104

Pedagogical aention strategies in

students with visual impairment

Arnoldo Rafael Rodríguez Noriega

Gustavo Adolfo González Roys

Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo

To reference this article / Cómo citar este artículo / Para citar

este artigo: Rodríguez-Noriega, A. R., González-Roys, G. y Martínez-

Arredondo, L. E. (2023). Pedagogical attention strategies in students

with visual impairment. Revista UNIMAR, 41(1), 104–123. https://doi.

org/10.31948/Rev.unimar/unimar41-1-art6

Reception date: January 19, 2022

Review date: May 9, 2022

Approval date: June 23, 2022

Abstract

The objective of this research was to understand the importance of pedagogical

attention strategies in the classroom, for students with visual disabilities

in the context of educational inclusion at the Universidad Popular del Cesar,

Sabanas headquarter, Valledupar municipality. It was based on various authors:

Aguirre (2016), Arizabaleta and Ochoa (2016), Bromberg et al. (2016), Carrillo

et al. (2017), and it was developed under the qualitative approach in the

phenomenological method. A documentary review and interviews were carried

out with two students with visual disabilities and two teachers of the institution,

where the important eort of the latter was evidenced when considering all their

students in the pedagogical practice, including those with visual disabilities. It

is concluded that there is a need to train teaching sta to work competently

to achieve more important achievements in terms of educational inclusion and

pedagogy of inclusion related to disability.

Keywords: pedagogical attention strategies; visual disabilities; educational

inclusion.

Candidate for a Master’s in Pedagogy (Universidad Mariana); Degree in Spanish and English Language (Universidad Popular del

Cesar). Teacher (Universidad Popular del Cesar). Email: arnoldora.rodriguez@umariana.edu.co

Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Quality UBC (Mexico); Master in Management of Research and Development Projects URBE (Venezuela);

Agro industrial Engineer, UNICESAR. Research Coordinator of the Master’s program in Pedagogy, Universidad Mariana, Valledupar,

Colombia. Email: ggonzalezr@umariana.edu.co

Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Sciences URBE (Venezuela); Master in Chemistry Teaching; Specialist in Environmental Pedagogy,

Universidad Popular del Cesar; Graduate in Chemistry and Biology Education Sciences, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de

Colombia. Email: leonmartinez@umariana.edu.co

An article resulting from the research entitled: ‘Pedagogical attention strategies in students with visual disabilities’, developed from

May 2019 to November 2021, at the Universidad Popular del Cesar, Sabanas headquarter, Colombia.

105

Estrategias de atención pedagógica en estudiantes

con discapacidad visual

Resumen

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo, comprender la importancia de las

estrategias de atención pedagógica en el aula, para estudiantes con discapacidad

visual en el contexto de la inclusión educativa en la Universidad Popular del

Cesar, sede Sabanas, municipio Valledupar. La investigación se fundamentó en

diferentes autores: Aguirre (2016), Arizabaleta y Ochoa (2016), Bromberg et

al. (2016), Carrillo et al. (2017), entre otros y, se desarrolló bajo el enfoque

cualitativo en el método fenomenológico; se realizó una revisión documental, así

como entrevistas a dos estudiantes con discapacidad visual y dos docentes de la

institución en estudio, donde se evidenció el importante esfuerzo de estos últimos

al considerar en la práctica pedagógica a todos sus estudiantes, incluyendo a

aquellos con discapacidad visual. Se concluye que, existe la necesidad de formar

al personal docente para trabajar con competencia en pro del alcance de logros

más importantes en materia de inclusión educativa y pedagogía de la inclusión

relacionada con la discapacidad.

Palabras clave: estrategias de atención pedagógica; discapacidad visual;

inclusión educativa.

