Birding Empowers Children with Visual Disabilities
May 26 – August 5, 2024 | La Vela de Coro, Falcón, Venezuela
So often, birdwatching is considered a creative pastime and a privilege reserved for a few people. In reality, birdwatching can also be practical and inclusive, especially for those who cannot see the sky.
An inclusivity community leader for those with visual disabilities in the state of Falcón, Venezuela, Noel Camacho, expressed:
“Birds help me know the time, whether it’s going to rain or not, among other things. I think it’s great and important to participate in projects like these.”
Although people with visual impairments cannot see birds in the same way, the organizers of Veo Aves Falcón understand that birdwatching is a cognitive process not limited to vision.
From May to August 2024, the organization carried out “Ecos Empumados,” a project to include people with visual impairments and autism spectrum disorder in birdwatching. Through the project’s various activities, Veo Aves Falcón sought to raise social awareness among the young participants and their learning about local birds, all while promoting a culture of inclusion and accessibility.
The ten children with visual impairments, six of whom also have autism, participated in seven project activities:
- Four Group Workshops: A total of four group workshops were held, focusing on bird recognition in their environment, hiking in natural areas, bird identification by song, and the importance of birds and their habitats for ecosystem conservation.
- Individualized Workshops: Six personalized workshops were held to address the specific needs of each participant and based on their level of visual impairment and autism spectrum disorder. The workshops focused primarily on multisensory perspectives.
- Field Trips: Two field trips were organized to explore different environments, allowing participants to observe birds in different ecosystems. We visited the Adicora beach resort located on the Paraguaná Peninsula and the Negritas community located in the Sierra de San Luis in Falcón state, Venezuela.
- Interactive Mural: The mural in the Bird Plaza was redesigned to become an interactive mural containing information in relief and Braille, facilitating access to bird information.
- Creation of an Audio Guide: An audio guide was developed, and MP3 files were provided to each participant, allowing for an auditory learning experience.
- Bioacoustic Data Collection Course: A bioacoustic data collection course was offered to conservation volunteers, promoting research, knowledge in the area, and the participation of new participants in collecting audio files to update the audio guide.
- Development of an Educators’ Manual: The development of an educators’ manual was initiated, seeking to provide tools for working in this area of inclusion.
Regarding the impact of the project, Lorena and Edgar, parents of participant Victor, said:
“For us, it’s a new experience because we hadn’t really heard of these organizations that do this work worldwide. Little was said about birds in our community, and it’s only done on holidays. This project is very moving, allowing children, regardless of their background, to learn about birds and care for them.”
And our efforts to advance inclusive birding doesn’t stop there. Veo Aves Falcón has published 12 social media posts about Ecos Empumados to share the efforts and success of this project with other educators and parents of children with visual impairments or autism, not to mention the manual. Now, on our project website, Celebrate Urban Birds, you can read the educators’ manual called “Accessible and Inclusive Birdwatching,” which Veo Aves Falcón co-created with us. The inclusion of people with disabilities in birdwatching is integral to the conservation of birds and their habitats, not to mention raising social awareness about people with disabilities. With projects like Ecos Empumados, these efforts are not ideals—they are goals we can achieve if we work together with our loved ones with disabilities, our communities, our governments, and each other.
Written by Lani Lin-Kissick, lkl34@cornell.edu
Descriptions by Veo Aves Falcón