Piloted at UCT’s health sciences faculty from Monday October 1, the Teacher Empowerment for Disability Inclusion(TEDI) project is a partnership between the university and Christoffel-Blinden Mission, a non-profit.
Samantha Daniels, a teacher at the Athlone School for the Blind who took part in the course, said the visually impaired children needed “emotional and social support and not just the academic side of things”.
The course looked at accessible learning and teaching materials – for example adapting learning materials into braille and large print, among other things.
“The outcome of a very intense five-day course is to empower teachers as much as possible, to think about their teaching environment, to think about their work in the classroom, teaching techniques, adapting their curriculum and using accessible learning and teaching materials,” said Dr Brian Watermeyer, senior research officer in disability studies at UCT.
Dr Watermeyer said the course showed how technology could help visually impaired pupils, for example, apps that could translate text into speech.
Go to www.dhrs.uct.za/dhrs/divisions/disability/tedi for more information about the project.