Estratégias pedagógicas de atenção em alunos com

deciência visual

Resumo

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi compreender a importância das estratégias de

atenção pedagógica em sala de aula para alunos com deciência visual no

contexto da inclusão educacional na Universidad Popular de Cesar, em Sabanas,

município de Valledupar. Baseou-se em diversos autores e foi desenvolvida sob

a abordagem qualitativa do método fenomenológico; foi realizada uma revisão

documental e entrevistas com dois alunos com deciência visual e dois professores

da instituição, onde cou evidenciado o importante esforço destes últimos ao

contemplar todos os seus alunos na prática pedagógica, inclusive aqueles com

deciência visual. Conclui-se que há necessidade de capacitar o corpo docente

para atuar com competência para alcançar conquistas mais importantes em

termos de inclusão educacional e pedagogia da inclusão relacionada à deciência.

Palavras-chave: estratégias pedagógicas de atenção; deciência visual;

inclusão educacional.

Pedagogical aention strategies in students with visual impairment

106

Arnoldo Rafael Rodríguez Noriega

Gustavo Adolfo González Roys

Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo

1. Introduction

For some people, having one or more disabilities

means something severely adverse that partially

or totally aects their development and active

participation in everyday situations. Disability

as a condition is dened by the dictionary of

the Real Academia Española (RAE, 2021) as

the “situation of the person who, due to their

long-lasting physical [...] or mental conditions,

encounters diculties for their participation

and social inclusion” (n.p.). Thus, disability in

the particular context of this study represents

breadth and inclusiveness.

Over the years, in the educational scenario, it

has been observed that students with disabilities

have gradually assumed greater visibility in their

own spaces, both in schools and universities,

thanks to global initiatives such as the Strategy

for the United Nations for the Inclusion of

Disability (United Nations Organization [UN],

2018) in favor of accessibility, which has been

penetrating the sensitivity of governments,

institutions, organizations, and people. Although

for many this situation can be addressed from

special education, it should not be so, since

it is about building inclusion (Villa, 2017);

educational work with people with disabilities is

a task and responsibility of all educational levels

and instances.

The World Education Monitoring Report 2020

(United Nations Educational, Scientic and

Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2020)

expresses very clearly that inclusion cannot

be limited to children and young people with

disabilities attending ordinary schools, colleges,

and universities that lack support and preparation

for it and, therefore, cannot take responsibility

for achieving inclusion, which would mean that

actions such as these, could increase experiences

of exclusion, leading to results adverse to the

objectives of inclusion proposed by educational

systems.

At the university level, the challenge for teachers

becomes more evident, since it is a training that

expects a higher level of autonomy from the

student, both in their mobility of action and in

their learning process. In this regard, Bromberg

et al. (2016) state:

No one prepared us for the urgent and

necessary opening that universities had to

assume in the face of the increasing entry

of people with disabilities into university

education. Many teachers from these

universities have found themselves helpless

in the face of ignorance about academic

coexistence and pedagogical strategies to

eciently enhance the abilities of students

with disabilities. (p. 18)

These authors reect, in written form, what

many teachers think when they assume or when

the challenge of working in the classroom with

students with disabilities is imposed on them, as

it is in most cases: they nd intuitive knowledge,

not consciously, without tools previously

considered and designed based on the real needs

of these students, often having to appeal to an

adaptation of classroom practices, in adherence

to what could be called ‘pedagogy of normality’.

The lack of understanding of the potentialities,

capacities, and possibilities that a person with

disabilities possesses still prevails, which leads

them to other ways of learning; consequently,

teachers use new ways to facilitate learning,

clinging to trying to impose what is already

known (Villa, 2017).

In the words of Villa (2017), “it seems that there

is an absolute hegemony of normality [...] that

prevents rethinking the way [how] the subjects

of education are conceived” (p. 119), assuming

them as people who are the object of teaching

and not as subjects who daily build their being.

Hence, it is necessary to constantly reect

on the teaching practice and even more so,

when it occurs amid groups of students where

there is a presence of disabling conditions,

understanding that it is not about treating them

dierently, but about developing an inclusive

practice to cover everyone in a general way,

avoiding uncomfortable situations that, on many

occasions, generate student desertion.

