scholarly journals Using law and licences to supply accessible books to visually impaired students at the University of Chester

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (121) ◽  
pp. 12-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Peters ◽  
Craig Smith

Provision of accessible copies of textbooks to visually impaired students has an important role to play in supporting them in their studies, including at university. Recent legislative and copyright licence developments have allowed libraries to supply textbooks to their students in a form best suited to their needs. Whilst these developments are welcome, actually obtaining accessible textbook for visually impaired university students is neither simple nor straightforward and is often a laborious and time consuming process. The University of Chester has provided accessible books to visually impaired students since 2011 and established an Alternative Formats Team in 2012 to manage this service. This article describes the processes, usage and challenges of this service, as well as providing a brief description of the RNIB resource Load2Learn.

Author(s):  
Juliana Samuel Kamaghe ◽  
Edith Talina Luhanga ◽  
Michael Kisangiri

In the past decades, the world has experienced major changes in the advancement of learning technologies which has enabled learners to engage in their learning activities anywhere. The penetration of mobile phone internet users in Tanzania has been increasing from 2 million in 2011 to 23mil in 2017 The adoption of mobile-based learning (M-learning) for students who are visually impaired in Tanzania has become a major bottleneck since most of the e-learning contents assume that learners have sight and thus include a lot of visualizations. This causes visually impaired students in higher learning Institutions (HLIs) to face challenges such as technical knowledge gaps. Lack of skills and inaccessibility of online contents, which then lead to drop out of the university. The aim of this study is to determine the awareness and usage levels of existing mobile assistive technologies for visual impairment, and the remaining challenges that visually impaired students face, when using such tools on smartphones to access m-learning content from HLIs. in Tanzania. The research was conducted an observational and contextual inquiry study at three major HLIs. We found that 67% of respondents did not have knowledge of m-learning assistive technologies, and their technology barriers for visually impaired students. Also, knowledge, accessibility of Assistive technology and affordability can hinder the adoption of m-learning in Higher Learning Institutions


1989 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane F. Shell ◽  
Christy A. Horn ◽  
Mary K. Severs

Compensatory Augmentative Communications Technology is the use of computers and related technology to augment written or verbal communication. In this paper we describe augmentative writing systems for physically disabled and visually impaired students and augmentative communication systems for nonverbal speech impaired students. The components used in creating augmentative systems are detailed with specific examples of the systems used in the Educational Center for Disabled Students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Issues in assessment, system selection, and training and system limitations are discussed.


Author(s):  
Maleeha Rafiq Ahmed ◽  
Muhammad Asif Naveed

This research aimed to explore the actual situation of information accessibility for university students with visual impairment at higher academic institutions of Lahore, Pakistan. This research adopted a qualitative research design using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to investigate the proposed phenomenon. The participants were recruited with purposive sampling from higher academic institutions for data collection. Face to face interview of 15 visually impaired students was conducted using an interview guide. The participants were debriefed for data authentication and verification at the end. Each interview was transcribed and analyzed carefully using IPA. The results indicated that these students utilized interpersonal relationships as the primary source of their academic information. The other available facilities for information access included the internet, disability resources center (if available at the institution), and the university library. The major barriers in accessing needed information included: format barriers, navigational barriers, technical barriers, ICTs illiteracy, and financial barriers. The university administration, especially libraries, should consider students with various disabilities while designing information infrastructure for its community. This research can be used as a guide by library staff in designing need-based information services for students with visual imprisonment. This research would be a worthy contribution to the existing literature as only a few studies were conducted in Pakistan.


Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lungile Seyama ◽  
Craig D. Morris ◽  
Christine Stilwell

Based on a study for a master’s dissertation, this article reports on an investigation of the information seeking behaviour of blind and visually impaired students. It investigated whether the services provided by the University of KwaZulu-Natal on its Pietermaritzburg campus (hereafter UKZN-PMB) accommodated the information seeking behaviour of blind students and those with visual impairments. The theoretical framework for the study was Wilson’s (1996) Model of Information Behaviour, Belkin’s (1982) Anomalous Stat of Knowledge approach and Oliver’s (1996) Social Model of Disability. Blind students and those with visual impairments, the subject librarians from the Main Library and the Disability Unit (DU) Co-ordinator were surveyed. The study revealed that the students exhibited information seeking behaviour that included the DU staff as an indispensable part of information access. Recommendations include developing a strategy to implement the UKZN disability policy and allocating a sufficient budget for the purchase of assistive devices or, preferably, incorporating principles of universal design in the information system.


1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (5) ◽  
pp. 222-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Sanspree ◽  
C. Allison ◽  
R.M. Gargiulo

This article describes the Vision Outreach Project—a one-year pilot project for training teachers of visually impaired students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The project used video modules to provide distance education in rural and urban areas and incorporated students’ evaluations of future topics that are needed on videotapes to supplement classroom instruction.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
Muhammad Waseem Zia ◽  
Farhat Fatima

The aim of this study was to identify the digital library services for visually impaired (VI) students, studying in the University of Karachi. The VI students have the same information needs as that of sighted people but digital information services are not available for them. The VI students have been facing problems in searching information on the internet because they can not use computer and internet without the support of a helper or some specific software or hardware. The researchers collected data by interviewing VI students. The findings show that the VI students had a keen interest in using digital information through digital libraries because they were aware of the importance and usefulness of digital information and wanted to get benefit of that in their education.


Author(s):  
Fitri Mutia ◽  
Indah Rachma Cahyani

Access to information becomes an important means of achieving success in various aspects of life. Thus, it is considered the rights of every citizen without being impeded by physical or mental limitations. This study aims to analyze access to information that supports students with visual impairments (blind) in conducting learning activities at the university. This research was conducted at the Social and Political Sciences Faculty of Universitas Airlangga (Unair) Surabaya, involving 11 informants, three of whom are visually impaired students (blind) in the faculty. The results of this study indicate that according to three of the visually impaired informants the assistive technologies they used to support their learning processes, such as mobile phones, laptops, scanners, and recording devices, were provided independently. The technology is very helpful for them to obtain information validly and quickly, as well as to understand the contents of the information more easily and assist them to share the information with other colleagues. The supporting informants are 3 lecturers from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Universitas Airlangga who teach visually impaired students, 3 friends of the main informant, 1 university representative, and 1 faculty representative. This paper uses an interpretive paradigm, which aims to analyze a social reality and how that reality is formed. This research uses a qualitative type that seeks to understand social or human problems, based on the creation of a complete holistic picture that is formed with words, reports the views of informants in detail, and arranged in a natural setting.


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