assures
visually impaired students that they can have access to tac-
tile illustrations, similar to those built on the blackboard by
the teacher and those presented in textbooks. The relevance
of KitFis is more toward offering access to the physics cur-
riculum. It can also contribute in strengthening the teaching
practices for disabled students by allowing those students to
enjoy the same opportunities offered to students who can see.
Materials such as this can also demonstrate that the sense of
sight is not the only way of seizing information.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to CAPES (Brazil) for financial sup-
port.
References
1. H. C. Silva et al., “Cautela ao usar imagens em aulas de ciên-
cias,” Ciência & Educação 12, 219 (2006).
2. M. Sahin and N. Yorek, “Teaching science to visually impaired
students: A small-scale qualitative study,” Educ. Rev. 6, 19
(2009).
3. M. Parry, M. Brazier, and E. Fischbach, “Teaching college
physics to a blind student,” Phys. Teach. 35, 470–474 (Nov.
1997).
4. M. Brazier, M. Parry, and E. Fischbach, “Facing challenges in a
college physics course leveling the playing field for the visually
impaired” Coll. Sci. Teach. 30 (2), 116 (2000).
5. BRASIL, PCN+ Ensino Médio: orientações educacionais com-
plementares aos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais. Ciências
da Natureza, Matemática e suas Tecnologias 2, 135 (2002).
Universidade Federal de São Carlos - UFSCar, Brazil;
jtfisica@gmail.com
417