Teaching science to visually impaired students: A smallscale qualitative study

Abstract: Students have long regarded science as a difficult subject because of hard and abstract concepts. Traditional science teaching has been depended mostly on visual instruction. This makes it difficult for visually impaired (VI) or partially sighted students included in regular classrooms to learn the concepts. Blind students on the other hand, have no visual input at all. They need to learn using other senses such as touching and hearing. Classrooms should be adapted and instruction should be adjusted for better science teaching to VI students. The purpose of this study was to investigate how VI students learn science. The results of the data obtained via interviews and observations revealed that VI students need instructional and environmental accommodations to learn science. They need more tactual and audio experiences than visual instruction. Suggestions and implications about teaching science to students with visual impairments are discussed. Key words: visually impaired; science teaching; blind 1