Resource
Practical and visual guidelines for creating teaching materials and interactive systems that are flexible, legible and multisensory.
Recommendation
It is recommended to provide every student, including those with a visual impairment, with varied learning experiences, using resources that stimulate not only sight but also hearing, touch, smell and taste, for an alternative relationship with the content and an alternative relationship between theory and practice with autonomy.
The recommendations were formulated in Brazilian Portuguese. This is a faithful working translation; the Portuguese version is the canonical one. Read the original in Portuguese
Responsibility
Every teacher and tutor.
- Teacher
- Tutor
Opportunity
Every teacher and tutor has the opportunity to stimulate different senses and provide a multisensory learning experience when presenting a task, activity or interaction, through sounds, scents, textures and even tastings related to the topic of the lesson.
Applicability
Do
Plan lessons that complement visual or lecture content with physical elements for active touch (3D models, maps with foam textures, or tactile boards) and engaging sound cues.
Don’t
Restrict the teaching method to the whiteboard or to silent slide projection, isolating the student with a visual impairment from empirical, immersive experience of the content covered.
Examples
The lesson plan includes sound representations (audio or podcast) and cues such as "follow along with the 3D tactile model handed out at your desk". This multisensory approach fills the gap left by the absence of sight, ensuring full inclusion in the topic being taught.
Relying exclusively on passive observation (e.g. "watch closely the colour of the reactions in the video"). This restriction penalises people with visual impairments and underuses the other senses (such as hearing and smell) in the teaching process.