Chinese Online School for the Blind (COSB): A Platform Integrating AI and Student Volunteers to Enhance Educational Resources and Expand Opportunities for Visually Impaired Children in China

Abstract

Visually impaired people in China, with a population over 17 million, are currently experiencing marginalization in society, as reflected by adverse education and employment circumstances. Limited educational resources confine the learning efficiencies of visually impaired students, restricting their opportunities to pursue higher-level education, limiting their employment prospects and contributing to the marginalization of this population in society. 

Our innovative design, an educational platform named “The Chinese Online School for the Blind (COSB)”, aims to help resolve educational resource shortages, which is the fundamental cause of the adverse social circumstances faced by the visually impaired. By interviewing multiple visually impaired middle and high school students as well as their parents, we realized that students mainly have trouble understanding concepts involving diagrams. Therefore, our educational model targets this by providing lessons that merge pre-recorded video lessons with assistive teaching tools that can be easily recreated to help the students better understand such concepts. Our model also utilizes AI tutors to provide personalized and interactive learning experiences. This outlines a framework for accessible education that supports independent learning, empowering visually impaired students to take initiative of their own education. 

We have tested the effectiveness of COSB by asking 2 visually impaired students to learn unfamiliar concepts using COSB resources only. According to their feedback, COSB supports independent learning of new concepts in various subjects. Thus, our solution has been proven to enhance the accessibility of educational resources to visually impaired students.