Accessible Virtual Classroom For Visually Impaired Students Literature review

Accessible Virtual Classroom For Visually Impaired Students - Literature review Example It is easy to see why the concept of a virtual classroom appeals to a lot of people. It’s usually much cheaper than the regular schooling system and provides much more flexibility when it comes to learning and applying the knowledge. A common complaint levied against the traditional schooling system is that the students have no flexibility in following the curriculum, ie, all students are expected to follow at the same pace as that set by the teacher. However, each student has his or her own learning style and speed, which is especially marked for students who are at the either extreme of the IQ spectrum. Virtual classrooms remove this restriction by letting each student access and process the information according to their unique customized rate. Also, every pupil receives a fair amount of individual attention, which is not possible in a traditional classroom environment. The concept of a virtual classroom is also valuable to people who are in geographically or economically inaccessible parts of the world. It might not be possible to have a school for a community of a few people that are perched in a mountainous area or a desert region. Further, students who are physically disabled such as paraplegics or the mentally challenged can often still experience a conventional education as part of a virtual classroom setup. It is also seen that virtual classrooms are becoming popular for higher education purposes – where this was initially developed.... However, the purpose of this paper is to explore and study if these classrooms are also tailored to meet the demands of the visually challenged population. The visually impaired are traditionally at a disadvantage when it comes to computers and online resources such as the internet – because the mode of data transfer in these media is through sight. If this handicap can be overcome, online classes can be a great resource for the blind as they can empower themselves through the wealth of online educational resources available. Much is yet to done, but several important progresses have already been achieved to this extent. Tactile and Haptic devices have made great inroads into the education of the blind. It needs to be explored in greater detail how several of the successful virtual classrooms have addressed the specific needs of this community. Virtual classrooms are a multimodal information transfer environment. It combines the features of a web conference and video – audio conference. The device applications and multimodal sensitivity are the results of the combined benefits of several web applications such as email, chat, screen sharing, polling, web conference rooms, video – audio chats, telephone conference and so on. Before the question of the usability of virtual classrooms for the visually impaired in analyzed, it would be instrumental to analyze the specific features of a virtually information transfer environment. This is attempted in the next section where each of these features are considered in some detail. Features of a Virtual Classroom The following are the key features of a virtual classroom. 1) Real time audio and video Real time audio and