Communicational Accessibility in Higher Education: Development and Validation of Inclusive Posters in Engineering Education

Abstract

This work arose from a demand from the Permanent Committee for Inclusion and Accessibility (PCIA) of the Technology Center (TC) of UFRN. The idea was to improve communication between students, teaching staff and technicians with the Secretariat for Inclusion and Accessibility (SIA) in the classroom and environment sector of the TC. The demand was developed in a discipline of the materials engineering course, after approval by the PCIA/TC. The demand was developed using the project-based learning (PBL) methodology, with the objective of creating a clear and direct poster, accessible to the blind, deaf and visually impaired. The students carried out the following PBL steps: i. receiving the demand; ii. assessing needs based on brainstorming; iii. distributing responsibilities; iv. developing an action plan; v. holding a workshop on the Braille system; vi. studying the ABNT NBR 9050 standard, technical drawing and material costs; vii. visits to the Accessibility Laboratory (AL), the Braille Musicography and Inclusion Support Sector (BMSSSM) of the School of Music (EM) and the Libras Language course, to insert braille into the poster, create a video with Libras, audio description and audio, and consult with the deaf, blind and visually impaired communities; viii. design of poster models in CorelDRAW; ix. presentation of the partial project report; x. production of the initial prototype and testing; xi. updating of the proposed models considering the feedback from the first validation; xii. validation of the final prototype and writing of the report. The initiative resulted in two posters: one with a black background, text, symbols and border in yellow; and the other with a white background and text, symbols and border in black; serving, respectively, the deaf and blind and visually impaired communities. The proposals, duly validated, are the result of a multidisciplinary project involving different areas of knowledge (engineering, communication and inclusive education). PBL presented itself with an efficient methodology in the development of technical and behavioral skills of engineering students, especially problem solving, assistive technology, teamwork and project management.