EXPLORING THEPROBLEMS FACED BY VISUALLY IMPAIRED COLLEGE STUDENTS IN ACADEMIC INFORMATION SEEKING AND LIBRARY USE

This paper presents a small exploration of the problem faced by visually impaired college students in academic information seeking and library use in India. In-depth telephonic interviews were conducted with fifteen visually impaired undergraduate and post graduate students across the country. Initial findings reveal that academic libraries of their institutions used by participants hardly catered to their academic needs and those visually impaired students, when looking for information and materials for academic purposes, rely most often on interpersonal network and the Internet. The preferred format for this specific user group is not the Braille, but electronic document. The assistive technologies play important role in their academic experiences. Overall, they face barriers in the form of time-constraints, lack of independence and lack of accommodative attitude of teaching and non teaching faculty and limited access to electronic materials and clear print documents which can be read by the visually impaired students if equipped with adequate technological support. The authors also give suggestions to make library services accessible for these students.