Audio description and students with visual impairments : what use for what benefits?

International audienceThe study of still or moving images is part of primary and secondary school curricula in France. Teachers are also encouraged to take their students to cultural venues (museums, movies, live shows, exhibitions...) in order to broaden their culture and to connect various school skills and knowledge, together and with social life. When teachers have a student with a visual impairment in their class, the issue of making visual elements accessible arises. In a context where inclusion is becoming more and more frequent, teachers need to find strategies for students to understand the role of images, for students with low vision and blindness to build a representation of images that surround them and which they have to study (Crépel, 2011; Lewi-Dumont, 2016). Audio description has developed in France, particularly since the law of 11th February 2005 on equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship of people with disabilities and also in other countries (Taylor, 2013). We are proposing to study the use that teachers make of audio description, by analyzing a written questionnaire (6 main items) sent to regular and specialist teachers in charge of students with visual impairments in order to analyse its benefits and limits, both in terms of learning and on a psycho-social level. When it comes to making pupils audio- describe short films, this could be a good learning tool in several subjects for both sighted and visually impaired students, and also a good way to promote the abilities of students with visual impairments in inclusive school settings. We will show it qualitatively through direct observation and interviews of secondary school students and teachers. The study is in progress during the school year 2016-2017