Da graduação à pós-graduação: valor potencial dos recursos de tecnologia assistiva digital na trajetória acadêmica do estudante com deficiência

Abstract

This thesis, linked to the research line "Educação Especial, Inclusão e Diferença”, of the Doutorado em Educação in the Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria -RS, aims at knowing the potential value of digital Assistive Technology for students with disabilities to graduate. To do so, specifically, to investigate the use and usability of digital assistive technology in the pedagogical context of higher education; to check which Digital AT resources contribute with the participation of students in graduate studies; to identify, together with students with disabilities, which are the wishes and possibilities that may be contemplated from the use of digital AT, as well as to cross the potentialities and limitations of the characteristics of people with disabilities in view of the need to develop new digital technologies in the academic field. With these purposes, it is defended the thesis that the presence of digital AT, in the academic path of students with disabilities, enhances the realization of dreams, desires, the longing to move forward with their studies, providing opportunities for entry, participation and successful completion in graduate studies stricto sensu. This is a qualitative, exploratory research, of the case study type, based on a referential in four theoretical axes, comprising People with Disabilities and the Políticas Públicas de Inclusão, Higher Education in the context of inclusion, digital assistive technology and the meaning of dreams, wishes and possibilities of the student with disability in the graduate course. The research subjects are students with disabilities registered at the Subdivisão de Acessibilidade from UFSM; being them, in the condition of undergraduate students, post-graduates and graduates from stricto sensu post-graduation courses. The instruments for data collection are two questionnaires sent through the Google Form platform and interviews conducted with the help of Meet and WhatsApp platforms. All the procedures were carried out upon Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido signed by the participants, respecting the ethical precepts of research with human beings. The analysis of the data collected was performed based on the content analysis Bardin (2011), opting for the categorical technique. The considerations arising from the analysis and discussion of results were favorable to the objectives and meeting the initial hypotheses of the study. Thus, it is verified that there are technologies not yet explored and/or developed that could facilitate the learning and the trajectory of people with disabilities in graduate courses, just as it is possible to find subsidies for the development and improvement of digital AT, in the pedagogical context, from the suggestions of students with disabilities, participants and graduates of undergraduate and graduate courses; that the entry, participation and completion of students with disabilities in graduate courses is related to the usability of AT and it is also noticed an effective relationship between the concepts of dream, desire and possibilities in the educational trajectory of students with disabilities. It is believed that this research can contribute to studies, reflections and discoveries of new inclusive strategies - represented by digital assistive technology - in the equitable sense, capable of collaborating with the realization of dreams and desires of students with disabilities in qualifying in graduate studies.