In the Colombian context, according to the gures

provided by the Basic and Secondary Education

Student Enrollment System (SIMAT), for the

year 2018, there were 180,743 students with

disabilities registered in schools throughout the

country, “of which only 5.4% [reached] the level

of higher education […] and only 1.7% of people

with disabilities nished university education”

(Fundación Saldarriaga Concha, 2018, para. 3).

Bermúdez et al. (2009) rearm the above and

express that the initial access to education for

people with disabilities is noticeably reduced,

decreasing more and more when the transition

is made between basic and higher education:

More than answering to an institutional

guideline, inclusion has often arisen from

teachers interested in the subject, or it is

generated as a response to the case of students

who have entered and present particular

demands for support and accompaniment to

the university. (p. 51)

Pedagogical aention strategies in students with visual impairment

107

Arnoldo Rafael Rodríguez Noriega

Gustavo Adolfo González Roys

Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo

Based on all these descriptions, as well as on

data obtained through an initial observation

carried out at the Universidad Popular del Cesar

(UPC), located in the municipality of Valledupar,

in Colombia, features of a problem related to

teacher attention and interaction are evident

in the classrooms of this higher education

institution with students with disabilities,

specically those with total visual impairment

or reduced vision. Among the possible causes,

the lack of preparation on the part of teachers

for classroom work was raised, as well as the

administrative body in its interaction with them;

likewise, the inadequate infrastructure of the

classrooms and the available resources that

the teacher uses as support in the classroom,

and so on. Consequently, each student in

these conditions faces physical, structural, and

pedagogical barriers, together with those of an

emotional and psychological nature, which hinder

the development of the educational process at

the university level and the relationships that

exist there, negatively aecting learning.

Added to this is the non-compliance with laws,

decrees, and agreements stipulated in the

Colombian national territory, such as the case of

Statutory Law 1680 of 2013, which establishes

the provisions to guarantee the full exercise of

the rights of persons with disabilities, but the

reality is very far from what is proposed and

stated on paper. Therefore, it is assumed that

a ssure in the organizational system does not

allow the adequate conguration of an inclusive

educational community. From this circumstance,

the fact of the investigation is born, which aims

to identify causes, consequences, and possible

contributions to meet latent needs in this

controversial and pressing issue.

When visually impaired students enter the

university with the aim of training and growing

personally and professionally, they face a series

of problems in the classroom. To verify this,

the Department of Inclusive Education of the

UPC provided this information: the entity has

managed some resources, certain tools, and

physical space to benet this student population,

but, despite this, most teachers do not have

adequate training to deliver appropriate care.

From the above, the following question arose:

What is the signicance of the pedagogical

attention strategies in students with visual

disabilities of the UPC, Sabanas headquarter,

in the municipality of Valledupar in attention

to the principles of equality and equity? And,

from it derived the purposes that made it

possible to guide the research process around

the general objective, related to understanding

the importance of these pedagogical attention

strategies in the classroom.

For this, in the context of this higher education

institution, it was necessary to issue the following

specic objectives:

• Recognize the principles of educational

inclusion related to people with visual

disabilities.

• Identify the conditions, needs, and interests

of students with visual disabilities.

• Analyze the pedagogical practices in the

teaching and learning processes for the

attention of students with visual disabilities.

• Assess the signicance of pedagogical

attention strategies for students with visual

disabilities at the Universidad Popular del

Cesar.

Given the need to investigate the area of

inclusive education and, especially visual

impairment, the importance, utility, and benet

that this type of study brings to the mentioned

population becomes evident, to be attended

as a notorious party and active link of the

conguration or socio-educational structure. In

addition to this purpose of inclusion of diversity,

the process of dignifying and making visible

a population minority is necessarily touched,

which constitutes an important task through its

contribution to the construction of an awareness

of equality and respect for the rights of each

human being, regardless of the dierences. The

use of each strategy and resource is called upon

to supply the critical points that make academic

life a traumatic and frustrating episode in the

training of students with disabilities, especially

in specic cases of visual impairment. Thus, it

would be contributing to the primary purpose

of pedagogical research, which touches the

bers of the social network and emerges as an

impetuous need for change in latent models and

paradigms today.

