Learning Disability
I am choosing blindness as the limitation that I want to work with. The official description of blindness is a lack of vision or loss of vision that cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lenses (medlineplus.gov). This limitation imposes special learning needs because a significant portion of our understanding of the world is observation with our eyes and seeing what is around us. With this hindrance, a blind person must rely on someone else’s visual peception and then description of the world, which may be presented in a biased manner from one point of view to another.
Scientific Concept
I wish to communicate the concept of color to a blind learner. Being blind is a massive challenge when it comes to describing color. For most people, our eyes show us what color different objects are, but when you are blind how would you know what green looks like? We could say that green is the color of trees, but a blind person wouldn’t know what actual color of trees is because it isn't something you can feel. Color is something that comes to us naturally from very young ages and is learned through purely observation. It would be hard to describe what color looks like, and therefore why it looks that way, to a blind person, so the scientific concept I would communicate to a blind learner is why certain objects are certain colors rather than what that color looks like.
Learning Strategy and Method
I think I would focus on temperature as a metaphor for the wavelength. It would be hard for a blind person to grasp the idea that there are different colors and what those may look like. I would provide a series of cups, containing water at different temperatures ranging from hot to cold. I would have them put their hand in the hot water and quantify it as ‘red’ and would assign each difference in temperature to a color of the rainbow ending with purple as the coldest cup. I would say that the light that the sun provides is white, and it is the combination of all these temperatures at the exact same time.
Similarly to how there are different temperatures of water, there are different wavelengths of light that appear differently to our eyes. Every single object in the world appears a different color, and when put all together, the light appears white. I'd assign the hot water to red wavelength. I would talk first about the ‘red’ water. Red is the warmest color. I would go on to describe every natural thing that I could think of that is red. I’d describe roses, strawberries, cherries, lips, firetrucks, blood. This color has the longest wavelength. It absorbs the other wavelengths but reflects red and that is why it looks red to our eyes. It is the warmest color, not literally to the touch but in how it looks. I'd have my student imagine what warmth feels like and equate the red wavelength to that warmth as a metaphor.
I’d put their hand in ice water and say this is purple. Listing all the objects that are purple, I’d say that purple objects absorb most of the colors and reflect purple. I would have the student imagine what the coldest water feels like and equate that feeling to the color purple. I'd list off all of the natural objects that I could think of that are purple.
It would definitely be a challenge explaining color to a blind person but I think through using their sense of touch, it can be done. In order for it to make sense, we'd need to equate what a color looks like to a feeling instead of an observation. That way they would be able to differentiate each color by a sense of warmth or cold. The entire learning experiment would be one large metaphor in and of itself. I’d be able to describe what colors things are and why using something that the learner can feel themselves.
Reflection
My study of a special-needs learner helped me think of new ways to reach all types of learners by changing up the mode in which I teach. Some people are visual learners, but others are hands-on. I think dipping the learner’s hand into water at different temperatures would have a lasting impact on what they associated each color with feeling like. Then they can match that feeling to the name of a color and understanding that that color is reflected out of the object, while all others are absorbed.
This exercise helped me understand that there is never just one way to teach a subject. People all learn in many different ways so teaching using different approaches and strategies would be very beneficial to reach wider audiences and to make a topic easier to understand.
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