Luke Pereira

Evaluating intersections of vision impairment with stem research in Canada

A quarter of a million Canadians have some sort of vision loss. To inform programs and policy about persons with visual impairments, I focused on research questions in the current Canadian literature: Looking at accommodations and barriers that persons with visual impairments confront when pursuing STEM learning; to identify deeper themes and gaps that present themselves; and use the gathered data as information that will lay the foundation for further research inquiries, improvements, and pedagogical change in educators for persons with visual impairment (PVI). A comprehensive search of databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, ERIC) was performed. Due to the minor criteria, the focus was on Canadian literature or the best available research on the keywords used. The findings highlighted themes that emerged in three different areas of accessibility, behaviour, and social settings for PVI. Furthermore, relationships were highlighted between the main themes and broken down further. This MRP discusses accommodation and the social and behavioural context in STEM education and identifies barriers faced by PVI and educators. While there is ample research on accessibility for PVI, more research needs to take place on lived experiences of PVI and to understand the behaviour and social aspects of engagement to ensure services of accommodations are met. http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/3617/