Inclusive Digital Technologies in the Classroom: A case study focused on students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the final years of elementary school

Abstract

Inclusive education in Brazil is part of an educational policy from the Law of Directives and Bases of National Education (LDBN 9394/96), which determines that people with special needs must be included in regular education classrooms. Overall, educational institutions lack professionals and content that favours inclusive education. The current work focused on students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), aiming to create and validate didactic sequences with the use of augmented reality (AR) to increase class engagement whilst providing to teachers and their assistants tools for the creation of other didactic sequences regardless of the curricular component. The research was exploratory, using the procedures applied in case studies. Once the bibliographic study was carried out and the AR tools pre-selected, the authors collected data with teachers and later suggested and validated the didactic sequences carried out by the students. The research showed the potential of AR as a tool to engage and make it possible to incorporate adapted school activities in order to have a greater participation of students with ASD. It was observed that training teachers and assistants to use other digital technological resources is essential for other practices to be developed and for the inclusion process to become increasingly natural.