Accessibility of Students with disabilities to remote teaching in State Universities of Bahia

Abstract

Healthy crisis, resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, generated social distancing actions to minimize the risks of virus infection, impelling basic and higher educational institutions to offer emergency remote teaching (ERT). Among the challenges of ERE, institutions needed to elaborate alternatives for teacher education, availability of digital tools, data network expansion, and accessibility for students with disabilities. In this regard, this investigation aimed to analyze the guidelines from the universities that make up the state educational system in Bahia, concerning the approach of issues related to accessibility of students with disability to remote teaching, in graduation courses. The guidelines were collected on the websites of each institution. It is, therefore, about documentary research, with a qualitative approach, which allows an analytical-interpretive perspective on the content of institutional guidelines. The results reveal that the four state universities from Bahia address accessibility in the documents concerning remote teaching, with the greatest emphasis on the methodological and digital dimensions. Only the Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia made a document with specific guidelines available, which also contemplates the dimensions: communicational, instrumental, attitudinal, and digital. It can be concluded that higher education institutions can elaborate educational policies that ensure the accessibility right of students with disability to face-to-face or remote teaching and to places, contents, and learning tools.