Boguslaw Marek, Ph.D., Order of the British Empire
This paper is written by Bogusław Marek and Magdalena Szubielska from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and Ewa Niestorowicz from the Madam Curie University.
Recognizability of tactile graphics
- Evidence from analysis of drawings made by learners with a visual impairment from different cultural backgrounds.
In this session you will become acquaint with a set of educational resources facilitating understanding of the relation between 3-dimmensional objects and their 2-dimmensional representations. Boguslaw will present a paper that focuses on formal characteristics of drawings made by congenitally blind children and teenagers and on recognizability of these drawings by sighted persons. The study consisted of two test, a pre-test and a post-test. In both these tests the students with blindness were asked to make 3 types of drawings: drawings of a small object fully accessible to tactual exploration, drawings of an object too large for tactual exploration and a scenes - a configuration of several objects.
The post-test was preceded by a training session with educational tools (such as a rubber drawing mat, a stylus or a ball point pen or a Transfograph) which help the student undestand the relation between objects and drawings.
The original hypothesis was confirmed and drawings made after training with educational tools were more readily recognized than those made before training. The experiment also confirmed that the educational tools used in the training improved blind learners’ drawing skills and their understanding of tactile drawings, even if they had no exposure to graphics before the experiment, as was the case with learners from Nepal, Singapore and Samoa.