Tangible user interfaces to ease the learning process of visually-impaired children

Abstract

People with visual impairment face significant challenges during their learning process, especially children in the early stages of this process. Different assistive technologies have been developed in last decades to support people with visual impairment when interacting with computers. This kind of technologies assume certain skills and level of maturity in the users. Nevertheless, there is a lack of technologies for children, specifically designed to support their personal development especially in the earliest stages. In this paper we propose a novel system based on Tangible User Interfaces aiming at providing children with visual impairment a new way of learning basic concepts. The system implements an audio-based game through which children are guided and motivated with different activities designed to learn basic concepts by identifying objects physically available that children must grasp with their hands to interact with the system. We have also performed a preliminary evaluation of the system with real users obtaining positive results.