Involving teachers, parents and rehabilitation instructors in visual training for visually impaired children: A web-based approach

A significant number of children have difficulties either receiving or processing visual stimuli from their environment. To an extent, visual perceptive development can be improved by visual stimulation programs. These programs are usually guided by specialists in low vision that make use of different tools to help stimulation of the child. In addition, to make visual training more successful, the specialist in low vision needs to collaborate closely with parents and teachers taking into account the preferences and characteristics of each child. Traditional materials used in visual training are physical worksheets with special exercises and different colors and forms. Although these traditional worksheets have been recreated in computer programs, they currently have some limitations: (1) require that the specialist works with the child at the same place; (2) have a lack of assessment, monitoring and feedback mechanisms. To overcome these limitations, we have implemented EVIN, a web-based platform that provides games for visual training (among other things). In addition to the specialist, EVIN may and must be used by teachers at school and by parents at home. EVIN has monitoring capabilities and provides reports about children's performance. In fact, reports of EVIN are to be assessed by the specialist in low vision. EVIN promotes a better integration of visually impaired children in schools and improves the children's interaction with visual stimulation programs. In this paper, we present the main characteristics of EVIN and we focus on the Explorations game, the most popular game in EVIN.