VIDBE-Q Volume 69 Issue 4
(OCR) scanning app to make print handouts accessible via text-to-speech and
magnification software. This instruction is ultimately compensatory if it only
equips the student with new knowledge and skills to address access barriers in the
classroom while not also expecting (and equipping) the learning environment to be
more responsive to the student's access requirements.
Co-Design and Design Thinking
Priorities for ECC programming are, in part, determined by the mismatch
between blind and low vision students' access profiles and the affordances of the
learning environment (Holmes, 2018). Through co-design, TSVIs can engage
students as agents of change in the latter – ensuring more responsive and accessible
opportunities for learning. In this context, co-design involves the meaningful
centering of blind and low vision learners as both designers and end users of more
accessible products, processes, and services (Biggs et al., 2022). Within this
process, design thinking refers to "thinking skills and practices designers use to
create new artifacts or ideas, and solve problems in practice" (Henrikson et al.,
2017, p.141). The following vignette outlines a co-design process informed by
design thinking within the ECC.
