The Difficulties in Teaching an Adult with Congenital Blindness to Draw Cubes: A Case Study

Abstract

The ability to identify images is necessary to function well in a modern society. People who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) need to understand graphics on a level that is far beyond what is currently taught in school curricula (Aldrich & Sheppard, 2001). Even adequately designed tactile graphics have to be taught systematically for individuals who are visually impaired to understand them (Cryer & Gunn, 2008). Kennedy (1984, 1993, 2003) pointed out that even though people who are blind do not have visual experiences, they can use their tactile sense as a substitute to learn spatial representation; moreover, their spatial representation strategies are often no different from those of individuals with no visual impairment; they can even draw from a linear perspective. However, the kind of training in drawing given to the participants in Kennedy's research was not specified. D'Angiulli (2007) reported certain commonalities and overlapping concepts in the drawing principles of people who are blind and sighted. People who are blind have no problem with simple two-dimensional shapes in terms of both tactile and cognitive abilities. However, some scholars have reported that people without visual experience, such as those with congenital blindness, are incapable of drawing graphics that involve perspective without prior education; they have also suggested that visual experience is a prerequisite to certain types of drawing (I & Shiu, 2001, 2010). In particular, they found that even at age 20, people who are totally blind and have never had visual and drawing experiences were only able to draw a square when asked to draw a cube. Therefore, whether an individual without visual experience has the ability to draw from a linear perspective is questionable, and education has been recognized as the key factor. In Taiwan, education for people who are blind is traditionally focused on vocational training. The majority of people who are blind work in the massage industry, and few of them have had the opportunity to explore and participate in arts activities. How well a person who is blind can draw is directly related to his or her education, environment, social development policies, and level of familiarity in identifying objects (I & Shiu, 2010). The earlier a person who is blind undergoes education in graphic drawing, the better his or her performance will be (I & Shiu, 2010). The three cases studied by Kennedy (2003) and by Kennedy and Juricevic (2003, 2006) also illustrated the importance of early education in graphic expression as well as of cultivating an interest in learning. Even with respect to encoding information from tactile maps, Ungar, Blades, and Spencer (1995) considered education to be an instrument that can shorten the gap between people who are blind and sighted people. People who are blind often draw common objects used in daily living skills, such as cups and plates, in a way that is similar to how sighted persons do, but difficulties emerge when they try to present the depth of an object through projection lines (I & Shiu, 2001, 2008, 2010). A cube is more difficult to draw than a cup (Cox, 1986) because a cube involves complex projection lines. Sighted people have to draw objects that they see in three dimensions on a two-dimensional plane. The research reported here explored whether people who are blind without any visual experience are able to learn how to draw perspective through education. The researcher (the first author) used a cube as the stimulus, together with special teaching aids, to help a participant with congenital total blindness understand the drawing method used by his sighted counterparts. The study also aimed to observe how instructional assistance can enhance the drawing capability of an adult with congenital total blindness. METHOD Participant Han, aged 25, is congenitally and totally blind with no previous experience in drawing. …