A comprehensive digital environment for visually impaired students: user’s perspectives
| Published date | 20 November 2017 |
| Date | 20 November 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2017-0016 |
| Pages | 542-557 |
| Author | Raj Kumar Bhardwaj,Sanjay Kumar |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Metadata,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
A comprehensive digital
environment for visually impaired
students: user’s perspectives
Raj Kumar Bhardwaj
Department of Library, St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India, and
Sanjay Kumar
Department of Physics, St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to understand the perception of visually impaired undergraduate
students about the digital environment in their institutions and develop an online information system suiting
their requirements.
Design/methodology/approach –A survey was conducted on undergraduate students enrolled in ten
colleges of the University of Delhi. A total of 95 visually impaired students were interviewed individually.
Data collected from the respondents were analyzed and interpreted using simple percentage method and is
presented in the form of figures.
Findings –The study found that maximum (35.8 percent) respondents access online electronic resources
daily. Major constraints faced by them are as follows: inaccessibility of the college notice board, lack of
accessibility to existing facilities and resources, lack of assistive technology facilities and unavailability of
readers and writers. In total, 51.6 percent respondents indicated that it is cumbersome to access the college
website because they are not designed according to the accessibility standards developed for visually
impaired students. The respondents also revealed that they are not very familiar with useful devices like
Vachak (Hindi Reading Device), SARA CE, Lex (Scanner for Hindi Script). The major reason cited by them is
the lack of training and non-availability of trained staff.
Research limitations/implications –DigitVaran contains course contents of the University of Delhi.
Course contents of other Universities are not included. However, it is expected that contents related to the
syllabi of other universities would be added in future.
Practical implications –The study will help visually impaired students to get the desired course contents
conveniently. In addition, librarians of other universities can utilize the findings of the study to develop a
comprehensive digital environment for visually impaired students. The study can be helpful in the
assessment of digital infrastructure and services to visually impaired students by National Assessment and
Accreditation Council and other funding agencies.
Originality/value –The study developed an information system DigitVaran to assist visually impaired
undergraduate students in India. The system will help them to access the study materials and make aware of
various extracurricular activities of the institutions.
Keywords Blind, E-resources, Web accessibility, Visually impaired, Digital infrastructure, DigitVaran
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Visually impaired students encounter several barriers in daily life and frequently require the
use of assistive tools and technologies in their studies (Creed, 2016). These students do not
have the same opportunities compared to normal students. An estimated 37 million people
in the world are blind, of whom over 15 million are from India (Times of India, 2007). It is
reported that at least 5 percent, and possibly up to 10 percent, of all Americans have some
type of print disability (Petri, 2012). Normal students access several social networking sites
to get the desired information, while visually impaired students in developing and under
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 35 No. 4, 2017
pp. 542-557
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-01-2017-0016
Received 21 January 2017
Revised 14 March 2017
Accepted 29 April 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Authors would like to thank for help and support in the study, Dr Anil Aneja, Dr Satish Kumar,
Dr N.P. Ashley, Dr Sandeep Kumar Singh, and Junior Members of the St Stephen’s College,
Mayank Sharma,Shivprasad, Sanchit Katiyar, RohitKumar Yadev, Rosemary Sebstian, Benoy Stephen,
Anshul Jindal, Prashant Rawat, Johnson, Arjoon Sharma, Shubahm Ruhela, Gagan Mahajan.
542
LHT
35,4
developed countries struggle to get education. The education process is cumbersome for
them because of their dependence on Braille and assistive technologies (Gomes et al., 2014).
Information and communication technologies (ICT) empower visually impaired students in
accessing printed and electronic resources using assistive technologies. Nevertheless,
visually impaired students encounter several obstacles in developing their ICT skills,
especially with issues such as screen readers’vocalizing visual clues and shortcuts keys.
Keyboards are designed for sighted people and are not appropriate for visually impaired
people. The size of letter labels on the keyboard is vital in the teaching of basic computer
skills (Şimşek et al., 2010). Hence, the students should be aware of such hurdles and
earnestly learn to use technologies to overcome inhibits being faced by them. The problem
faced by visually impaired students in accessing information resources is mainly because of
the poor designing and development of online resources (Hochheiser and Lazar, 2010).
Flaws in assistive technologies and non-standardized web contents are major barriers.
Besides, it is cumbersome to interpret web pages using assistive aids, such as Braille output
devices and text-to-speech synthesizers. Assistive devices are incommensurate in handling
graphics, moving images, frames, tables and embedded scripting languages in web pages
(Murphy et al., 2008).
Consequently, system developers ought to develop comprehensive digital environments
for visually challenged students so that the problems can be minimized. The designer of a
system should have the specific goal of ensuring usability of the created digital environment
to fulfill the aim and purpose (Hao and Jaafar, 2012). The present study aims to understand
the problems faced by visually impaired undergraduate students, their familiarity with
assistive devices and assistive software, and availability of digital infrastructure in their
colleges. Based on a survey conducted on visually impaired undergraduate students, an
application called DigitVaran was developed that helps to overcome some of the difficulties
faced by them. It has an archive of study material, sorted according to University of Delhi
curricula, so that all books, selected chapters and articles are available at one place. It also
has a component for information collection, systemization and dissemination, to inform
students about various extracurricular activities in the institutions. This study strives to
achieve the following objectives:
(1) To know the frequency of access to internet by visually impaired undergraduate
students at the University of Delhi.
(2) To ascertain difficulties in studies faced by visually impaired undergraduate
students at the University of Delhi.
(3) To know the familiarity of visually impaired students in using special assisti ved evices.
(4) To gauge the familiarity of visually impaired students in using special assistive
software(s).
(5) To ascertain the availability of digital infrastructure in colleges of the University
of Delhi.
(6) To comprehend the inhibits faced by visually impaired undergraduate students in
using special assistive software(s) and equipment(s).
(7) To develop an online information system to disseminate relevant contents, suiting
the needs of visually impaired undergraduate students.
2. Literature review
A thorough literature review signifies the importance of the work to be carried out by
avoiding the duplication. A review of the literature for the present study was conducted and
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Digital
environment for
visually impaired
students
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