Abstract:

In this communication we want to present the educational platform “SEEING THE INVISIBLE”, developed within the framework of the Erasmus+ project “SEEING THE INVISIBLE: INCLUSIVE DIGITALIZATION OF LOW VISION STUDENTS IN SCHOOL EDUCATION”.

According to studies by the WHO (2020) it is estimated that there are more than 2 million children under 15 years old with severe low vision or blindness in Europe. They are boys and girls with severe visual impairment of school age who struggle each day to live a full life. When a teacher receives a student with low vision in their classroom, he/she knows that all previous work, all his/her teaching experience, is not enough. During that year, he/she will have to invest a lot of time and effort to create a new adapted classroom planification that includes learning methodologies and materials adapted to these students.
The only opportunity for the teacher not to lose dedication to students with low vision while also adapting teaching methods to the digital field (essential in the post-COVID-19 society) is to unify these two processes, generating innovative digital learning methods adapted to students with low vision, that have not just innovative and adapted tools, but also specific training and the creation of support networks of experts and families that allow them to achieve this.

For them, both the teachers and students with low vision, we want to present the platform “SEEING THE INVISIBLE”, a software for Android and iOS environments that provides an innovative option for teachers to generate educational materials and processes fully adapted to low vision, in addition to including tools that allow teachers to generate a process of reflection and learning along with with experts in low vision. In short, it is a digital tool that not only allows teachers to create curricular adaptations for students with low vision in an easy way and with the help of experts, but that also favors any school education (primary and secondary) student with low vision achieving full inclusion in the classroom and educational success, regardless of whether teaching is on-site or virtual.

All of this through a systematic, simple, and guided process that will allow the teacher to: 1.- Design and generate the Didactic Units of their subject, and the sessions that compose it, in a fully virtual format, and guided through the “DU Builder”, a creator of didactic units and sessions adapted to low vision that will provide them with guidelines and models to follow so they can easily create their own adapted Didactic Units; 2.- Generate Virtual Classrooms; and 3.- Involve students with low vision and experts in the learning processes. Teachers of students with low vision, will also be able to access an advisory service of experts, who support them and answer their questions through this educational tool.

Acknowledgements:
This work has been funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme within the 2021-1-ES01-KA220-SCH-000027706 project; Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE).

Keywords:

Inclusive, learning, tools.