Teachers’ perceptions from a school in Lima about difficulties in children with visual impairment when learning Braille

Abstract

Objective. To explore difficulties, according to teachers’ opinion, visually impaired elementary students have when learning Braille at Louis Braille School in Lima. Moreover, it is important to identify how much students’ contexts can influence their learning. Furthermore, an analysis on how the school agents (the administration and teachers) can cause an impact when learning Braille will be conducted. Additionally, there will be a mention of how the external factors (government and society) can also cause influence. Method. Following a qualitative approach, all elementary teachers from the school were interviewed. These interviews were recorded and later transcribed so they could be codified. Results. Among the most important discoveries, five main difficulties were found related to national and institutional management in support of visually impaired people, resources, and parental participation in the life of a visually impaired child, children with multiple disabilities besides being visually impaired, teaching materials, and, last, teachers’ collaboration and specialization. Conclusions. In conclusion, those five difficulties are the most predominant, and they can undermine the student’s performance.