A TRAVEL GUIDE FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED 26.02.2020

Our Grade 4 students visited Asik Veysel School for the Visually Impaired and gave the travel guide, which they prepared meticulously by using the Braille alphabet, to the students studying there. When they had been studying in Grade 1, our students had inquired about “how visually impaired people read and write” in line with the transdisciplinary unit “Who We Are” and the main idea “The Differences and Similarities Between Us Shape Who We Are”. Then, they had met a visually impaired person and learned what Braille alphabet was. Same students had inquired about “how relationships between people living in different societies affect our character” as well as “how visually impaired people adapt to the society they live in and what kind of problems they face while living with others” when they had been studying in Grade 3. This year, our students looked at the signboards and collected the packages prepared in Braille. They also found books written in Braille, however, they could not find any guides that could be used by visually impaired people while travelling abroad; so, they decided on preparing one. Firstly, they determined the content of the “Bilingual Travel Guide” as well as the words and expressions which could be used by the visually impaired while travelling abroad. Then, they created bilingual voice recordings and generated QR codes for those recordings during their ICT lessons. Also, our HS student Elif Gungor created illustrations for the book. The printing and editing of the book lasted for one and a half years due to various changes in voice recordings and QR codes. Finally, our students met Grade 2-8 students studying at Asik Veysel School for the Visually Impaired on Wednesday, February 26, introduced their projects and gave the guides to those students as gifts. The students, teachers and administrators of Bornova Asik Veysel School for the Visually Impaired thanked our students and teachers a lot for carrying out this meaningful project.