Teaching Mathematics for blind students: a challenge at the university

Resumo

This paper is based on the story of Mara, a student who became blind during a mathematics undergraduate course in a Brazilian university. The data were obtained from interviews with Mara, her mother, university staff, colleagues and her teachers. As no blind student had ever before been at the mathematics faculty in question, the case of Mara took everyone by surprise. The first reaction from teachers was that Mara should take another subject - mathematics would be too difficult for a person who can’t see. However, given that Mara did not change her mind, the university staff had to define actions that would allow her to continue studying mathematics. In this article we present more details of teachers’ approaches in order to face the challenge and open possibilities that can be considered for teaching mathematics for students with special needs (or special rights) in higher education