Visio International launches the manual “Teaching Mathematics to Students Who are Blind or Visually Impaired”

Mathematics is a fundamental part of our daily lives. While maths is abstract, it is also a very visual subject. For people who are blind or visually impaired, numbers, equations, shapes, graphs and tables pose special challenges. With the right teaching methods, and given some extra time, many blind and visually impaired students are capable of doing mathematics at a level comparable to sighted students. A team of ou member Visio – and international experts, worked 3 years on this online document. It was coordinated by Visio International, part of the Knowledge and Expertise development department of Royal Dutch Visio.

The manual aims to provide maths – and other teachers who work with blind and visually impaired students with the skills and knowledge needed to help these learners achieve fluency in maths. It gives guidelines for how to adapt the curriculum and teaching methods for the blind or visually impaired students in the class. The manual focuses on the mathematics taught in secondary schools. It assumes that the students already have a knowledge of primary maths: numbers, arithmetic, clocks, 2- and 3-dimensional shapes, etc. For blind students, it assumes that they have already mastered the basics of braille. The book is based on Unified English Braille. It includes many links, practical examples and pays attention to different materials that can be used to teach mathematics to students with a visual impairment.

The manual can be downloaded using the link https://www.visio.org/visio.org/media/Visio/Afbeeldingen/Visio%20International/Teaching-Mathematics(print).pdf

More information: international@visio.org or petrawijen@visio.org