Turning a blind eye? Removing barriers to science and mathematics education for students with visual impairments
Open accessAbstract
With complex, visual concepts prevailing in science and mathematics curricula, these subjects are often inaccessible to students with visual impairments (VI), leading to their underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. While researchers have identified strategies that can facilitate students with VI’s learning within special schools, less is known about how students with VI access science and mathematics within a mainstream context, even though this is where the majority are educated. This seems important to address given the additional barrier students with VI face within mainstream schools, including negative attitudes from mainstream teachers. Consequently, the current study was conducted to explore how students with VI’s access to and learning of science and mathematics can be improved within the mainstream context. Two interviews were conducted with qualified teachers of children and young people with vision impairment (QTVIs), revealing the importance of classroom adaptations, such as hands-on experience and increased lesson time, to facilitate students with VI’s learning of science and mathematics. These findings are discussed in relation to policy and practice, suggesting mainstream teachers should be trained to make small but effective adaptations in their teaching, and that students with VI are given the opportunity to learn skills needed to become independent learners.
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From "I Don't Trust Any Professional Research Tool": A Re-Imagination of Knowledge Production Workflows by, with, and for Blind and Low-Vision Researchers (2026) · cites this paper as [35]
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“Mathematical content in PDFs, whether rendered as images or through inaccessible LaTeX compilation, remains largely unreadable by screen readers without proper semantic markup like MathML [35, 42, 69].”
From "I Don't Trust Any Professional Research Tool": A Re-Imagination of Knowledge Production Workflows by, with, and for Blind and Low-Vision Researchers (2026) · cites this paper as [35]
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- Authors
- Hayes, C., & Proulx, M. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Bath (GB)
- ORCID
- Proulx, Michael J
- Venue
- British Journal of Visual Impairment
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2023-01-26
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 544-556
- ISSN
- 0264-6196 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-5809
- OpenAlex
- W4319790919
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 7
- FWCI
- 8.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- British Journal of Visual Impairment (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- CAMERA 2.0 (EP/T022523/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Education and Employment
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport
- Social Sciences › Education › Collaborative Teaching and Inclusion
- Keywords
- visual impairment, science education, mathematics education, mainstream education, inclusive education, teacher attitudes, classroom adaptation, hands-on learning, STEM careers, teacher professional development, self-directed learning, special schools
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