Part 1: Perceptual and cognitive processes: their implications for visually impaired persons

Abstract

When we consider technology, we usually have in mind applications made possible by findings in physics and chemistry. However, applications of the findings of perception and cognition also constitute a significant body of knowledge, and educators are the learning engineers who tend this body of knowledge. In this article the capacities of perceptual systems are reviewed, and there is a discussion of the information that, in the absence of visual perception, must be acquired in other ways by blind and visually impaired persons. An effort is made to show how the develop ment of blind and visually impaired infants and children can be guided by using knowledge of the perceptual and cognitive processes available to them. The closing argument is that the blind and visually impaired persons whose development has been shaped by wise applications of the findings of perception and cognition are the ones who are prepared to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by technology - as it is ordinarily understood. The article is in two parts.