INCLUSIVE EDUCATIONAL DESIGN IN DISTANCE HIGHER EDUCATION: recreating educational resources for students with sensory disabilities
Inclusive educational design. Educational design. Educational resource. Pedagogical mediation. Universal Design for Learning.
This research, developed in the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (PPGEd/UFRN), proposes an inclusive educational design for the reformulation of educational resources developed by the Distance Education Secretariat of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (SEDIS/UFRN) for students with sensory disabilities enrolled in distance learning undergraduate courses offered by the brazilian Open University (UAB). To this end, theoretical contributions from educational design (Filatro, 2004; Filatro and Bileski, 2015; Filatro, 2018), pedagogical mediation (Gutierrez and Prieto, 1994), and Universal Design for Learning (CAST, 2024) were used. As a methodology, a version of the ADDIE model (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) was applied, with the collaboration of a group of experts, composed of professionals in educational design, among with people with visual and hearing impairments. Next, three accessible educational resources were developed, based on a textbook previously produced by SEDIS/UFRN, and the study concluded with the evaluation of these resources by the group of experts. The results of the research reveals the importance of incorporating an inclusive perspective into educational design, bringing people with disabilities into the discussion in order to develop accessible educational resources, completely eliminating or minimizing barriers for students with sensory disabilities.