The investigative process was supported by

several studies. On the international stage,

the contributions of Ocampo (2018), Fajardo

(2017), Medina (2016), and García et al.

(2016) provide valuable data on the subject of

educational inclusion from their contexts and

point as a whole to the search and achievement

of a more integral, supportive, and fair

education. In the Colombian national scenario,

the works developed by Arizabaleta and Ochoa

(2016), Aguirre (2016), Zárate-Rueda et al.

Pedagogical aention strategies in students with visual impairment

108

Arnoldo Rafael Rodríguez Noriega

Gustavo Adolfo González Roys

Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo

(2017), Velandia et al. (2018), and Duarte et al.

(2019) allow us to notice the need to continue

investigating the educational inclusion at the

level of higher education of students with visual

disabilities, since, most of the time, they are

complex life stories, loaded with suering both

at personal, family, and social level.

After having made a tour of the categories of

the study, two major themes are highlighted:

inclusive education and pedagogical attention

for students with visual disabilities. The rst

represents the transformation and adaptation

necessary for education for all, as expressed by

UNESCO (2009):

Inclusive education is a process of

strengthening the capacity of the education

system to reach out to all learners and thus

can be understood as a key strategy to

achieve education for all (EFA). As an overall

principle, it should guide all educational

policies and practices, starting from the fact

that education is a basic human right and the

foundation for a more just and equal society.

(p. 9)

In Colombia, inclusive education is assumed

as a determining process that recognizes

the dierences in human diversity. In the

regulations, through Decree 1421 of 2017,

article 2.3.3.5.1.4., numeral 7, the Colombian

State denes inclusive education as follows:

A permanent process that recognizes,

values, and responds in a pertinent manner

to the diversity of characteristics, interests,

possibilities, and expectations of girls, boys,

adolescents, youth, and adults, whose

objective is to promote their development,

learning, and participation with same-age

peers, in a common learning environment,

without any discrimination or exclusion, and

that guarantees, within the framework of

human rights, the support and reasonable

adjustments required in their educational

process, through practices, policies, and

cultures that eliminate existing barriers in

the educational environment. (p. 5)

Considering the above, it becomes evident that

the Ministerio de Educación Nacional (MEN),

by presenting this document of technical,

administrative, and pedagogical indications

for inclusion, oers a normative foundation in

response to the need to work on the concept of

inclusion and to determine theoretical support

for academic work. On the other hand, it is

convenient to clarify the dierence between

educational inclusion and inclusive education,

since they are concepts that, at rst glance,

seem to have the same meaning, but they

are not. In this regard, Arizabaleta and Ochoa

(2016) state: “Inclusive education is far from

educational inclusion, by including all students

in diverse and inclusive classrooms [...], with

the support of management, administrative,

nancial, academic, and community of the

Colombian HEIs” (p. 42).

The authors clarify that educational inclusion

refers to the incorporation of a minority group

of students into the classroom and inclusive

education opens the range of opportunities for

all students, without distinction of any nature,

considering all areas and spaces that cover

education. Hence the relevance of working with

inclusive education and not with educational

inclusion, since it is a question, in the case

that occupies this research, that students with

visual disabilities are attended with the same

prerogatives as their other classmates.

Hence the relevance of working with inclusive

education and not with educational inclusion,

since it is a question, in the case that occupies this

research, that students with visual disabilities

are attended with the same prerogatives as

their other classmates.

