Tecnologias da informação como ferramentas de inclusão no ensino superior: Um estudo de caso sobre o desenvolvimento do aprendizado de discentes com deficiência visual apoiado pelo ambiente Moodle

Abstract

The Information and Communication Technologies have acquired a growing participation inthe activities of modern society. Communication networks and the Internet allow the diffusion of large mass of information in a short period of time forming the "knowledge society". Several services, such as e-commerce, social networking and Virtual Learning Environments, make it possible to perform various activities without the need to move geographically. There is a cultural change supported by the Information and Communication Technologies. However, factors such as illiteracy and digital divide leave the margins of society user groups with some limitation, either physical or cognitive, such as people with visual impairments. To reach this group of users, several actions have been developed to adapt products, services and content that could be used by a larger amount of users, thus promoting their social and digital inclusion. In this project we describe the case study realized on the Universitary campus of the UFPA - Maraba in order to analyze the use of Virtual Environment Moodle as a way of helping to visually impaired students enrolled in higher education to achieve their learning goals. This study qualifies as an exploratory research, where literature searches were conducted and documentary to meet the state of the art inherent in the use of Information Technology and Communication in the social inclusion of people with visual impairments. From the theoretical background and interviews, the case study involved the analysis of the Moodle and some of its learning resources to check their level of accessibility to the visually impaired in order to assist them in achieve their learning activities. The results showed that the virtual environment Moodle has a sufficient level of accessibility for use by the visually impaired. Thus, the Moodle and the learning resources tested can be used in the learning activities of students with visual impairments.