Introduction
A visual disability could mean partial sight, low vision, color blindness or total blindness. People living with visual disabilities struggle with two major challenges: difficulty in accessing (retrieving and reading) materials in print and navigation. Golledge (1993) notes that people living with visual disabilities have difficulty in performing daily routines such as locating streets, reading store names, reading product information and other information in print format. There are restrictions in their mobility because of cognitive limitations and fear of falling (Worth, 2013; Wong, 2018). Students with visual disability face difficulty in getting to classrooms and other places within and outside the campus. In general, people living with disabilities, especially those who are visually incapacitated, suffer exclusion from active participation in society. This is conflicting to the themes of the UN global development agenda, sustainable development goal (SDG) four, which states that governments and policymakers across the globe should create an enabling environment (physical and virtual) for people living with disabilities to enable them have unfettered access to school buildings and other educational and recreational facilities, including libraries, dining areas, toilets and playgrounds. With assistive technologies (ATs), those with disabilities are able to participate in society; communicate effectively; have access to, and exchange information without restriction; and not experience digital and social inclusion (Lloyd et al., 2016; Ragnedda, 2017). Regrettably, most libraries do not give adequate attention to provision of ATs to the visually impaired students.
Alabi, A & Mutula, S (2021). Digital Inclusion For Visually Impaired Students Through Assistive Technologies In Academic Libraries. Afribary. Retrieved from https://track.afribary.com/works/digital-inclusion-for-visually-impaired-students-through-assistive-technologies-in-academic-libraries
Alabi, Adefunke and Stephen Mutula "Digital Inclusion For Visually Impaired Students Through Assistive Technologies In Academic Libraries" Afribary. Afribary, 07 May. 2021, https://track.afribary.com/works/digital-inclusion-for-visually-impaired-students-through-assistive-technologies-in-academic-libraries. Accessed 29 Dec. 2024.
Alabi, Adefunke, Stephen Mutula . "Digital Inclusion For Visually Impaired Students Through Assistive Technologies In Academic Libraries". Afribary, Afribary, 07 May. 2021. Web. 29 Dec. 2024. < https://track.afribary.com/works/digital-inclusion-for-visually-impaired-students-through-assistive-technologies-in-academic-libraries >.
Alabi, Adefunke and Mutula, Stephen . "Digital Inclusion For Visually Impaired Students Through Assistive Technologies In Academic Libraries" Afribary (2021). Accessed December 29, 2024. https://track.afribary.com/works/digital-inclusion-for-visually-impaired-students-through-assistive-technologies-in-academic-libraries