In this way, it is interpreted that higher education

institutions in Colombia must oer students with

any type of disability, the possibility of access,

permanence, and educational quality, following

the guidelines of the inclusive higher education

policy of the MEN (2013), as a task of social

commitment, since:

By transcending the strictly academic and

curricular to focus on the very constitution

of the social, inclusive education has as its

central objective, to examine the barriers

to learning and participation typical of the

entire system. In higher education, it is not

the students who must change to access,

remain, and graduate; it is the system itself

that must be transformed to address the

richness implicit in student diversity. (p. 18)

Based on this vision, when a student reaches

higher education under the framework of

inclusive education, positive results could be

seen in the training and inclusion processes, not

only at an academic level but also at a human

and social level. However, given what is stated

in the guidelines from the observations in the

context of reality, the educational system leads

the students with disabilities to adapt to what

the institution oers them, without taking into

Pedagogical aention strategies in students with visual impairment

109

Arnoldo Rafael Rodríguez Noriega

Gustavo Adolfo González Roys

Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo

account or adapting conveniently and relevantly

to their needs.

Considering the normative guidelines, education

for disabilities under the framework of educational

inclusion must aim at students with these

conditions and take into account all aspects that

are related to it. In other words, educational

policies and the educational process, in general,

must be designed for this historically excluded

population, with similar educational needs to

those of their other peers. However, students

with disabilities must overcome barriers that

make the pedagogical training processes dicult.

Being part of a system that, operationally, does

not consider the needs of this population and

adjusts to pre-established student models,

relegates the practice of including students with

visual disabilities to a lesser level.

Regarding the subject of pedagogical attention

for students with visual disabilities, pedagogical

accompaniment is required, based on the

identication of particular situations, so that

adequate strategies can be designed that oer

signicant experiences for their learning, also

allowing adequate follow-up to the educational

process from the teaching action. Therefore, it can

be ensured that the educational practice directed

at the attention of visual disabilities involves

a constant challenge and, at the same time,

proposes the construction of specic parameters

to interact adequately in educational settings.

In the particular case of visual impairment,

pedagogical practices must respond to the needs

for access to information, comprehensiveness

in the educational environment, and equal

opportunities within reasonable adjustments to

diversity, to the point of obtaining good learning

and training outcomes. It can be ensured that a

large percentage of the information received is

derived from sight, which is an insurmountable

challenge faced by students with visual

disabilities. In this regard, Hernández et al.

(2019) state:

80% of the information we receive throughout

the day is through the visual system. When

we look at something, we not only see with

our eyes but we inspect, distinguish, identify,

and interpret everything as part of the visual

system. (p. 2)

Consequently, adequately caring for a visually

impaired student demands an ethical, moral,

professional, and human commitment, which

implies recognizing the value and importance of

knowing their needs, just as it is done with other

students. By understanding this, the teacher

commits him/herself to the student’s learning,

begins to adapt his/her practice to the particular

needs of this through a detailed study, and

congures a teaching process adapted to them.

Teachers represent an irreplaceable and

transversal role in the adequate management

of students with visual disabilities; in their

practices, they become the pillar of an adequate

direction that points towards academic-

formative growth, for which the inclusive

resources of an institution are essential in the

teaching and learning processes. Educational

work should be oriented towards breaking down

the barriers faced by this class of students

when they venture into the spheres of higher

education, where the academic requirement is

headed for the training and development of the

autonomy of a competent professional, leader in

their professional and occupational prole.

Strategies in the classroom and access to

information are essential points to manage

academic encounters with students who are blind

or have low vision, which limits their autonomy

in the learning process; this forces the teacher

to resignify his/her practices, for their benet;

so, it is pertinent that the management starts

from an approach to their particular needs

and, based on the observation and analysis of

their characteristics, provides specic supports

under the use of resources such as typhlological

ones and, in turn, a disposition by adapt their

pedagogical practices towards the needs of

students with visual impairment.

Previous considerations allow us to appreciate

the complexity of the academic work that the

attention of sight-impaired students represents.

In the sense of strategies, understanding them

as those actions that the teacher executes in their

behavior in the classroom, Andrade and Yepes

(2020) provide guidelines for their development,

determining them into two typologies: the rst,

directed at the description of visual images,

objects, and situations, bearing in mind that,

through it, the most representative features of

what is being shown are outlined; for example,

tables, charts, maps, drawings, among others;

in this way, “the description is, perhaps, one

of the most used strategies in the classroom

context to facilitate the understanding of the

subject that the teacher develops at a certain

moment” (p. 9).

