Abstract:

Introduction:
Breast cancer is a public health problem, which requires screening and early diagnosis. Blind women are considered vulnerable, with poor knowledge about breast health. The use of Information and Communication Technologies in the educational scope, in an inclusive manner, has been widespread, to promote accessible health information, which contributes to improving learning and quality of life. One can realize the importance of the participation of nurses, articulated with the sectors of society for health education and inclusion of blind women, involving knowledge about the particularities of this group to educate them, as well as the skills to perform an efficient and effective communication, running through the traditional education and integrating themselves into the online education.

Objective:
To validate an Online Educational Material on Breast Health as an accessible and inclusive educational material.

Method:
This is a validation study, which was conducted from September 2015 to January 2016. It was attended by 17 blind women and 29 women able to see, aged above 18 years, with ability to use computers. Women with multiple disabilities and health professionals or students were excluded. These women were registered in the virtual learning environment in mixed classes. They read the material and conducted discussion board activities. At the end of the content, a questionnaire was used as an instrument to assess the educational material, which addressed the following criteria: Objectives, Access, Clearness, Structure/Presentation, Relevance, Effectiveness and Interactivity. The Likert scale was applied ranging from Suitable, Partially Suitable or Unsuitable. In order to compare the assessment between women with and without visual impairment, the Fisher’s exact test was used.

Results:
The attributes related to Objectives, Clearness, Relevance and Effectiveness obtained a suitable assessment above 80%. Half of the students assessed Access as Partially Suitable/Unsuitable. Interactivity was predominantly assessed as Partially Suitable/Unsuitable, with emphasis being placed on the item “web browsing without difficulties through the presented links” (59.6%). When analyzing the influence of the variable related to disability about the assessment of the attributes, it was found that Structure/Presentation and Interactivity obtained a statistically significant difference (p<0.001), which were better assessed by disabled persons. The course members showed interest during the learning process, besides having reflected and asked about the importance of early diagnosis of the disease. The activities raised interest in self-care and reflection after participation, in addition to a wealth of information in the content, which generated enthusiasm in maintaining the search for information. All other attributes were assessed by both groups in a similar manner, thereby indicating that they had the same level of satisfaction and of difficulties, both in access and interactivity.

Conclusion:
The Online Educational Material on Breast Health was assessed in a similar manner by women with and without disabilities. The content has been considered relevant, current and capable to stimulate reflection and learning, with clear, suitable, simple and organized information. It is, therefore, a valid strategy to educate blind women and women able to see about breast health in an inclusive manner.

Keywords:

Breast Neoplasms, Disabled Persons, Visually Impaired Persons, Education, Distance.