Web 2.0: a new opportunity to create shared knowledge to support visually-impaired children in education and rehabilitation

Visually-impaired children require early introduction of visual rehabilitation measures, which should accompany them throughout their childhood. Such intervention programmes generally have two main objectives: (1) to maintain and develop visual capacity; (2) to stimulate the other senses so as to prevent any global development deficit. Today, digital technologies play an important role in rehabilitation sessions. Therapists often use digital technologies created specifically for visually-impaired children, together with other more attractive digital technologies that children can use at home or school to continue practising. The latter can include videos, animations, audio-visual fairy tales, interactive environments, etc. but the most widely used are apps for mobile devices featuring simple graphics, high contrast, and slow, fluid movement. These resources undoubtedly represent an invaluable aid for enhancing and consolidating long-term rehabilitation programmes. However, parents and teachers often experience difficulties finding and evaluating effective resources, while therapists are often unfamiliar with the full range of materials that can be used with visually-impaired children. So the need arises to make available a wide variety of up-to-date resources that are organized and classified on the basis of actual field testing. In this way, users can quickly find the digital resources they need. In response to this need, two Italian organisations, the David Chiossone Institute for the Visually Impaired and the Italian Research Council's Institute for Educational Technology (ITD-CNR), have joined forces in a research project called Sharehab (Share Rehabilitation Resources). This project draws on both traditional and innovative ways of generating information, adopting an approach that leverages the contribution of the community.