Formation of communicative competence of massage therapists with visual impairments: A research study

Background

Communicative competence for massage therapists with visual impairments is an important aspect in ensuring their successful integration into the profession and society. However, visually impaired massage therapists face numerous barriers to effective communication during their education, hiring process, and professional employment.

Aim

To study why communicative competence is important for students with visual impairments; to research features of communication of persons with visual impairments; to identify barriers and effective strategies for formation of communicative competence in the educational process.

Design

A qualitative descriptive study with focus groups and semi-structured interviews.

Settings

Higher education institution in Lviv (Ukraine) offering a nursing programme for students with visual impairments.

Participants

Three groups of respondents, namely visually impaired alumni of Lviv Medical Academy, Ukraine (n = 6), alumni's employers and co-workers (n = 4), and experts in the education of visually impaired persons (n = 11), participated in the research.

Methods

Two focus groups and in-depth semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic coding was used to analyze transcripts.

Results

Five themes arose: significance of communication for nurse massage therapists with visual impairments; features of communication of persons with visual impairments; barriers to communication of persons with visual impairments; tools and approaches to improve communicative competence of massage therapists with visual impairments; ineffective methods in teaching communication to visually impaired students.

Conclusions

Communication barriers faced by visually impaired nursing students include isolation in specialized institutions, parental hypervigilance, and the challenge of establishing eye contact, which impedes reading nonverbal cues. To enhance communicative competence, it is essential to implement interactive teaching methods, involve students in various activities, ensure educational accessibility, and adopt an individualized and empathetic approach. Both inclusive and special education have advantages and disadvantages. It is recommended to advocate for a "reasonable accommodation" model to ensure high-quality education for visually impaired massage therapists.

Assistive technology-based solutions in learning mathematics for visually-impaired people: exploring issues, challenges and opportunities

In the absence of vision, visually impaired and blind people rely upon the tactile sense and hearing to obtain information about their surrounding environment. These senses cannot fully compensate for the absence of vision, so visually impaired and blind people experience difficulty with many tasks, including learning. This is particularly true of mathematical learning. Nowadays, technology provides many effective and affordable solutions to help visually impaired and blind people acquire mathematical skills. This paper is based upon a systematic review of technology-based mathematical learning solutions for visually impaired people and discusses the findings and objectives for technological improvements. It analyses the issues, challenges and limitations of existing techniques. We note that audio feedback, tactile displays, a supportive academic environment, digital textbooks and other forms of accessible math applications improve the quality of learning mathematics in visually impaired and blind people. Based on these findings, it is suggested that smartphone-based solutions could be more convenient and affordable than desktop/laptop-based solutions as a means to enhance mathematical learning. Additionally, future research directions are discussed, which may assist researchers to propose further solutions that will improve the quality of life for visually impaired and blind people.

Accessible Tutoring Platform Using Audio-Tactile Graphics Adapted for Visually Impaired People

One of the problems faced by people with blindness is access to materials presented in graphical form. There are many alternative forms of providing such information, but they are very often ineffective or have certain limitations. The development of mobile devices and touch sensors enabled the development of new tools to support such people. This study presents a solution called an accessible tutoring platform, using audio-tactile graphics for people with blindness. We aimed to research the influence of the developed platform for the alternative presentation of graphics information on better memorizing, recognizing, and learning. Another goal of the research was to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for the alternative presentation of audio-tactile graphics. The effectiveness of the proposed solution was verified quantitatively and qualitatively on two groups of blind students from primary and secondary schools with the use of a developed platform and prepared materials for learning mathematics. The obtained research results show that the proposed method of verifying students' knowledge and auto-selecting exercises with adapted audio description positively influences the improvement of learning effectiveness.

Improving teaching in different disciplines of natural science and mathematics with innovative technologies

The study describes an innovative methodology for teaching natural and mathematical sciences in the context of distance learning using modern technological solutions and based on the concepts of active social learning that involves constructivist, problem-oriented, project and research approaches. The proposed methodology was tested on 80 students enrolled in two training courses in [BLINDED] University and [BLINDED] University, respectively: Mathematics Teaching in the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) context and Molecular Biology. The psychological safety of the proposed pedagogical methodology was investigated by assessing the level of psychological well-being of the participants in the educational process using the Scale of psychological well-being questionnaire developed by C. D. Ryff that was adapted to the educational context. The results of the study showed that the proposed pedagogical methodology was safe in relation to the life of students. It generally improved their perception of learning and themselves in the role of its participants, promoted positive self-esteem in group learning contacts, and, by developing learning involvement and interest through the Clil technology, qualitatively contributed to the achievement of educational progress by each student. The developed innovative methodology for teaching natural and mathematical sciences can be used as a pedagogical model for developing effective training courses. The demonstrated assessment of the level of psychological well-being adapted to the educational context can serve as a basis for the development of motivational learning strategies that support students in crisis learning conditions during the pandemic.

A Systematic Review on Inclusive Education of Students with Visual Impairment

This was a systematic review on the inclusive education of students with visual impairment. This study focused on two of the most addressed topics: the perceptions of general education teachers and challenges faced by students with visual impairment in accessing academic subjects. It synthesized the findings of 18 peer-reviewed articles published in English from 1980 to 2020. General education teachers’ attitudes toward the inclusion of students with visual impairment were both positive and negative and were influenced by teacher-, student-, and environment-related factors. Feeling unprepared, one of the main teacher-related factors, seemed to have a great effect. In terms of access to academic subjects, the most discussed subjects were Mathematics, Science, and Physical Education. Although students with visual impairment seemed to be studying at or above their grade level, their exclusion from participation in classroom activities was apparent. Unfortunately, these challenges lead to short- and long-term consequences. Key elements in increasing accessibility to subjects were: general education teachers possessing a generic set of effective pedagogical strategies, effective teaching-learning tools, and external support. The importance of teacher training and a holistic support system were emphasized.