Lect.Dr. Sevgi KIRBOYUN TİPİ from the Department of Special Education at IMU Faculty of Educational Sciences held a seminar titled “Integrated Environment: Are My Course Materials Accessible?” for faculty members on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at Istanbul Medeniyet University Ziraat Bank conference hall.
The seminar covered topics such as ensuring accessibility for individuals with special needs and offering inclusive education, as well as providing examples of potential applications. The faculty members who attended the seminar learned how to create visually accessible PDF, Word, and PPT documents. Furthermore, examples were used to explain the description of visual content in course materials such as tables, graphics, and pictures, as well as the addition of Alt-Text to these materials.
During the seminar, KIRBOYUN TİPİ mentioned that attitudes toward visually impaired people should be taken into account. She also noted that visually impaired individuals should be explained the objects in the classroom environment, that it should be easier for these people to enter classroom with a guide dog, if any, and that care should be taken to deliver the lecture notes to the student ahead of time. She then discussed how to set up an accessible educational environment. A teacher training was organized within this framework to contribute to providing equal opportunities in education by reducing inequalities that students with special needs may face.
