A UDL-Driven Framework for Designing Digital Tactile Graphics in Cultural Heritage Learning

This study develops a digital tactile graphic learning framework based on Korean cultural heritage images to support potential concept learning of students with visual impairments and examines its educational appropriateness through expert validation. The lack of standardized tactile graphic guidelines in visual-centric educational environments imposes considerable burden on teachers, who must restructure content individually. Using a design-based research (DBR) methodology grounded in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, this study constructed a dataset of 200 cultural heritage images from elementary textbooks across four categories—architecture, artifacts, cultural symbols, and traditional objects—and restructured them through illustration simplification, initial tactile graphic conversion (informed by braille production principles), and two expert revision cycles. Ninety educationally applicable items were finalized for second-stage validation, and five tactile graphic design guidelines were derived. A panel of 15 experts evaluated the materials using a 5-point Likert scale and Content Validity Index (CVI) analysis. The overall mean was M = 4.69 (SD = 0.51), with the final 15-item instrument yielding an overall S-CVI/Ave of 0.99 (initial 0.98 across the original 16 items, refined after removal of one underperforming item per standard CVI practice); the practical usability domain reached S-CVI/Ave = 1.00, indicating full expert agreement. The study contributes a cultural heritage image dataset, a systematic image restructuring procedure, UDL-based design guidelines, iteratively refined and expert-validated CVI evaluation criteria, and a prototype TUI-based tactile learning environment configuration.