Yes, we can! Students with visual impairments making videos for social media

Abstract

People with visual impairments faced great challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a great sense of loneliness, negative feelings, and misinformation concerning the disease. This study describes and discusses the process of creating audio-visual content about vaccination against COVID-19 by and for teenagers with visual impairments. We carried out two working groups with students aged 14–18 years, who were enrolled in a school for the blind and visually impaired in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During meetings with these groups, we had informal conversations about how they experienced the pandemic. They then watched and evaluated videos related to COVID-19 vaccines and wrote scripts for animated videos on the importance of COVID-19 vaccination. The videos were produced by a specialized company, and the students evaluated the final product. The participants seemed to be well informed about the health crisis and were aware of the scientific recommendations. As a result, the two videos contained relevant information about COVID-19 vaccines and were intended to encourage different audiences to be vaccinated. Participants also prepared audio descriptions for the videos, which gave them the opportunity to discuss future job careers. The outcomes of activities designed according to participants’ experiences and needs offered tangible evidence that meaningful activities have positive impacts on students’ learning, as well as on their self-esteem.