Using a Force Concept Inventory Test with Visually Impaired and Blind Students

Abstract

This paper reports on a study to determine whether blind students’ conceptualizations of force and motion differ from sighted students. This is particularly concerned with the question of whether the students’ visual experiences have any relation to their conceptualizations or misconceptualization about force and motion. The research was designed as a case study and the data was collected from 6 blind high school students based on conceptual physics problems related to force and motion. The analysis of the data revealed that although the blind students’ conceptions about force and motion are not radically different from those of sighted students, however, there were several conceptual problems which seem to be particular to the blind students because of their lack of visual experiences. The results revealed that visual experiences do not seem to have a significant role on the conceptualizations about force and motion.