Tactile Cartography and Geography Teaching: LEMADI’s Contributions - Maps for the Future Children Education and Internet - page 306

teaching for the visually disabled, pointing out the role of graphic representations,
mainly maps, in the process of space perception and in the acquisition of geographic
notions.
In the period from 1990 to 1998, with the financial support of VITAE Founda-
tion and from the University of S˜o Paulo (Pr ´ -Reitoria de Pesquisa), several
projects were carried out under the coordination of Professor Regina Araujo
Almeida at LEMADI. The group counted on the participation of geographers and
students from the Geography course, including some who had support from a
scholarship called “Bolsa-Trabalho” from the Social Assistance Coordination
-COSEAS-USP.
The main objective of the research was to arouse the interest of visually disabled
students in Geography and Cartography and, at the same time, to offer conditions
for their assimilation of special concepts and information through touch, hearing
and, occasionally, through residual vision. Thus, many didactic materials were
made by associating colours with tactile language and using adapted writing for
subnormal vision.
In the first project, Amazonia was used as a test area to analyze the methodology
and to point out the problems. This work included the construction of a set of
didactic materials, such as maps, models, plans, history topics, an illustrated
dictionary, activities and games, an illustrated time-line and teacher's manual,
together with a text on Amazonia and its history since the sixteenth century.
The methodology was evaluated through tests with students from public and
private elementary and high schools. This contact with visually disabled students
made it possible to verify the efficacy of tactile graphic language in geography
teaching, like the perception of space and the understanding of basic concepts such
as proportion and scale, placement and orientation.
In the second project, the State of S˜o Paulo was chosen for the application of the
methodology already tested with Amazonia. At the same time, a training course was
offered to help the practical use of our work. In the third project, an Atlas of the
Continents was created.
The positive results from the first projects and the tactile didactic materials
developed led to the formation of a permanent group to give support to teachers,
professionals on special education and visually disabled students. Experiences
started to be shared by Brazilian and foreign researchers and institutions.

24.2 International Projects

In 1994, a group of researchers from Chile, Argentina and Brazil started a project on
the production, evaluation and application of tactile didactic materials. Firstly, a
large bibliographic survey was carried out on the subject, which enabled the
construction of a theoretical landmark. From that, it was possible to present
proposals on the making of cartographic materials adapted to visually disabled
children from elementary school and teachers from special education. With the