Tactile graphics in school education: perspectives from teachers

Teachers are uniquely placed to comment on the design and use of tactile graphics in school education. It is surprising then that their opinions on this topic do not appear to have been sought previously. Using a postal questionnaire, we collected the perspectives of twenty-four teachers working with visually impaired children, in special or mainstream schools, at primary or secondary level. The questionnaire was designed to allow the teachers themselves to put forward those issues they considered important. Some very positive and enthusiastic remarks about tactile graphics were received but the general emphasis was on the difficulties of using tactile graphics in the classroom. Issues which came to the fore were labour intensiveness of production, problems of information overload within a graphic, and the challenge of making tactile graphics meaningful to learners.