University Of São Paulo Leads Research To Investigate The Effects Of Audio Description On Visually Impaired People
The Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) at USP signed a partnership with the Brazilian Association for Assistance to the Disabled Person (Laramara) and the Jundiaiense Luiz Braille Institute for Assistance to the Visually Impaired for the development of the research project Resources inferential in situated metaphor and audio description – contrastive study , funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). The objective of the innovative study with a multidisciplinary team is to investigate the effects of the audio-described text (secondary reading) in the ventral occipital region of the brain of people with congenital visual impairment – people who stopped seeing up to 5 years of age.
As an interdisciplinary project, in addition to FFLCH, which is the coordinating unit, there are other USP partner institutes: Institute of Physics, through the Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance; Institute of Psychology, in the area of Developmental Psychology and the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of USP, through the Department of Radiology and Oncology of the Institute of Radiology.
The agreement was signed last month, in a ceremony held in the Great Hall of the Board of Directors and Administration building, with the presence of representatives of the institutions involved. The signing was carried out shortly after the National Day of the Person with Visual Impairment, which is marked on the 13th of December. The date has existed since 1961 and was created with the aim of combating prejudice and discrimination, in addition to seeking to guarantee rights and the inclusion of people with visual impairments in society. In the last Census carried out in 2010 by the IBGE, Brazil had about 6.5 million people who are unable to see or who have some difficulty.
For FFLCH, the coordination of both agreements is the responsibility of Professor Maria Célia Lima-Hernandes, from the Department of Classic and Vernacular Letters (DLCV). According to the college, the agreement with Laramara is valid for 5 years. The current subscription is a renewal as FFLCH already had a partnership with the association. At the Instituto Jundiaiense Luiz Braille for Assistance to the Visually Impaired, the agreement is coordinated by technical director Everton Lima Gondim, who is an ophthalmologist. The term of validity is 3 years.
In addition to research, the agreements aim to establish technical-scientific cooperation and the exchange of information, knowledge and experiences aimed at training and technical specialization of human resources. With the expertise of experienced professionals in the field of visual impairment, the partnership also provides for institutional development through the implementation of actions, research, courses, seminars, programs, projects and complementary activities of common interest between the Faculty and the institutions.
Maria Célia, general coordinator of the project, points out that the idea is to resume the point of arrival of the study by Stanislas Dehaene, a French neuroscientist who demonstrated that the occipital region is the basis for the “letter box”, an index of literacy in the human brain . She recalls that, according to the author, only literate individuals would emit action signals identified in functional magnetic resonance imaging.
According to a presentation by ophthalmologist Everton Lima Gondim, the occipital region is at the back of the brain and is the one that receives the image when the person sees. If the person has their eyes closed, this area will be dark. In people with congenital visual impairment, this region is used for other activities, but if the person does not see after the age of 7, this area is not used and does not develop further.
Maria Célia Lima-Hernandes is a professor at FFLCH and coordinator of the agreement – Photo: Reproduction/Lattes
“The study intends, therefore, to investigate the audio-described reading ability of people with congenital visual impairment in contrast to the control group (sighted) through an experiment conducted in stages of funneling of lexical attention centers, after the general audio-described context has been been presented. The primary focus of attention will be composed of metaphors in different degrees of complexity”, informed Maria Célia.
In other words, it is expected to monitor the verbal fluency of passive reading, in the competence of synonyms and inferences of situated metaphors and their effects in the region labeled “letter box”. As a method, the combination of audio descriptions with functional magnetic resonance imaging will be used. Both visually impaired and sighted people will use dark masks to prevent any interference from environmental vision.
In each research area (Physics, Psychology, Language, Neuroscience, Medicine), the results may generate their own dynamics in new projects or actions aimed at accessibility. In the central and interdisciplinary field of language, the results may bring contributions to the field of school teaching/learning, either in the production of adapted materials, or in the form of creating audio descriptions that are more adjusted to this profile of individuals.
The coordinator of the agreement believes that “with the development of research, we will, in some way, provoke the subject within the University, in the media and, consequently, in society”.
It will also be able to contribute to knowledge in basic science, especially with regard to the lexical and grammatical evolution of linguistic constructions guided by the minds of congenitally visually impaired people, in contrast to that of sighted people, whose visual inputs are in tune with the most commonly conveyed materials. In the technical field of audio description, the results may help in inputs for the training of professional audio describers.
The project’s funds will be used to finance magnetic resonance imaging, which is expected to be carried out in the first two months of 2023.
Laramara
The Brazilian Association for Assistance to the Disabled Person (Laramara) is a civil society organization based in the Barra Funda neighborhood of São Paulo. Its mission is to promote the integral development of the visually impaired person, through direct assistance, advisory actions and defense and guarantee of rights, for their autonomy and social inclusion; and as a vision to be the national center of excellence and reference for visually impaired people.
Laramara was founded on September 7, 1991, by the couple Mara and Victor Siaulys. The initiative came about because of their daughter: Lara, who was diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity, for which they sought institutions and professionals in order to carry out her treatment and rehabilitation. Therefore, a comprehensive research on blindness and visual impairment began, as a means to understand and understand the reality of this person, their family members and their world.
This research, along with Lara’s treatment, led her mother to study pedagogy and a specialization in Visual Impairment at USP. With this daily report, their interest in expanding this experience and knowledge in the form of care for the most vulnerable, the couple brought together a group of professionals working in the area of visually impaired people, to found Laramara, whose name is the combination of the name of their daughter and the mother.
The work began with children from 0 to 7 years old, being extended to other age groups, with greater follow-up, demanding the expansion of activities and programs for other age groups. In 1996 and 1997, with new demands, the educational project was expanded, developing programs and activities focused on the world of work, arts and culture for young people and adults. The association brought to the country the manufacture of a Braille machine and a long cane, which are important for the education and rehabilitation of people with visual impairments and, for this purpose, they entered into a partnership with private companies and public organizations to deliver a significant number of these pieces of equipment to needy families. from all over Brazil.
Luiz Braille
The Jundiaiense Luiz Braille Institute for Assistance to the Visually Impaired is a civil association whose purpose is to promote the rehabilitation of visually impaired people through pedagogical, physical, psychological and professional activities; maintain occupational workshops for training and qualification; assistance, treatment and medical-ophthalmological rehabilitation of people with total or subnormal visual impairment, and developing awareness campaigns and prevention of blindness; promote, through agreements, the implementation of a medical-ophthalmological center and eye bank, in addition to the development of technical cooperation, research, studies covering the areas of ophthalmology.
It was created on December 20, 1941, with the aim of housing and professionalizing visually impaired people. The proposal came from Professor Maestro Mario Chaves, who was visually impaired and knew the needs entailed by the condition. He invited friends and started the entity, which intended to serve not only residents of Jundiaí, but the entire region in the State of São Paulo.
Years later, the need to offer academic education was noticed and the entity began to offer classes on the Braille system and activities of daily living, with a focus on social life. With the high demand for students of school age, a teacher trained in Special Education for the Blind was hired, which accelerated the educational process and promoted the integration, for the first time in the State of São Paulo, of visually impaired children into regular education. Later, Braille began to serve people with low vision as well.