Picture yourself, head cocked, eyes squinting, posing thoughtfully in front of a newly acquired work in your favourite gallery. Overheard, muted voices share their musings on the meaning of the work. At odds with your initial perception, you struggle to make sense of the piece. Reading the print description and listening to the narration on the audio guide provide some insight. You learn there is so much more embodied in the artwork than meets the eye .
Now consider learners for whom visual representations are not accessible. Vision impairments, visual processing disorders, or just difficulties in interpreting visual information all create barriers to learners in accessing information.
Visual information is often complex – representations and relationships between objects, graphics, tables, infographics, illustrations, datasets and more – lead to difficulty for some in synthesizing and making meaning. Additionally, visuals, such as artworks or symbolic representations often contain multiple meanings. Context, experience and prior knowledge may be required in order to comprehend the intended meaning.
Providing supplementary sources of information to complement visuals reduces barriers to learning.
Practical Strategies
CAST, the home of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) recommend the following practical strategies to reduce the barriers to learning that visuals may impose:
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- Provide descriptions (text or spoken) for all images, graphics, video, or animations
- Use touch equivalents (tactile graphics or objects of reference) for key visuals that represent concepts
- Provide physical objects and spatial models to convey perspective or interaction
- Provide auditory cues for key concepts and transitions in visual information
- Follow accessibility standards when creating digital text
- Allow for a competent aide, partner, or “intervener” to read text aloud
- Provide access to text-to-speech software
There are more practical suggestions on reducing barriers to learning on the CUDA website.