Nikolett ÁRENDÁS, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
José Jesús REYES NUNEZ , Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
The teaching of blind and partially sighted pupils is a fundamental pillar of the contemporary inclusive Geography and its relation with other disciplines. In Hungary, the State Institute and Elementary School for Blind are the responsible institutions for the teaching of blind and partially sighted pupils. Geography teachers follow the guidelines determined by the National Core Curriculum (NCC) but adapting and simplifying it to the specific needs and limitations of their students. The teaching of subjects related to Geography (e.g., Environmental Studies) began in the 2nd grade and the Geography subject is taught from grade 7 to 8. Currently, in Hungary there is only one special school atlas created for visually impaired students (Rohonczi, 2009), but this atlas does not include any map for blind. By this reason the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics at Eötvös Loránd University considers a very important task the planning and making of maps to be used by blind and partially sighted pupils in the classroom, which represent those geographical topics proposed by the NCC. As part of a research work for an MSc thesis, the authors decided to create a series of maps for 7th and 8th grade students. The first stage of the research was the study of curricula related to Geography in interest of determining which themes can be represented on the maps, as well as we arranged selected themes and proposed preliminary solutions with the Geography teacher in the school. In the second stage we decided to combine (carto)graphic solutions so that maps can be used by both the blind and the visually impaired children. Three continents (Europe, South America, and Africa) and four types of maps (introductory, physical, political and mining) were worked out (Árendás, 2021). The third and last stage can be considered essential, because the pupils tested the maps in the classroom and they gave their opinions on how useful it is to use these maps in Geography lessons.
Mots clés : field work|inclusive geography|map|blind
A103879JR