Classes have moved online, and teachers are now using all the tools they have on the Internet to carry out their lessons. In the time of coronavirus, teachers of the blind are challenged more than teachers in mass schools because blind children are dependent on them. We created the e-learning platform Tactile Images to ease the work of the teachers for the blind, allow them to continue their lessons, and give the children learning independence.

1. Teaching in the schools of the blind
2. Teaching and the e-learning platform Tactile Images
3. Why should teachers of the blind use this platform in the time of coronavirus?

a) They keep up with the curricula
b) They get ideas for extra-curricular activities
c) They help the parents of the blind
d) They help other teachers of the blind

1. Teaching visual content in the schools of the blind

Teaching in mass schools combines audio-visual methods to make children better understand the subject they are studying. Schools for the blind do the same – that if they do have access to tactile drawings and if there is a teacher available to guide every child in class explore the drawing.

Because they provide instant access to 3D information such as shape, spaciousness, and depth, tactile graphics are vital for the blind children’s accurate understanding of the world. Teachers spend a lot of time in class, helping them explore graphics. They take the hand of the child in their own and explain the part of the drawing they are touching simultaneously to help the child create correct mental images of people and objects in the surrounding world. This process takes time, patience, goodwill, and knowledge.

2. Teaching and the e-learning platform Tactile Images

The e-learning platform Tactile Images gives the teachers of the blind the chance to teach remotely. This is done with the aid of the mobile app READER. The app plays the role of the specialist above the shoulder, who guides the hand of the blind child and gives him information about the image.

The READER app needs to have a tactile graphic with a QR Code underneath. Teachers can either download self-describing tactile graphics from the LIBRARY or use the EDITOR to digitize their graphics. Parents will be in charge of embossing through simple, inexpensive DIY techniques.

3. Why should teachers of the blind use this platform in the time of coronavirus?

a) They keep up with the curricula

Teachers of the blind might find it impossible for them to continue their work in the times of coronavirus. For them, teaching means being close to the student, but they can now use the Tactile Images platform to teach from a distance.

They can take the tactile graphics they have at home and digitize them in the EDITOR. Once they are done, they just have to e-mail the digitized version to the parents of the blind children, who will do the embossing, and the children will be able to study independently with the aid of the READER app. If will be as if their teacher is above their shoulder, guiding them. In this way, teachers will be able to cover the curricula in time of coronavirus.

b) They get ideas for extra-curricular activities

The Tactile Images platform is not only about keeping up with teaching. The immense LIBRARY of tactile drawings is here to give teachers ideas for extra-curricular activities, as well. They can teach blind children about Bach by e-mailing the parent the link to the tactile drawing of an instrument and a YouTube link to the interpretation of his Toccata and Fugue.

c) They help the parents of the blind

By helping the children study independently with the aid of the Tactile Images platform, teachers give the parents of the blind who work from home the freedom they so much need in the times of coronavirus. With a tactile graphic and the READER app, a blind child can be left alone to study at his own pace while the parent does all the work.

d) They help other teachers of the blind

Any teacher around the world can access the Tactile Images platform. If a teacher from, let’s say France, digitizes his tactile graphics with the EDITOR, a teacher from Romania can benefit from that tactile graphic free of charge. He can send the link of the graphic to the parents of the children in his class.

Teaching visuals to the blind in the time of coronavirus does not have to be complicated. Tactile Images is here to support all the teachers in the world continue their work and help blind children study independently in the time of coronavirus.

Read the other articles on this subject Part I and Part III.