Making Visual Illustrations of Physics Accessible to Blind Students

Torres, Josiane Pereira; Mendes, Enicéia Gonçalves

doi:10.1119/1.5003738

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Recent research has begun to investigate the accessibility of physics departments [46] and curriculum [3], and multiple studies have problematized and addressed barriers experienced in physics labs for individuals with auditory or visual impairments [47][48][49]. However, little work has investigated the specific experiences of students with nonapparent disabilities in physics courses.…”

Section: Existing Supports For Students With Disabilities Providedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disabling barriers experienced by students with disabilities in postsecondary introductory physics

James

Bustamante

Lamons

et al. 2020

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Educators and education researchers in postsecondary physics have rarely centered (i.e., intentionally directed attention to) the experiences of students with disabilities, leading to an instructional environment that is not designed to support students with disabilities. In this study, we interviewed five students who identified with the diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and were enrolled in introductory physics courses at a public four-year institution. We framed our investigation with a social relational perspective of disability, which posits that an individual's impairments (referred to as diagnosis characteristics in this paper) interact with social structures to result in disabling barriers (i.e., characteristics of social structures which prevent equal access for individuals with disabilities). We analyzed interview transcripts with interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). We found that the participating students discussed diagnosis characteristics including difficulties with focus, being prone to distractions, difficulties with keeping mental track of tasks and structures, and thinking often about abstract concepts. Diagnosis characteristics identified as challenges could result in negative selfperceptions, possibly as a result of internalized ableism. However, students also expressed that understanding their diagnosis led to benefits such as making more informed choices about their study strategies (e.g., using a planner or chunking their studying time). In alignment with our social relational perspective of disability, we found that course design could support or hinder participants' ability to use their preferred planning or studying strategies. We also found that students experienced increased barriers in their physics courses compared to other courses, specifically due to the increased time needed to process information and a lack of guidance for how to effectively study content for conceptual understanding. SCALE-UP courses introduced supports due to increased student autonomy but could also introduce barriers due to increased distractions. We present recommendations that instructors can implement to increase course supports. Researchers need to continue to center the experiences of students with disabilities in STEM courses so that researchers and practitioners can identify disciplinarily specific strategies to support student engagement and learning.

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Section: Existing Supports For Students With Disabilities Providedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disabling barriers experienced by students with disabilities in postsecondary introductory physics

James

Bustamante

Lamons

et al. 2020

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Most of the literature about supporting students with disabilities in physics target students with visual impairments (59% of articles we identified; e.g., [6][7][8][9][10] ), physical disabilities (23%; e.g., [11][12][13][14][15] ), and hearing impairments (18%; e.g., [16][17][18][19] ). We did not identify any articles related to supporting students with affective, emotional/behavioral, or mental health impairments.…”

Section: Supporting Students With Disabilities In Postsecondary Stemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resources for Supporting Students With and Without Disabilities in Your Physics Courses

Lannan

Chini

Scanlon

2021

The Physics Teacher

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All students deserve access to effective, equitable physics education. Postsecondary faculty have been shown to be unprepared to support students with disabilities in their classes, and popular, research-based introductory physics curricula do not adequately plan for variations in learners’ needs, abilities, and interests. It is urgent to address this disparity because students with disabilities are enrolling in postsecondary education at increasing rates and enroll in STEM degree programs at steady rates. Specifically, in 2014, the National Center on Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) found that 10.5% of students enrolled in science and engineering degree programs identified with a disability. The purpose of this paper is to provide resources that instructors can use in their classes to promote accessibility and support all learners. In this paper we: 1) provide a brief review of the literature related to supporting students with disabilities in the context of STEM; 2) describe Universal Design for Learning, which is a design framework intended to encourage development of curricula that support all learners; and 3) provide a list of resources that physics instructors can use to increase support for students with disabilities.

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“…While there have been studies focusing on how to support students with disabilities in physics (for example, see Refs. [5][6][7][8]), a corpus analysis of Physical Review Physics Education Research found that fewer than 1% of articles referred to any form of disability, which indicates that there may not have historically been much attention given to equitable access in our curriculum development [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postsecondary physics curricula and Universal Design for Learning: Planning for diverse learners

Scanlon

Schreffler

James

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Federal legislation specifies equitable access to education for all students at all levels of education, including postsecondary. To explore how well the physics education research (PER) community is currently serving students who inherently vary in needs, abilities, and interests, four research-based curricula (Tutorials in Introductory Physics, Open Source Tutorials in Physics Sensemaking, Physics by Inquiry, and Next Generation Physical Science and Everyday Thinking) were compared with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. This framework originates in the education literature base and is composed of 3 guiding principles (1. Provide multiple means of representation, 2. provide multiple means of action and expression, and 3. provide multiple means for engagement) further described by 9 principles and 31 checkpoints. The UDL guidelines provide a framework for designing courses to be supportive of and accessible to all learners, taking into account variations among learners during curriculum development. Activities in these four curricula were analyzed for alignment between the in-class curricular elements and the UDL guidelines. Overall, all of the curricula aligned with two of the checkpoints: foster collaboration and community and support planning and strategy development. However, the curricula were unaligned with many of the checkpoints, specifically with regards to providing multiple means of engagement. Who we are prepared to teach indicates who we expect to participate in the physics community. We propose suggestions for modifications to existing curricula and for future curricula to better support all learners. We also argue that, if these research-based curricula do not meet federal legislative guidelines about accessibility for all students, the burden of creating an accessible environment and complying with these federal laws falls on the instructors, which could deter them from using the curricula. If we as a community want instructors to use high quality, research-based curricula, curriculum developers should prioritize supporting all learners.

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Making Visual Illustrations of Physics Accessible to Blind Students

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Disabling barriers experienced by students with disabilities in postsecondary introductory physics

Disabling barriers experienced by students with disabilities in postsecondary introductory physics

Resources for Supporting Students With and Without Disabilities in Your Physics Courses

Postsecondary physics curricula and Universal Design for Learning: Planning for diverse learners

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