TEACHING HUMAN MORPHOLOGY AND ACCESSIBLE TOOLS FOR STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT: A SCOPE REVIEW AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Accessible teaching. Human Morphology. Visual impairment. Accessible tools.
Visually impaired people are those with low vision or blindness. Before entering higher education, these students face a number of barriers, often having to adapt to teaching methodologies, going against a set of laws that make it possible for them to enter and ensure that these students are monitored throughout their education. In the area of health, the Morphological Sciences are of great importance for students' initial training, serving as the basis for later components. Anatomy, Histology and Embryology are components of Morphological Sciences, whose methodological activities are based on visual stimulation, with anatomical atlases, cadaveric specimens, histological images, microscopes, embryonic diagrams and others. These tools end up segregating people with visual impairments. Therefore, this research aimed to analyze epistemological studies and discourses in the field of teaching human morphology, in order to detect accessible teaching tools for visually impaired students. This dissertation has two chapters identifying teaching tools and the process of inclusion and accessibility. Chapter 1 consists of a scoping review, which through word combinations allowed 17 studies to be mapped in the main research databases, making it possible to identify 16 tools, sensory and technological, that favored accessibility in the teaching of Morphological Sciences. Chapter 2 surveys and evaluates the teaching tools used in the Department of Morphology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, based on an analysis of the discourse of 7 students with low vision or blindness from different health courses. The participants, who were assisted by the institution's Inclusion and Accessibility Department, studied compulsory curricular components in the area of morphology, such as Anatomy, Embryology and Histology. The research made it possible to assess whether or not the tools used by students with VI were validated during the empirical study. In addition, it was possible to identify the poor preparation of teachers and the lack of flexibility with visually impaired students in the process of training and development of curricular components, from the students' point of view.