The second strategy is oriented to the

verbalization of the texts that are written on

the board. At this point, the MEN urges teachers

to express and read what they are writing on

Pedagogical aention strategies in students with visual impairment

110

Arnoldo Rafael Rodríguez Noriega

Gustavo Adolfo González Roys

Leonardo Enrique Martínez Arredondo

the board, whether they are texts, numbers,

symbols, and/or formulas. In this sense,

verbalization “is a strategy that benets, not

only students with visual disabilities but also

students who are located in the last positions

in the classroom” (Andrade & Yepes, 2020, p.

10). In the case of numerical exercises, it is

extremely important to emphasize reading, in

cases such as parentheses, announcing their

opening and closing, as well as the use of the

signs of mathematical operations.

On the other hand, Bromberg et al. (2016)

propose relying on recordings for the design

of strategies, since sight-impaired students

not only collect and store information but also

maintain attention, being able to discriminate

later with more time available, the voices and

sounds they heard in the classroom, enabling

them to be analytical and critical. These speech-

focused strategies also allow everyone to

participate, regardless of their vision capacity,

and complement the use of “tactile, information

in Braille, use of large print, high contrast, voice

synthesis programs in the computer, among

others” (p. 68). Additionally, they suggest:

Deliver in advance, as far as possible,

the program of the subject, the list of

bibliographies to consult, and the class

material. The most operative thing is to do it

in digital format so that they can read it with

the help of new technologies. (p. 71)

On another side, the signicance of promoting

proper treatment among classmates must be

addressed, since everyone’s support is required

to achieve the goals of inclusion in the classroom.

On this aspect, Luque and Luque-Rojas (2014)

propose the reection:

… on some intervention guidelines in

teaching action towards a positive classroom

climate, in personal and social interaction,

particularly with the disabled partner, based

on the acceptance of dierence, providing

collaboration and help in a cooperative, fair,

and respectful exchange with people, values

that must be shared by the entire community.

(p. 5)

Thus, teachers are called to become generators

and managers of a favorable space and healthy

coexistence, both for the growth and for the

educational training of students with visual

disabilities; this requires them to operate in a

communicative and interactive dimension that

transforms their work into something more

complex, that goes beyond action since it

constitutes an ethical and social commitment,

typical of education.

Pedagogical practices are one of the most

important parts of the educational work of the

agents who will manage or manage inclusive

classrooms […]. Practices located within the

educational and social context are those that

give a central axis to education, since from

there the steps to follow in the classroom will

be implemented, how the already established

practices will be directed, and a new paradigm

of educational inclusion [that seeks to know

the current practices under the light of

inclusion] will be transformed. (Carrillo, et al.

2017, p. 4)

As a consequence, constantly reected

pedagogical practices are needed, where the

projection and development of the classes

are based on the needs and particularities of

all students in general, especially those with

specic requirements, such as those with

visual disabilities, strategically outlining the

learning from the dierent ways of approaching

knowledge.

The research was framed in the interpretive

paradigm, in the phenomenological approach,

supported by three stages: descriptive,

structural, and information analysis. As data

collection techniques, participant observation

and in-depth interviews were used. The work

unit was made up of two students with visual

disabilities and two teachers linked to the UPC,

Sabanas headquarter.

2. Methodology

The development of the research was guided

by the phenomenological method, as a way

to search for knowledge in the reality of

pedagogical attention strategies in students

with visual disabilities at the UPC, Sabanas

headquarter. The investigation was focused on

understanding how social actors (teachers and

students) conceive these strategies, to know

from their own experiences, what their behavior

has been in the face of this phenomenon when

considering their experiences in the classroom.

In this sense, it was necessary to design the

investigative process through a sequence of

empirical, theoretical, and methodological

actions, typical of the interpretive paradigm

and thus, build the structures that allowed the

phenomenon to be addressed. Under this vision,

the procedure of this study was dened, adapting

the investigative work to the stages proposed