The LaTeX language and Physical Teaching for students with visual impairment

Authors

  • Julio Cesar Queiroz de Carvalho Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás (PUC Goiás)
  • Sheila Gonçalves do Couto Universidade Federal de Goiás
  • Eder Pires de Camargo UNESP/ Ilha Solteira

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22600/1518-8795.ienci2018v23n2p424

Keywords:

LaTeX language, visual impairment, Physics Education, Computer, screen readers

Abstract

When we think about of the Physics Teaching for students with visual impairments, mathematical language proves to be challenging because its two-dimensional syntax restricts it to a "sighted culture". With the development of screen readers, it became possible for the visually impaired people to access the computer. However, the conventional mathematical language offers certain barriers to the accessibility. Our goal was to investigate the possibilities and limitations to introduce the LaTeX language in the active context of reading and solving physics problems for students with visual impairment by a computer connected to a screen reader. Based on Vygotsky's theory, in which the language has a central role as the symbolic mediation process view point as the socio-psychological compensation mechanism for the visually impaired people, this research was structured on the basis on qualitative research, and data interpretation based on Bakhtin’s discourse analysis. When we introduce the LaTeX language in the context of reading and physics problem resolution to a high school student in a public school, the association between LaTeX and screen reader proved just not being accessible as understandable, as also has revealed great potential in reducing barriers of accessibility to physics texts via computer.

Author Biographies

Julio Cesar Queiroz de Carvalho, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás (PUC Goiás)

Escola de Ciências Exatas e da Computação (ECEC)

Sheila Gonçalves do Couto, Universidade Federal de Goiás

Instituto de Física

Eder Pires de Camargo, UNESP/ Ilha Solteira

Departamento de Física e Química

References

Bakhtin, M. (2011). Estética da criação verbal. São Paulo, SP: Martins Fontes.

Baldwin, R. (2011, n.d). Accessible physics concepts for blind students. Recuperado de http://cnx.org/content/col11294/1.35/

Bauer, M. W., & Gaskell, G. (Org.) (2004). Pesquisa qualitativa com texto, imagem e som: um manual prático. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes.

Ferreira, H., & Freitas, D. (2006). Leitura de fórmulas matemáticas para cegos e amblíopes: A aplicação AudioMath. In Atas do IV Congresso Ibero-americano de Tecnologia de Apoio. (p. 137-142). Vitória, ES.

Gaspar, A. (2004). Física: Série Brasil. São Paulo, SP: Ática.

Karshmer, A. I. ,& Bledsoe, D. F. (2007). Acess to mathematics by blind students: a global problem. San Francisco, CA: USF Scholarchip Repository. Recuperado de http://repository.usfca.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=at

Masini, E. F. S. (1994). Impasses sobre o Conhecer e o Ver. In E. F. S. Masini (Org.). O perceber e o relacionar-se do deficiente visual: orientando professores especializado. Brasília, DF: Corde.

Meira, J. N. B. , Ferracini, C. C., Gimenes, A. L. M. Neves, F. H. D. Simonassi, R., & Pimentel, E. P. Uma ferramenta de autoria de materiais instrucionais com símbolos matemáticos acessíveis a deficientes visuais. In Anais do XIX Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação. (p. 756-765.). Fortaleza, CE.

Parry, M. Brazier, M., & Fischbach, E. (1997). Teaching college Physics to a blind student. The physics teacher, 35(8), 470-474.

Rego, T. C. (2011). Vygotsky – Uma perspectiva histórico-cultural da educação. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes.

Santos, R. J. (2012). Introdução ao Latex. Recuperado de http://www.mat.ufmg.br/~regi

Tato, A. L. (2009). Material de equacionamento tátil para usuários do sistema braile. (Dissertação de Mestrado). Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica. Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Teixeira, E. (2011). As três metodologias: Acadêmica, da ciência e da pesquisa. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes.

Teixeira, P. (2014). Software feito na Unicamp ajuda no ensino de matemática para deficientes. Recuperado de http://g1.globo.com/sp/campinas-regiao/noticia/2014/11/software-feito-na-unicamp-ajuda-no-ensino-de-matematica-para-deficientes.html

Vaz, C. L. D. (2001). Aprendendo Latex (Apostila desenvolvida pelo Labmac-UFPA). Recuperado de http://www.lac.inpe.br/~margarete/download/MET200.../apostilalatexpdf.pdf

Vigotski, L. S. (1997). El nino ciego. In L. S. Vigotski (Org.). Obras escogidas V – Fundamentos de defectología (p. 9-113). Madri: Visor.

_____. (2007). A formação social da mente. São Paulo, SP: WMF Martins Fontes.

_____. (2010). A construção do pensamento e da linguagem. São Paulo, SP: WMF Martins Fontes.

Downloads

Published

2018-08-30

How to Cite

Carvalho, J. C. Q. de, Couto, S. G. do, & Camargo, E. P. de. (2018). The LaTeX language and Physical Teaching for students with visual impairment. Investigations in Science Education, 23(2), 424–438. https://doi.org/10.22600/1518-8795.ienci2018v23n2p424

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 2 (2018): August of 2018

Section

Artigos

License

IENCI is an Open Access journal, which does not have to pay any charges either for the submission or processing of articles. The journal has adopted the definition of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), which states that the users have the right to read, write down, copy, distribute, print, conduct searches and make direct  links with the complete texts of the published articles.

The  author responsible for the submission  represents all the authors of the work and when the article is sent to the journal, guarantees that he has the permission of his/her co-authors to do so. In the same way, he/she provides an assurance that the article does not infringe authors´ rights and that there are no signs of plagiarism in the work. The journal is not responsible for any opinions that are expressed.

All the articles are published with a Creative Commons License Attribution Non-commercial  4.0 International. The authors hold the copyright of their works and must be contacted directly if there is any commercial interest in the use of their works.