Estudo de casos e modelos tridimensionais: tecnologia assistiva para inclusão de deficientes visuais no ensino de quÍmica

Abstract

In the Brazilian context, legislative advances such as the Brazilian Inclusion Law (Law No. 13,146/2015) have reinforced the importance of including people with disabilities in all aspects of society, including the education system. However, the effective implementation of these policies requires not only structural changes, but also adequate teacher preparation to meet the individual needs of students with disabilities. In this sense, initial and ongoing teacher training emerges as a critical issue, highlighting the need for innovative approaches and adapted educational resources to ensure truly inclusive education. One of the specific challenges faced by educators is the lack of accessible resources that allow students with visual impairments to explore abstract concepts in a tangible way. Although 3D printing technology has the potential to overcome these limitations, the availability of case study narratives in three-dimensional models for inclusive education is still limited. In this sense, the aforementioned research, of a qualitative nature, with an interventionist approach, aimed to develop and apply an inclusive teaching resource, based on the teaching of chemistry and the decolonial perspective, aimed at the active participation of students with and without visual impairments. The study was carried out in a public school in Paraíba, where it was previously agreed upon the need for more effectively inclusive teaching practices, especially with regard to accessibility to abstract science content. To this end, a threedimensional prototype was developed based on the lithophany technique, in which tactile images were integrated into an accessible narrative, allowing the sensory exploration of concepts related to the periodic table, its properties and socio-environmental implications, with an emphasis on the impacts of illegal mining. The teaching sequence that accompanied the use of the prototype was structured in three stages: (1) initial problematization, with the raising of hypotheses and perceptions of students about chemical elements and mining; (2) organization of knowledge, with activities mediated by tactile models and guided debates; and (3) application of knowledge, through dramatizations and simulations of parliamentary debates on mining and ecological impacts. The analysis of the data found — via observations, audio recordings and interviews with students — was carried out based on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), allowing us to identify the ways in which the students' discourses were organized around normative standards, hegemonic narratives and resignifications provoked by the pedagogy. The results indicate that the use of the prototype enabled greater appropriation of the content by students with visual impairments, while at the same time expanding the critical repertoire of the other students in relation to the political, environmental and social dimensions of chemical knowledge. It was also noted that the decolonial approach, by confronting the Eurocentric logic of teaching, opened space for deeper reflections on the modes of production and exploitation of nature, techniques standardized in conventional teaching materials. Based on the data collected, it is concluded that the articulation between assistive technology, science teaching and critical discourse analysis contributes significantly to the construction of more inclusive pedagogical practices, sensitive to diversity and committed to social and epistemic justice.